[Feature Request] Custom Columns for Extended Attributes (xattrs)

[grexe]

Confirmation

• I have read the contributing guidelines.

Version of Nimble Commander

v1.7.0, MacOS Tahoe

Current Appearance

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I use extended attributes (xattr) to store semantic metadata on my files (e.g., custom status, project relation IDs, or source URLs). While Nimble Commander currently has excellent support for viewing and editing these attributes via the "File Attributes" panel, there is currently no way to visualize this data in the main file list.

To see this data, I have to open the attributes panel for each file individually, which makes scanning a directory for specific metadata values impossible.

Describe the solution you'd like

I would like the ability to add Custom Columns to the file list view that populate their content based on a user-defined Extended Attribute key.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Spotlight Comments: I currently run a background script to sync my xattrs to the standard Finder/Spotlight comment field so I can see them in other file managers. This is a fragile hack that duplicates data.

Double Commander: It supports this feature (via Lua columns), but it lacks the native macOS feel and performance of Nimble Commander.

Additional context

Since Nimble Commander already implements the logic to read/write xattrs (evident in the Attributes Editor), the underlying mechanism to fetch this data appears to already exist in the codebase.

Exposing this read capability to the column renderer would significantly enhance Nimble Commander's utility for power users, developers, and data archivists who rely on metadata-driven workflows.

Expected Appearance

Configuration: In Preferences > Columns, allow the user to add a new column type "Extended Attribute."

Parameter: When adding this column, the user specifies the xattr key (e.g., com.myworkflow.status).

Display: In the file list, the column displays the string value of that attribute for each file. If the attribute is missing, the cell remains empty.

Additional Information

No response

[mikekazakov]

That's not quite a UI issue, but rather a core feature request - the main listing data structure currently doesn't support xattrs at all.
This can be done, but fetching/storing the attributes fast (!), and only the only ones needed, can be tricky.
It might be a good addition to NC, but unlikely I'll get on with that, since xattrs is not something I use often.
If somebody would like to work on this feature - a PR of reasonable quality would be welcome.