[Samba] Mac .DS_Stores

[Mike Gallamore]

Thanks for the help. Lots of Macs, lots of flavors, (Leopard, Tiger  
and Panther, and pretty much every product other than Mac Mini since  
2001). We have the ability to "filewave" applications to all the  
clients but I'm not sure if I trust that to just randomly overwrite  
system files on a live system. Hmm. Decisions.
On Nov 25, 2008, at 2:14 PM, Ed Kasky wrote:

> At 02:45 AM Tuesday, 11/25/2008, Mike Gallamore wrote -=>
>> Hi all. We have a file server using samba with a lot of Mac clients.
>> Mac uses files called .DS_Store to store information about the layout
>> of the files in the directory. We have a hierarchal storage system,
>> and don't want to back up the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands
>> of .DS_store files. Currently we have a policy in place that these
>> files don't get backed up, but they still get created in the samba
>> shares, which is annoying because when a non-Mac user accesses the
>> folder there are a bunch of these files that they don't care about,
>> and when you restore something you get thousands of warnings that
>> these files can't be restored. Has anyone out there found a better
>> solution for Mac clients? I guess my concern is if I block the files
>> from being created in the first place the Mac clients will go bonkers
>> because they can't change the view of the directory.
>
>
> From Wikipedia:
>
> ".DS_Store (Desktop Services Store) is a hidden file created by  
> Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system to store custom attributes of  
> a folder such as the position of icons or the choice of a background  
> image. By default, the Mac OS X Finder will create a .DS_Store file  
> in every folder that it accesses, even folders on remote systems  
> (for example, folders shared over a SMB or AFP connection) and even  
> if the user has only customized the appearance of the folder by  
> moving its Finder window. This is in contrast to the preexisting  
> system for the same purpose used in previous versions of the Finder,  
> which would merely place a number of invisible files at the root of  
> the volume being accessed (even on alien file systems), always  
> storing the settings and metadata for all of the folders in the  
> entire volume within this single set of files.
>
> "After complaints from users about these files being created on  
> remote systems, Apple posted an article on its support site  
> detailing how to disable the creation of remote .DS_Store files over  
> network connections. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1629
>
> "Note that suppressing the creation of .DS_Store files is only  
> possible on network drives such as file servers – they will still  
> always be created on local drives, including flash drives or  
> anything that appears as a flash drive. The creation of .DS_Store  
> and related files on flash-like drives is known to cause problems  
> with some embedded devices that do not expect those files, including  
> several popular models of digital photo frames.
>
> "Although these files were initially primarily used by the Finder  
> they were envisioned as a more general purpose store of metadata  
> about the display options of folders such as icon position and view  
> settings. For example, since Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger", .DS_Store files  
> contain the Spotlight Comments of all the folder's files.
>
> "Prior to the release Mac OS X 10.5, .DS_Store files would be  
> visible on the Windows filesystem."
>
> Depending on how many Mac's are in your environment, the above  
> referenced solution will take you some time to implement.  HTH...
>
> Ed
>
> ...........................................................................
> Randomly Generated Quote (565 of 1466):
> For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is  
> the
> very definition of slavery. -Jonathan Swift, satirist (1667-1745)
>