[linux-cifs-client] Strange cifs-files

[Jeremy Allison]

On Tue, Sep 04, 2007 at 02:12:32PM +0200, Bjoern Tore Sund wrote:
> 
> Using mount.cifs on Fedora Core 5, 6, and 7.  I have about 500 linux 
> client machines and twice that many users, all of whom use CIFS for 
> their home directory service through a SLES10 SP1 server with Samba 3.0.24.
> 
> I'm seeing something which is more of an annoyance than a problem, but 
> it's an annoyance I'd like to get rid of.
> 
> For quite some time now files have been appearing automatically in 
> various people's home directories.  Filenames all start with "cifs" and 
> end with a 3- or 4-digit hex number - 'cifs56e3' for instance.  All over 
> the place.
> 
> The files are copies or versions of files which exist or have existed in 
> the same directory where the 'cifs*' file exists.  Very often they are 
> KDE or Gnome (application) config files, and get created either when an 
> application is started or stopped.
> 
> Where are they coming from and how do I get rid of them?  I call 
> mount.cifs with -o serverino, and have the following in smb.conf on the 
> server:
>         enhanced browsing = yes
>         unix extensions = yes
>         kernel oplocks = yes
>         posix locking = yes
>         strict locking = no
>         locking = yes
>         wide links = yes
>         mangled names = no
> 
> Anyone seen this before and can help?

The cifsXXX files are the equivalent of the .nfsXXX files - they
are the cifs client coping with deleting an open file. Once you
move the server to 3.0.25x and to a later client (1.50 I think)
then the CIFS client can use a new "posix unlink" call to
delete open files and these dead files will no longer appear.

Jeremy.