RFE: Xattr/super-user emulation?

[Linda A. Walsh]

I was just thinking -- would it be possible to just 'emulate' xattrs on 
systems that
don't support them natively with a "--Xe" switch -- that would store the 
xattrs
in a file ".<filename>.xattr" in the same dir as the copied file.  The 
switch only be
paid attention to on systems that don't support xattrs -- otherwise it 
would look
for the filename ".filename.xattr" (source or target).  If a user 
rsynced a dir
from one place to another without the -Xe switch, then the specially named
 files would simply be copied like any other file.

Would help the xattrs to be more portable -- even tar'ed on a remote
system.

???
Linda