I have python program that calls another (external) program: cmd = [ "unsquashfs", "-n", "-d", dirname, filename ] subprocess.check_call( cmd ) It worked so far. But now I started running this program in /tmp with tmpfs filesystem, which doesn't support xattrs and program subprocess fails with: write_xattr: failed to write xattr user.random-seed-creditable for file some/file/somewhere because extended attributes are not supported by the destination filesystem Ignoring xattrs in filesystem To avoid this error message, specify -no-xattrs It very kindly informed me I need to add another param, great. But the program belongs to different team, whole company uses it so I would like to minimize my change and add the param only when needed (when xattrs are not supported) - for all I know somebody somewhere depends on xattrs being set in normal case. So, how do I implement the following?: if not filesystemSupportsXattrs(dirname): cmd += ['-no-xattrs'] Continue reading...