Attribute

What Does Attribute Mean?

In general, an attribute is a characterisitc. In the DOS operating system, file properties may be referred to as attributes. File attributes give the operating system and application software more information about the file should be used.

Techopedia Explains Attribute

In DOS, files are stored in a directory, which includes entries to describe each file’s characteristics, including its attributes. Software programs may look at the directory entry to determine the attributes of a file and make decisions on how to treat it. For example, a file management program may provide a warning to a user who tries to delete a file that is marked as read-only in the directory.

Programmers and viruses can override file attributes.

Related Reading

Margaret Rouse

Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

All Articles by Margaret Rouse