Directory listing in libsmbclient.so

[Kevin Colby]

Steve Langasek wrote:
> 
> What is the legal set of characters for netbios names?  If there are no
> characters that are legal in URLs and illegal in netbios names [...]

Although specific implementations may limit it more, RFC 1001 seems to
indicate that, in fact, NetBIOS names are handled as binary, really,
and there are no invalid characters in them at all.  This is then munged
up into ASCII later, so the first stage at which the name has invalid
characters is the full-length encoded version (from RFC 1001):

   For example, the NetBIOS name "The NetBIOS name" in the NetBIOS
   scope "SCOPE.ID.COM" would be represented at level one by the
   ASCII character string:
   FEGHGFCAEOGFHEECEJEPFDCAHEGBGNGF.SCOPE.ID.COM

Ugh.  We can't very well make that the URI syntax.

Since both the workgroup and the scope could potentially contain
anything at all, there is no possible way to really tell them apart.
(Who thought that up?)  Given the situation, I think Chris mentioned
the only viable solution:  Demand a specific character be escaped if
used in the workgroup or scope name.  Since NT is already starting
to sing a different tune when it sees a ".", that may be the best
nominee for the job.

Just to summarize, I think that leaves two syntaxes:
(broswing) smb://[workgroup[.scope]]/
(specific) smb://[[domain;]user[:password]@]server/[share/[path/][file]]

	- Kevin Colby
	  kevinc at grainsystems.com