[linux-cifs-client] Re: Deep tree mounts without prefixpath

[Steve French]

In mount.cifs.c it needs to be modified to convert what the user typed:
    mount -t cifs //server/share/directory  /mnt
to the following (before passing to the mount api)
    mount -t cifs //server/share /mnt -o prefixpath=directory

For mounting e.g. to a (Windows in this case) server which exports e.g.
    c:\export-dir as "share"
in order to have the local path on the Linux client
    /mnt
refer to the server directory c:\export-dir\directory instead required the
addition of the prefixpath mount parm internally, but it is not as easy 
to type
as simply extending the path after the share name part of the UNC name.

The problem is that this takes away the ability to include a complex 
sharename (with slashes in the sharename)
if a server would ever allow such syntax.  In my expirements Windows 
forbids '\' or '/' or '*" or "?" in
share names, but Samba or other servers may be more flexible, and 
forcing mount.cifs.c to translate
slashes in UNC names to prefix paths takes away the ability to add e.g. 
something similar to
escape characters in share names in future servers.

Does anyone think of an obvious solution - or does anyone think this is 
a problem?   Normally we could just
prompt the user when there is a question about behavior of a tool 
between two choices but
I don't think we should have mount.cifs prompt the user in this case.