[Samba] Merely Opening Excel Files Increments Last-Modification date on Samba Shares

Tue May 25 10:17:12 GMT 2004

I have had the same problem:

Shared files, not owned by the user in question, were being deleted and
re-written upon saving the file. Because Excel only gives user (not group)
permission, it will muck up access for other users in the group.

In my case, I was not enforcing anything (when the problem occurred) and my
.conf only had the bare minimum of information,

I also used method 3, but put a back-up in place by re-enforcing permissions
at 3 am every morning. This enforced write mode and group, to make
absolutely sure everything works.

Kit

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: Eric Heintzberger [mailto:eric_e_heintzberger at yahoo.com] 
Verzonden: dinsdag 25 mei 2004 0:28
Aan: Terry L. Eleiott
CC: samba at lists.samba.org
Onderwerp: RE: [Samba] Merely Opening Excel Files Increments
Last-Modificationdate on Samba Shares

I have found the following regarding this problem:

1. It occurs only on files that (a) the user does not
own AND (b) samba is forcing write permissions on
(e.g. with the "force group" or "force create mode").

2. Problem does *not* occur when "force create mode"
and similar are left out of share definition, and you
rely on the default standard 644 file modes and 755
directory modes. 

3. Problem does *not* occur if you use the "force
user" options, even if you also use "force group" and
"force create mode" -- though these are porbably
unnedded in that scenario. 

I opted for solution (3), because all valid users of
the share in question need write access to all files. 
Though it results in a lack fine-grained access
control.   

--- "Terry L. Eleiott" <teleiott at tke-companies.com>
wrote:
> Has this issue, Excel file date modification being
> updated upon opening and
> closing without modification, been resolved?  I am
> experiencing the same
> problem with samba 3.0.2-6.3E.
> 
> Thanks,
> Terry
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
>
samba-bounces+teleiott=tke-companies.com at lists.samba.org
>
[mailto:samba-bounces+teleiott=tke-companies.com at lists.samba.org]
> On Behalf
> Of Eric Heintzberger
> Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 8:17 PM
> To: RRuegner
> Cc: samba at lists.samba.org
> Subject: Re: [Samba] Merely Opening Excel Files
> Increments
> Last-Modificationdate on Samba Shares
> 
> Thanks for the information. The problems and
> solutions
> you cite *are* related, I think, because I have
> found
> that my problem occurs only on Excel files that the
> user does not own -- an important fact I didn't see
> before. 
> 
> --- RRuegner <robert at ruegner.org> wrote:
> > Eric Heintzberger schrieb:
> > 
> > > Thank you for responding to my post. 
> > > 
> > > As for your question, my concern is not that (as
> > you
> > > put it) "the date of last modification [is] the
> > date
> > > of the file". It is, rather, this:
> > > 
> > > If today I do "cat file.txt" on a text file
> whose
> > > last-modifiation date is December 23, 2003, I
> > would
> > > not expect "ls -l file.txt" to display April 17,
> > 2004
> > > as the last-modification date.
> > > 
> > > Similarly, if right now I simply open, then
> close
> > an
> > > xls file, without saving any changes, I would
> not
> > > expect its last-modification date to change to
> > now. 
> > > 
> > > The last-modification date should not change as
> a
> > > result of just reading the file. There would
> have
> > to
> > > be some writing too.    
> > > 
> > > Are you saying that MS-Excel is designed so that
> > > reading an xls file in MS-excel actually writes
> > > changes to the file, even if the end-user does
> not
> > > save or auto-save any changes?
> > > 
> > > Regards, 
> > > 
> > > --- RRuegner <robert at ruegner.org> wrote:
> > > 
> > >>Eric Heintzberger schrieb:
> > >>
> > >>>Hello Everyone!
> > >>>
> > >>>Perhaps some of you have some advice for
> dealing
> > >>
> > >>with
> > >>
> > >>>this problem? I've done quite a bit of googling
> > on
> > >>>this one, but I can't find anything useful. 
> > >>>
> > >>>Ever since I started using Samba as PDC, I have
> > >>
> > >>had
> > >>
> > >>>this problem: when users merely open MS-Excel
> > >>
> > >>files on
> > >>
> > >>>samba shares, the file's Last-Modification date
> 
> > >>
> > >>is
> > >>
> > >>>incremented to the current time. 
> > >>>
> > >>>I have seen similar behavior with MS-Word files
> > >>
> > >>long
> > >>
> > >>>ago when using WINNT4 as PDC, and it was caused
> > by
> > >>
> > >>a
> > >>
> > >>>macro-virus, but in this case, it doesn't seem
> to
> > >>
> > >>be
> > >>
> > >>>virus-related. 
> > >>>
> > >>>If the same Excel file is copied to a user's
> > local
> > >>
> > >>"C"
> > >>
> > >>>drive, the problem ceases.
> > >>>
> > >>>The problem of modifying-by-merely-opening
> began,
> > >>
> > >>I
> > >>
> > >>>think, when I  changed the PDC to samba.  
> > >>>
> > >>>I had this problem using Samba 2.7* on RedHat
> 7.2
> > >>
> > >>over
> > >>
> > >>>a year ago. I'm currently using samba 2.2.8a on
> > >>>FreeBSD 4.9 with a similar configuration, and I
> > >>
> > >>still
> > >>
> > >>>have the problem. 
> > >>>
> > >>>Is it possible to stop this problem using
> > >>
> > >>adjustable
> > >>
> > >>>configuration parameters in smb.conf? 
> > >>>
> > >>>Here's my smb.conf, in case it's needed:
> > >>>
> > >>>---------------------------
> > >>>[global]
> > >>>netbios name = netbiosname
> > >>>workgroup = workgroup
> > >>>security = user
> > >>>domain logons = yes
> > >>>time server = yes
> > >>>server string = Samba %v on %L
> > >>>log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
> > >>>max log size = 2000
> > >>>
> > >>>### Security Settings ###
> > >>>hosts allow = [omitted for this post] 127.
> > >>>hosts deny = ALL
> > >>>invalid users = root
> > >>>;Unreadable files shouldn't even appear
> > >>>;hide unreadable = yes
> > >>>;Prevent browsing by default
> > >>>browseable = no
> > >>>
> > >>>### Users and Passwords ###
> > >>>[omitted for this post]
> > >>>
> > >>>### Performance ###
> > >>>deadtime = 15
> > >>>getwd cache = yes
> > >>>lpq cache time = 45
> > >>>socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY
> > >>>oplocks = yes
> > >>>level2 oplocks = yes
> > >>>#veto oplock files = /*.xls/*.XLS/
> > >>>
> > >>>### Domain ###
> > >>>local master = yes
> > >>>os level = 65
> > >>>domain master = yes
> > >>>preferred master = yes
> > >>>domain logons = yes
> > >>>logon script = %U.bat
> > >>>logon drive = M:
> > >>>logon path = \\netbiosname\profiles\%U
> > >>>
> > >>># Name Resolution
> > >>>wins support = yes
> > >>>wins proxy = yes
> > >>>dns proxy = yes
> > >>>
> > >>># Case
> > >>>preserve case = yes
> 
=== message truncated ===

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