I am using user-space extended attributes for my own bookkeeping of
files, so they contain important information. I'd now like to copy those
files, incl. ext attributes, but I don't see how that could be done
easily. I guess I could use xfsdump/restore, but that seems like total
overkill, because they are designed to backup a whole filesystem, not to
copy a single file or directory (recursively). I am merely looking for a
cp that also copies ext attributes, preferably the standard cp with a
special flag or alternatively a XFS-specific workalike (xfs_cp or
whatever). I didn't find anything in the FAQ, manpages or on the web.
Does something like that exist? Any solution apart from a long and
strange xfsdump/restore invokation?
All I found were an appearantly custom implementation of cp
<http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/cgi-bin/man-cgi?cp+1> and that of Solaris
<http://www.netsys.com/cgi-bin/solaris9?cp(1)>.
BTW: Extended attributes could prove very useful (compare BeOS' usage of
them), but that would need integration into standard tools like ls, cp,
find, tar, up to Nautilus / Konqueror (I already filed an enhancement
request for Nautilus about a year ago). Is there any plan to achieve that?
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