[PATCH] ext3 doc: user_xattr and acl options are not on by default

[Andreas Gruenbacher]

Daniel,

On Friday 02 December 2005 19:06, Daniel Drake wrote:
> Documentation/ext3.txt suggests that the "user_xattr" and "acl" mount
> options are on by default. This doesn't seem to be the case, as the kernel
> deduces the default mount options from the filesystem superblock, and
> mke2fs does not appear to write any default mount options there.
>
> This error was spotted by Jacques de Mer.

thanks for the patch. The mount options indeed are not on by default.
Unfortunately more things are wrong here: The user_xattr option is for
Extended User Attributes, and not for Extended Attributes in general.
>From attr(5):

   Extended user attributes
       Extended user attributes may be assigned to files and  directories  for
       storing arbitrary additional information such as the mime type, charac-
       ter set or  encoding  of  a  file.  The  access  permissions  for  user
       attributes are defined by the file permission bits.

The user_xattr and acl mount options can be used independently. It is
correct that CONFIG_EXT3_FS_XATTR (which enables general Extended
Attribute support) is necessary for both acls and user xattrs though.
How about this patch instead?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fix the ext3 mount options documentation

Reported by Jacques de Mer and Daniel Drake <dsd at gentoo.org>.

Signed-off-by: Andreas Gruenbacher <agruen at suse.de>

Index: linux-2.6.15-rc3/Documentation/filesystems/ext3.txt
===================================================================
--- linux-2.6.15-rc3.orig/Documentation/filesystems/ext3.txt
+++ linux-2.6.15-rc3/Documentation/filesystems/ext3.txt
@@ -57,19 +57,19 @@ oldalloc		This disables the Orlov block 
 			we'd like to get some feedback if it's the contrary for
 			you.
 
-user_xattr	(*)	Enables POSIX Extended Attributes. It's enabled by
-			default, however you need to confifure its support
-			(CONFIG_EXT3_FS_XATTR). This is neccesary if you want
-			to use POSIX Acces Control Lists support. You can visit
-			http://acl.bestbits.at to know more about POSIX Extended
-			attributes.
-
-nouser_xattr		Disables POSIX Extended Attributes.
-
-acl		(*)	Enables POSIX Access Control Lists support. This is
-			enabled by default, however you need to configure
-			its support (CONFIG_EXT3_FS_POSIX_ACL). If you want
-			to know more about ACLs visit http://acl.bestbits.at
+user_xattr		Enables Extended User Attributes. Additionally, you need
+			to have extended attribute support enabled in the kernel
+			configuration (CONFIG_EXT3_FS_XATTR). See the attr(5)
+			manual page and http://acl.bestbits.at to learn more
+			about extended attributes.
+
+nouser_xattr		Disables Extended User Attributes.
+
+acl			Enables POSIX Access Control Lists support.  Additionally,
+			you need to have ACL support enabled in the kernel
+			configuration (CONFIG_EXT3_FS_POSIX_ACL). See the acl(5)
+			manual page and http://acl.bestbits.at for more
+			information.
 
 noacl			This option disables POSIX Access Control List support.
 

Thanks,
Andreas.