removexattr(2)

✨ removexattr(2) — the system calls manual, bestie edition ✨

okay so this is the page for removexattr, lremovexattr, and fremovexattr, living in the System Calls Manual section of the Linux man-pages. we're removing extended attributes today and we're gonna be so normal about it 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

removexattr, lremovexattr, fremovexattr — remove an extended attribute

🎀 LIBRARY 🎀

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <sys/xattr.h>

int removexattr(const char *path, const char *name);
int lremovexattr(const char *path, const char *name);
int fremovexattr(int fd, const char *name);

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Extended attributes are name:value pairs that are attached to inodes — so like, files, directories, symbolic links, the whole friend group. they're basically extra little add-ons to the normal attributes every inode in the system already has (you know, the stat(2) data). if you want the full lore on how extended attributes work as a concept, xattr(7) has the complete overview, go read it, it's giving textbook energy 📚

removexattr() removes the extended attribute identified by name that's associated with the given path in the filesystem. bye bestie 👋

lremovexattr() is identical to removexattr(), except when we're dealing with a symbolic link — in that case the extended attribute gets removed from the link itself, not from the file the link points at. no cap, that distinction matters.

fremovexattr() is also identical to removexattr(), except the extended attribute is removed from the open file referred to by fd (the fd you got back from open(2)) instead of from path.

an extended attribute name is a null-terminated string. the name includes a namespace prefix, and there may be several, disjoint namespaces hanging off a single individual inode. it's giving polyamorous namespacing 🫶

🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

• slay: on success, zero is returned ✨
• not slay: on failure, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error 💀

💜 ERRORS 💜

• ENODATA — the named attribute does not exist. it's not there. it never was. it's not hiding. 😭
• ENOTSUP — extended attributes are not supported by the filesystem, or they're disabled. the filesystem said "not my thing" 🙈

In addition, the errors documented in stat(2) can also occur. so like, don't think you've seen the last of them.

⭐ STANDARDS ⭐

Linux. 👑

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

Linux 2.4, glibc 2.3. vintage, but make it iconic.

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

getfattr(1), setfattr(1), getxattr(2), listxattr(2), open(2), setxattr(2), stat(2), symlink(7), xattr(7)

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and that's the whole page, bestie, no notes 💖 this one came from Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08 — so go forth and remove those attributes, you absolute main character 🎀✨