Directory listing in libsmbclient.sou

Christopher R. Hertel crh at nts.umn.edu
Thu Dec 28 00:45:45 GMT 2000


:
> > >   smb://domain/user:password@workgroup#server/share/path/file
:
> domain/user is always meant as the username so domain may be omitted if it
> is the same as workgroup.

Ah, but there you have a problem.

the '/' character is generally used to delimit parts of the path to a 
given resource.  This is standard across URI's, I believe.  You are 
proposing using it in a different way and that, I think, makes the syntax 
ambiguous.

My thinking:

  smb://
  - list all available workgroups/ntdomains.

  smb://wg|ntd/
  - (where wg|ntd means workgroup or ntdomain)
    Browse the given workgroup or ntdomain
    This makes logical sense since you can select one of the items 
    returned by an smb:// query to get to the next path level.

  smb://wg|ntd/server/
  smb://wg|ntd/server/service/
  smb://wg|ntd/server/service/path/
  smb://wg|ntd/server/service/path/file
  - Next logical steps in the progression.

This is fairly logical at this point.  The key to our confusion, I 
believe, is the server field.

There are two problems with the server field:

1: How do you identify the server?  Options include NetBIOS name (with 
   optional scope), DNS name, and IP address.  Do you try to 
   differentiate between these or do you run through the list trying each 
   option.  Microsoft does the latter.

2: Authentication.
   I believe that the authentication string should be in the server field.
   I *think* that all we need is:

   [user[:passwd]@]server[:port]

   Again, the server portion will look like this:

   server :== <NetBIOS_Name> [. <scope ID>]
            | <hostname> [. <dns domain>]
            | <IP address>

   With regard to trust relationships, I *think* that if the wg|ntd field 
   contains the authentication domain, then we can still access services 
   in a trust-relationship ntdomain without having to specify that domain 
   as well.  Someone who understands SMB authentication better than I 
   will need to comment on that..

Oh, and how do we handle W2K?

Chris -)-----

-- 
Christopher R. Hertel -)-----                   University of Minnesota
crh at nts.umn.edu              Networking and Telecommunications Services

    Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them
    with your hands...you choose them as your guides, and following
    them you will reach your destiny.  --Carl Schultz





More information about the samba-technical mailing list