Enhancements to "ls" and "xattr"

[W. Wesley Groleau (伟思礼)]

It's been at least a decade since I used FreeBSD & Ubuntu regularly, but these 
suggestions I made to Apple apply to any Linux or BSD distro (except maybe for 
#1 which may be Apple-unique)

Below is an excerpt of a directory listing. Suggestions:

(1. Add com.apple.metadata:kMD* to EVERY download, not merely on MP3 files — 
Apple only?)

2. Add an option to "ls -l@" that displays the VALUES of all extended 
attributes instead of their sizes.
(or in addition to size)

3. Add to xattr a way to use wildcards in the name of the extended attribute

4. Add options to xattr and ls to put the fields in the value on separate lines 
instead of semicolon-delimited.
(Even better, interpret the values instead of showing raw)

5. Pass these ideas on to the maintainers of ls & xattr on any other Unix 
variant.


WGroleau@MBP ~ % ls -late@O Downloads | more
total 1735720
-rw-r--r--@ 1 WGroleau staff - 148582 Sep 11 06:31 from_DDG.jpg
com.apple.quarantine 61 
-rw-r--r--@ 1 WGroleau staff - 148582 Sep 11 06:31 from_Safari.jpg
com.apple.quarantine 85 
-rw-r--r--@ 1 WGroleau staff - 219070316 Sep 8 23:06 Sint_Maarten_dload_hi.mp4
com.apple.avkit.thumbnailCacheEncryptionKey 16 
com.apple.avkit.thumbnailCacheIdentifier 16 
com.apple.lastuseddate#PS 16 
com.apple.quarantine 61 
-rw-r--r--@ 1 WGroleau staff - 1497234 Sep 7 07:38 FPB.mp3
com.apple.macl 72 
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemDownloadedDate 53 
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms 154 
com.apple.quarantine 57

--  
Wes Groleau
伟思礼

“If you are offered a free lunch, you are the lunch”