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Hint: SAMBA don't use < > character in path statement

 
Hubel Michael
New Member

Hint: SAMBA don't use < > character in path statement

It concerned to SAMBA V1.1 I64 VMS 8.3
I had defined in smb.conf the path statement with < > in the directory definition
e.g. path = disk:

This definition makes some problems during access from the windows client.
Read access works, but samba$smbd.dmp was generated. Write access doesn't works.


Solution:
Use [ ] in the path statement
e.g. path = disk:[directory]
Then read and write access works fine.

4 REPLIES 4
Hein van den Heuvel
Honored Contributor

Re: Hint: SAMBA don't use < > character in path statement

Thanks for the heads up!

At this point in history I think anyone opting to use <> for directory delimitors deserves the trouble they get.
- 30 years ago it seemed like a fine idea.
- 20 years ago it was cute to know you could use it, and protect against it usage
- 10 years ago it turned into a nuisance
- now it is stuborn and annoying.

Just an opinion.
Regards,
Hein.

Mike Kier
Valued Contributor

Re: Hint: SAMBA don't use < > character in path statement

While Hein is right about deprecating the use of the angle brackets as directory path delimiters, I think this points out once again that file name and path parsing should be done using the built-in RMS routines that fully understand the ins and outs of all the variants now available on ODS2 and ODS5 with and without extended syntax, etc.

Its one thing to roll-your-own parsing for in-house developed code (although you'll probably pay a maintenance price down the road some day) but its inexcusable to do it for code developed to be deployed either commercially or as open-source or freeware where the environment is not under the developer's control.

This should be reported back into the Samba CIFS development process for remediation.
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Hein van den Heuvel
Honored Contributor

Re: Hint: SAMBA don't use < > character in path statement

Right on Mike!

That's exactly what I meant to say and probably should have said, but I opted for the 'fun' reply.

Cheers,
Hein
Hoff
Honored Contributor

Re: Hint: SAMBA don't use < > character in path statement

The whole of the OpenVMS file name syntax and device and directory and file name construction is positively baroque.

Even OpenVMS Engineering itself can't get it right in various cases. PCSI, for instance, implements its own filename parsing. And it botched angle-bracket parsing.

Beyond the parsing, another piece that's missing here is an I/O layering akin to FUSE or the kernel-level APIs; there's no easy way to plug a variant file system into OpenVMS, as the Samba and NFS and DFS folks have found.

I deliberately used angle brackets in my normal OpenVMS operations for some years, specifically to try to catch these cases. But out here in the wild, the best approach is more likely the "if it hurts, don't do it" maxim.