[jcifs] SMB URL

[Michael B. Allen]

On Sat, 6 Jul 2002 15:47:15 -0500
"Christopher R. Hertel" <crh at ubiqx.mn.org> wrote:

> I need to get a new SMB URL draft into the IETF.  The current is set to 
> expire.
> 
> Some quick thoughts:
> 
> - I went over the list of parameters that can be set using the ?<query> 
>   syntax and removed a few (per Mike's suggestion, IIRC).  The current 
>   list is:
> 
>       nbt_param     = ( ( "NBNS=" | "WINS=" ) host )
>                       | ( "NBDD=" host )
>                       | ( "SCOPE=" hostname )
>                       | ( "CALLED=" netbiosname )
>                       | ( "CALLING=" netbiosname )
>                       | ( ( "WORKGROUP=" | "NTDOMAIN=" ) nbtname )
>                       | ( "RESOLVE=" nbt_resorder )

I  would  rather you introduce only the obviously useful parameters so that
we  can  incorporate  that  functionality  into  clients and then gradually
determine what other parameters would be useful. It would be much better to
add  additional  parameters  later  rather  than  have to remove some after
realizing  they  weren't  appropriate. For example it's not clear that NBDD
would  be useful or even applicable whereas parameters to specify the local
interface  to  bind to or an lmhosts file to use are examples of parameters
that  might  be  necessary  for  the client to function properly. Also, the
RESOLVE   parameter  suggests  that  clients  must  provide  resolve  order
functionality  which  is more sophisticated than I think most clients would
be willing to support. I'd say only NBNS/WINS and SCOPE would be the minmum
introductory  set although CALLED *might* be useful for clients that do not
have  sophisticated  resource resoultion. The WORKGROUP/NTDOMAIN parameters
are  redundant (and thus confusing) because you can specify the ntdomain in
the  authentiocation  credentials  and  the  workgroup  in  the  overloaded
authority component. 

> - In the current draft, you can specify:
> 
>     smb://<NetBIOS_NAME>.<ScopeID>
> 
>   I'm thinking that it would be better to disallow the specification of 
>   the scope in the server field.  Instead, you would have to write the
>   above as:
> 
>     smb://<NetBIOS_NAME>?SCOPE=<ScopeID>

DEFINATELY.  Supporting  both  DNS  and NetBIOS is tough enough. Add Active
Directory  and  a  legacy  scopeid  and they just won't implement it (hint,
hint). 

> - This is the controversial one...
>   In the current draft, you can type:
> 
>     smb://<name>
> 
>   and if <name> resolves to a workgroup name you will get the browselist 
>   for that workgroup (assuming it's available somewhere).  I am thinking 
>   that we could change that to:
> 
>     smb://?WORKGROUP=<name>
> 
>   to get the browselist for that workgroup.

Why?  I  don't  understand. Where did you get this from? Doesn't USENET use
something  like  news:GROUP.  If you're going to change it I would do that.
But  I  think  it's been established that the current scheme works and that
there are no fundamental issues with it so ... 

-- 
http://www.eskimo.com/~miallen/c/jus.c