Extended file attributes on windows (ntfs)

Question

I'm currently working on a cross platform application that uses extended file attributes for storing it's own file ownership information (uid, gid) outside of the normal filesystem ownership. This information is application specific and has nothing to do with the normal filesystem ownership.

I just changed from using a small database stored in each folder for storing this information for performance reasons, but this leaves my solution lacking on the Windows platform.

According to wikipedia, NTFS may have some limited functionality as far as being able to store extended file attributes, but I certainly can't find any further information on how to get and set these attributes.

Has anyone done this before and can tell me how to do it? Or is it just plain not possible?

I'd ideally like to not have to revert to the database solution on Windows.

Answer 1

Maybe NTFS streams are what you are searching for?

Read more here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/105763 , http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff469210.aspx