From 9398702ca22106f080cce7e7de940e5411020ef2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Michael Kerrisk Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 09:40:01 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] setxattr.2: Rework text describing 'flags' argument Signed-off-by: Michael Kerrisk --- man2/setxattr.2 | 23 +++++++++++++---------- 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) diff --git a/man2/setxattr.2 b/man2/setxattr.2 index e2243680b..84d9f7cfd 100644 --- a/man2/setxattr.2 +++ b/man2/setxattr.2 @@ -91,18 +91,21 @@ The of an extended attribute is a chunk of arbitrary textual or binary data of specified length. .PP -The -.I flags -argument can be used to modify the semantics of the operation. -.B XATTR_CREATE -specifies a pure create, which fails if the named -attribute exists already. -.B XATTR_REPLACE -specifies a pure replace operation, which fails if the -named attribute does not already exist. -By default (no flags), +By default +(i.e., +.IR flags +is zero), the extended attribute will be created if it does not exist, or the value will be replaced if the attribute already exists. +To modify these semantics, one of the following values can be specified in +.IR flags : +.TP +.B XATTR_CREATE +Perform a pure create, which fails if the named attribute exists already. +.TP +.B XATTR_REPLACE +Perform a pure replace operation, +which fails if the named attribute does not already exist. .SH RETURN VALUE On success, zero is returned. On failure, \-1 is returned and