The xattr interface to create/read/write files is incomplete and mostly broken when used in conjunction with cluster xlators and gfid based backend.
isn't this for the same reason? also patch has been sent to solve this. I was about comment on avati's GFID backend patch that, let that just do 'return -1' as of now, and let the patch http://review.gluster.com/2605 handle this situation. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 773567 ***