This patch set is based upon [patches from Wine Staging](https://github.com/wine-staging/wine-staging/tree/master/patches/ntdll-DOS_A...) by Erich E. Hoover (@ehoover), and implements support for the `SYSTEM`, `HIDDEN` and `READONLY` DOS file attributes. These can implemented in various ways depending upon the capabilities of the operating system and the file system. However, this initial patch-set focusses on just one method: Samba-formatted Extended File Attributes.
Modern filesystems generally support Extended File Attributes - auxiliary blobs of binary data that can be attached to a file. Samba uses the `user.DOSATTRIB` attribute to store DOS attribute information in the form of a hexadecimal value, and this patch-set implements a compatible mechanism.
Support for additional storage methods to increase operating system and filesystem compatibility is planned for later patch submissions.