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.

An attribute may also be known as a file attribute.

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.