Differentiating Extended attributes, resource forks and alternate data stream

Dear All,

I am confused in differentiating Extended attributes, resource forks and alternate data stream.

From reading different sources I got two different ideas:
these three things are same things, in linux it is called extended attributes, in mac it is called resource fork, and in windows it is called alternate data stream (ads).
Or, only resource fork and ADS are same things and extended attribute is different from these two. And the difference between extended attribute and the other both (fork, ADS) is the size difference only. As extended attributes are smaller in size.

Please tell me which is correct. If both are incorrect then please send me the correct differences between these three.



Thanks to all