>> [...] The reason is that extended attributes have an (undocumented)
>> size limit [...]
> Ah OK, that makes sense. What is the size limit, out of interest?

Ehm… the size limit is undocumented :) It’s actually not documented at
all, that there is such size limit. I think it is related to the
current implementation, using spare space in the inode for extended
attributes or similar, so I didn’t do any practical findings, when I
played with this.

So, a _random_ undocumented limit..? Nice :-) I probably won't be the first (nor the last), but I forwarded a bug report to Apple via their feedback form.

Thanks for getting back to me.

-- Nick