Using Samba, Second Edition

Chapter 8. Advanced Disk Shares

This chapter continues our discussion of configuring Samba from Chapter 6. We will cover some more advanced issues regarding the integration of Unix and Windows filesystems, including hidden files, Unix links, file permissions, name mangling, case sensitivity of filenames, file locking, opportunistic locking (oplocks), connection scripts, supporting Microsoft Dfs (Distributed filesystem) shares, and using NIS home directories.

Filesystem Differences

One of the biggest issues for which Samba has to correct is the difference between Unix and Microsoft filesystems. This includes items such as handling symbolic links, hidden files, and dot files. In addition, file permissions can also be a headache if not properly accounted for.

Hiding and Vetoing Files

Sometimes you need to ensure that a user cannot see or access a file at all. Other times, you don’t want to keep users from accessing a file—you just want to hide it when they view the contents of the directory. On Windows systems, an attribute of files allows them to be hidden from a folder listing. With Unix, the traditional way of hiding files in a directory is to use a dot (.) as the first character in the filename. This prevents items such as configuration files from being seen when performing an ordinary ls command. Keeping a user from accessing a file at all, however, involves working with permissions on files and directories.

The first option we should discuss is the Boolean hide dot files. When ...