EAUTIL.EXE

Allows you to split (save) extended attributes from a file and then rejoin the extended attributes to the file.

An extended attribute is a mechanism that allows an application to attach information to a file or directory (file system object). Extended attributes are used to describe the object to another application, to the operating system, or to the file system program that manages the file or directory.

EAUTIL allows you to split extended attributes from a data file or program file and place them in a hold file as data. After you do this, you can use the file with other applications or file systems that do not recognize or are not able to process extended attributes. By saving extended attributes to a hold file, you prevent them from being erased or lost. The command also allows you to join extended attributes contained in the hold file to the data file.

Syntax

EAUTIL ─── datafile ──┬────────────┬───┬───────────────┬─┬──────┬──┤
                      └─ holdfile ─┘   ├─ /S ─┬──────┬─┤ └─ /P ─┘
                                       │      └─ /R ─┘ │  
                                       └─ /J ─┬──────┬─┘
                                              ├─ /O ─┤
                                              └─ /M ─┘

Parameters

s

split

j

join

r

replace existing EA file (split mode only)

p

preserve EAs in source file (split and join mode)

o

overwrite existing EAs (join mode only)

m

merge existing EAs (join mode only)

Return Codes

0

Normal completion

1

File not found

4

Ended due to error

Examples

To place extended attributes from a file named MODULE.TXT into a file named ATTRIB.MOD, enter the following:

EAUTIL MODULE.TXT ATTRIB.MOD /S

To replace the extended attributes in the ATTRIB.MOD file with the extended attributes of the NEWFILE.EA, enter the following:

EAUTIL NEWFILE.EA ATTRIB.MOD /R /S

To preserve extended file attributes in a file named MODULE.TXT and copy that file's extended attributes to a file named ATTRIB.MOD, enter the following:

EAUTIL MODULE.TXT ATTRIB.MOD /P /S

To join the extended attributes in the ATTRIB.MOD hold file with the MODULE.TXT data file, enter the following:

EAUTIL MODULE.TXT ATTRIB.MOD /J

To overwrite the extended attributes in the MODULE.TXT file with the extended attributes in the NEWFILE.EA hold file, enter the following:

EAUTIL MODULE.TXT NEWFILE.EA /O /J

To merge the extended attributes in the NEWFILE.EA hold file into the extended attributes in the MODULE.TXT data file, enter the following:

EAUTIL MODULE.TXT NEWFILE.EA /M /J