[jcifs] SMB URL

Conrad Minshall conrad at apple.com
Mon Jul 8 06:28:06 EST 2002


At 1:47 PM -0700 7/6/02, Christopher R. Hertel 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 )

My first choice is for resolve order to be at least partly mandated by the
URL spec.  It is a complexity best hidden from users.  And will a resolve
order which made sense where the URL was created make sense everywhere else?

>- 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>

URLs, once created, are likely to persist.  So code for the "dot" form will
persist.  The "dot" form seems to povide all the functionality, so why add
complexity, by having an alternate form?

>- 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.
>
>Thoughts?

Again, the old form will persist enough that code will too.  But here there
may be value added - it disambiguates for the case of a name being used
both for a server and as a workgroup.

I hope the spec uses words such as "smb://<name>" *represents* ...a system
...or a workgroup.  What an application may do with that information is
unbounded: present a browselist, mount everything, filter packets, etc...


--
Conrad Minshall, conrad at apple.com, 408 974-2749
Apple Computer, Mac OS X Core Operating Systems






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