[linux-cifs-client] Re: links - cifs

[Steve French]

On Feb 12, 2008 8:30 AM, tibor wrote:
> i've got a problem with symlinks on an samba server.
>
> my samba server is a NAS (LevelOne) with one public share, and it is not
> possible to configure it (the web interface is very poor)
> my client is a debian 4.0 with no special configuration.

> i'm trying to rsync (archive mode) from an outside server to the smb
> share on my debian and the links are copied as hardlinks. How could i
> preserve the symlinks ?? i've tried to echo 0 >
> /proc/fs/cifs/LinuxExtensionsEnabled, but nothing changes
Turning off Linux extensions won't help (symlinks require the Unix Extensions).

> even i cannot create a symlink (ln -s) : operation not supported. but i
> do can touch testfile... so i can write without problem on my smb-share...

It is possible that Linux extensions are disabled on the server (in
their smb.conf).
It is easy to tell whether that is the case by looking at a trace or
turning on cifsFYI dmesg logging,
but probably the easiest quick way  to check is by doing:

"cat /proc/fs/cifs/DebugData"

If Unix Extensions are on then the flags following the
word "Capability" begin  with 0x80xxxx (e.g. 0x80f3fd instead of 0xf3fd)

It would be possible for cifs to create symlinks as SUA (Windows
Services for Unix) does, since it can read them (although they are
often in a useless format with drive letters in the path) but it would
need minor changes to write such a feature for servers which do not
support the Unix Extensions.



-- 
Thanks,

Steve