[linux-cifs-client] CIFS VFS instead of /etc/fstab (and instead of Gnome VFS)

[Linux Lover]

My environment is comprised of a Samba server (Fedora
Core 4) and a mix of Windows 2K/XP and Ubuntu 6.0.0
Linux workstations (clients).

The Windows machines, of course, have no problem
accessing the Samba shares. Users are either prompted
for a password whenever they wish to connect to a
particular share or, in the case of [homes], they are
automatically connected to their respective home
directory in Samba (as the account names are identical
on both the Samba server and the Windows
workstations).

With the Linux client workstations, however, I am
having a dilemma: I know how to put the correct
'smbfs' statement in /etc/fstab so that the shares are
automatically mounted, but... it requires the username
and password be there in CLEARTEXT (!).

Is there a way around this problem?

In the Samba server, there is an encrypted smbpasswd
file for each user. Is there something similar for a
Samba client as well? If so, how do I use it in
/etc/fstab?

Or... is mounting smbfs shares in /etc/fstab still the
correct way of making them available on boot (to
applications like Emacs which are not gnome-vfs
aware), or is it a thing of the past?

Which brings me to this newsgroup... while searching
for a satisfactory solution I came across this CIFS
VFS thing. I never heard of it before, but if I
understand it correctly, this is probably the best of
all worlds (if only gnome-vfs was accessible to those
legacy Linux/UNIX applications).

Have I arrived to the correct place? Is CIFS VFS
indeed the "most correct" solution to the problem I
described above? If so, where do I get more
information/documentation about how to use CIFS VFS?

Thanks!
Lynn



 
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