[linux-cifs-client] Improving auto.smb for user mounts

[simo]

On Tue, 2008-01-29 at 11:29 -0500, Joe Krahn wrote:

> My understanding is that Windows shares are designed for user-level
> network connections, rather than system level auto-mounting, which is
> why a new user requires a new session.

And this is the only sane option for network mounts unless you want to
trust the client machine fully.

> But, POSIX is designed around
> system-level network mounts, which is why Samba created smbsh in order
> to emulate a user-level virtual network file system.

Not sure why you mention smbsh, anyway system-level mounts are not at
odds with user authenticated connections.

> Don't you need to implement either a user-level virtual file system, or
> user-level access for files in the same system-level network mount
> point? Or, is the plan for each user to have their own "/smb" automount
> base? All of these seem a bit 'fancy' to me. If it is already planned,
> is there documentation somewhere discussing the design?

The kernel always knows which user is accessing a mount point so
"roughly" all you need is to switch to the right user authenticated
session depending on which user is making the specific request to the
filesystem.
This means a new authentication for each user walking a cifs mount
point, but at least it does not mean a new connection as cifs can
multiplex multiple sessions.

Simo.

-- 
Simo Sorce
Samba Team GPL Compliance Officer <simo at samba.org>
Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat Inc. <ssorce at redhat.com>