Using Samba

Filesystem Differences

One of the biggest issues for which Samba has to correct is the difference between Unix and non-Unix 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 accounted for properly. This section describes how to use Samba to make up for some of those annoying differences, and even how to add some new functionality of its own.

Hiding and Vetoing Files

There are some cases when we need to ensure that a user cannot see or access a file at all. Other times, we don’t want to keep a user from accessing a file—we 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 precede them with a dot (.). This prevents items such as configuration files or defaults 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 or directories.

The first option we should discuss is the boolean hide dot files. This option does exactly what it says. When set to yes, the option treats files beginning with a period (.) as hidden. If set to no, those files are always shown. The important thing to remember is that the files are only hidden. If the user has chosen to show all hidden files while browsing (e.g., using the Folder ...