getfattr

Retrieve all extended attributes of a file in detailed format

$ getfattr -d [path/to/file]

$ getfattr -n user.[attribute_name] [path/to/file]

getfattr [options] file...

getfattr retrieves extended attributes (xattrs) from files and directories. Extended attributes are name:value pairs associated with files, stored separately from the normal file data.
Common namespaces include user. for user-defined attributes, security. for security labels (like SELinux), system. for system attributes (like ACLs), and trusted. for trusted attributes (root only).
Extended attributes are useful for storing metadata like checksums, tags, origins, or application-specific data without modifying the file contents.

-d, --dump

Dump all extended attribute names and values

Get the value of a specific attribute

Only show attributes matching regex pattern

Encode values as text, hex, or base64

List attributes recursively

Follow symbolic links (default)

Do not follow symbolic links

Print only attribute values, not names

Extended attribute support depends on the filesystem (ext4, XFS, Btrfs support them; FAT does not). The user namespace is the only one writable by non-root users. Attributes may not be preserved when copying files without special options.

Extended attributes became widely available in Linux with kernel 2.6 in the early 2000s. The getfattr and setfattr commands are part of the attr package, providing command-line access to the xattr system calls.

setfattr(1), attr(1), getfacl(1), xattr(7)