NFS Client Changes For Linux 5.9 Include User Xattr Support

As reported a few days ago the NFS server with Linux 5.9 saw user xattr support finally merged for user-extended attributes as defined by RFC 8276. The NFS client changes have now been sent in for this kernel and include the user xattr support along with other changes.

The NFS client pull request was sent in on Friday by Trond Myklebust. Most notably is the support for user extended attributes through the NFSv4.2 protocol as previously covered on Phoronix. Both the client and server support was wired up by an Amazon engineer.

Other NFS client work for this forthcoming kernel include allowing applications to speed-up readdir+statx() using the AT_STATX_DONT_SYNC flag. There are also a variety of different bug fixes with this release while most notable is the user-extended attributes support.