Re: Can GNU-find command search by xattrs?

Dear Raf,

Thank you very much for the rawhide-tip! :D
Will check it out.

Regarding JSON output of xattrs: Very nice and useful indeed.

btw I've actually written a quick-n-dirty helper tool for the other 
direction:
Reading any key/value JSON and copy those as-is to xattrs (if size allows):
https://github.com/pjotrek-b/mercs/blob/main/helpers/json2xattr.py

Very nice in combination with eg `exiftool` to "de-embed" metadata for 
easier and common (search) access and usage. ;)

I'll also checkout Morgan's find-patch:
I'd really love to see xattr-support in the basic "most likely to be 
present-on-any-box" tools.


Thank you all for your feedback :)

Have a great day,
Peter


On 12/21/25 04:02, raf wrote:
> Hi Peter,
>
> GNU find doesn't currently support searching for files
> based on extended attributes, but there is an
> alternative program that does.
>
> My rawhide (rh) program (raf.org/rawhide) is an
> alternative to find which can search by extended
> attribute names and/or values (among many other things).
>
> The upcoming version (see github.com/raforg/rawhide or
> codeberg.org/raforg/rawhide) is even able to extract
> extended attribute names and values as a
> machine-readable structured JSON object. The last
> released version (3.3) has JSON output, but the
> extended attributes aren't output in the form of a
> structured JSON object. It's just an encoded string
> containing all of the extended attributes). The
> upcoming version is much better. The extended attribute
> values might need to be decoded (if binary) but there's
> a tiny standalone perl script to do that (rhea-decode).
>
> The upcoming version should be released soon (as soon
> as I've translated the manual entries into French).
>
> I'm a huge fan of the GLAM sector (as a punter) so if
> there's anything that you'd like me to add to rawhide,
> please let me know.
>
> Having said all that, adding xattr support to GNU find
> would be awesome. You're not the first to ask for it.
> If you can arrange funding to get that to happen, it
> would make the world a better place.
>
> cheers,
> raf
>
> On Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 09:42:22PM +0100, "Peter B." <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone!
>>
>> This is not about a bug, it's more a feature (re)quest(ion), but this is the
>> only list I found on [How to contact findutils:
>> (gnu.org)](https://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/). Please feel free to
>> point me somewhere else, if you feel there's a better place to talk about
>> "xattrs and find" :)
>>
>> So I'm working with laaaarge datasets: of metadata and nnn-GBs (or larger)
>> binary files in different file formats in the GLAM (Galleries Libraries
>> Archives Museums) sector as developer, admin and workflow designer. I've
>> recently fell in love with "xattrs" (combined file-object access "by ID" -
>> not path/filename).
>>
>> I've discovered that many core GNU/Linux environment applications and
>> programming libraries support Extended Attributes (xattrs) out of the box -
>> just not by default (yet): rsync, tar, cp, yt-dlp
>>
>> ===================
>> Would you be interested, and would it be possible to add xattr key-or-value
>> search-functionality to find(utils)?
>>
>> I'm not expecting this to be for free, and if I get an offer from you, I may
>> be able to get funding.
>>
>> I'm convinced, improving reliable and seamless xattr support is a great
>> advantage to any tool these days: Like having seamless unicode character
>> filenames, compared to DOS 8.3 UPPERCASE ASCII characters only - for today's
>> daily use of "file objects" :D
>> ===================
>>
>> Imagine, if GNU `find` would allow searching by xattr key-or-value too?
>>
>>
>> I'd be very happy to hear from you.
>> Personally, I'm using xattrs to handle data already for ~1.5y, and I'm
>> super-happy about using the filesystem as simple database.
>>
>> Thanks and regards!
>> Peter