File::...r::Tie(3pm)

💖 File::ExtAttr::Tie 💖

okay bestie, pull up a chair, we're doing the User Contributed Perl Documentation thing today 🫶 this is the manual page for File::ExtAttr::Tie, and yes the filename got mangled by your terminal's pager, it's fine, she's still iconic 👑

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✨ NAME ✨

File::ExtAttr::Tie — the tie interface to extended attributes of files 🎀

like, you know how you can just do %hash and vibe? yeah. but the keys live in the filesystem's extended attributes now. slay.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

watch this, no cap:

use File::ExtAttr::Tie;
use Data::Dumper;

tie %a,
  "File::ExtAttr::Tie", "/Applications (Mac  OS 9)/Sherlock 2",
  { namespace => 'user' };
print Dumper \%a;

and she produces:

$VAR1 = {
         'com.apple.FinderInfo' => 'APPLfndf!?',
         'com.apple.ResourceFork' => '?p?p5I'
        };

look at those attribute names 😭 she's literally reading the Finder's whole diary.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

File::ExtAttr::Tie gives you access to the extended attributes of a file through a tied hash. that's the whole vibe. 💅

so like — when you make a new key, that creates a new extended attribute attached to the file. when you change a value, or delete a key, that likewise modifies or removes the extended attribute. it's giving "hash, but the hash is the filesystem's business now" ✨

internally? this module rolls with the File::ExtAttr module underneath. so it has the exact same restrictions as that module when it comes to OS support. no extra magic, no sneaky upgrades, same limits, fr fr.

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👑 METHODS 👑

tie "File::ExtAttr::Tie", $filename, [\%flags]

the flags here are the same optional flags as in File::ExtAttr. any flags you hand over get passed to every single operation on the tied hash — all of them, no exceptions, she does not forget. 🫶

and like, only the "namespace" flag actually makes sense here. that's the one. the main character flag. 👑

if you give no flags at all? the hash gets tied to the default namespace, easy peasy. 🍓

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• File::ExtAttr — the module doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes, go say hi 🧚

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🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

David Leadbeater, <http://dgl.cx/contact>

Documentation by Richard Dawe, <richdawe@cpan.org>

shoutout to both of them, absolute legends for writing this down 💖

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🎀 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 🎀

Copyright (C) 2006 by David Leadbeater

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.5 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

1; __END__

bestie the 1; __END__ is literally in the license section, that's just how the page ends, don't @ me 😭 it's canon.

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and that's the whole page!! this was perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-08-20, so if you're reading this from the future: hi, hope the extended attributes are treating you well 🌸 mwah, go touch some File::ExtAttrs 💅✨