libsmbclient: Browsing and a URI spec?

[Christopher R. Hertel]

Mike,

> > On Mon, 1 Jan 2001, Christopher R. Hertel wrote:
> > > config file.  If no such default were specified, then the starting point 
> > > would be smb://.
> > 
> > However, one of the advantages of using URL-like syntax is that it allows
> > integration of SMB file browsing into more general-purpose applications.
> > Starting browsing operations at the default workgroup level isn't necessarily
> > appropriate for something like midnight commander, even though it's
> > reasonable to want to integrate SMB-awareness into such applications.
> > 
> I don't understand. I would think it's ideal for something like Midnight
> Commander. By default, users would probably want to browse the servers
> of their workgroup, yes? Presumably this would be specified in your
> .smbc?

On a Windows box, you configure your default workgroup or domain along
with your machine name, etc.  It is part of the system configuration.  For
applications built on libsmbclient, it is really a user configuration.
Perhaps an individual user will want to consistently be within a given
workgroup, so the .smbc or .smb.conf file would be read to supply the
default.  How that is used is probably an application issue.

Could be wrong, though.

> Incidentally I'm sure it would be more than reasonable to want to enable
> Midnight Commander with smb functionality. I believe it is the foundation
> of the default GNOME file manager 'gmc' which IMO is right on the money
> as far as the type of applications we've been pondering.

The KDE file manager has partial smb support, provided by Nicolas Brodu
using his own libsmb++.  Last I heard, however, Nicolas' situation had
changed and he was no longer able to spend time to support the work.  This
would be a good thing for someone on this list to pick up. 

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
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