libsmbclient: Browsing and a URI spec?

[Christopher R. Hertel]

Kevin,

I agree with Armand's comments.  I'm confused by yours.  How would 
Konqueror know what the default workgroup is?  If it sent a request to 
find the default workgroup, what service would respond?

On Windows systems, the default workgroup is set as a system-wide 
parameter in the network configuration.  It doesn't matter which 
application or which user is accessing the NetBIOS network, they all get 
the same default.

For libsmbclient, we can easily move beyond that.  Each application could,
in theory, be assigned a default workgroup.  The question is simply the
mechanism for doing so.  In my last message I suggested an architecter,
which is simply:  libsmbclient would first check for a global
configuration file, then a user config file.  From that point on, the
application could change any defaults, possibly as a result of reading its
own config file. 

This allows both a standard config file for libsmbclient and
per-application (or even per-process) settings. 

Have I made this any clearer?

Chris -)-----

> Matt Peterson wrote:
> >
> > Thinking out loud... it makes me wonder if libsmbclient should rely on
> > a specific file like ~/.smbc.conf or if it would be better for developer
> > (via the API) to set the default workgroup (on a per process basis).
> 
> Armand's recent post makes this clear, I thought.
> 
> "Welsh, Armand" wrote:
> > 
> > If a user clicks on their network neighborhood, the network neighborhood
> > application should be configured with a default workgroup, or read the
> > default workgroup, from the smb.conf file (or through the some other
> > means) and then send the network neighborhood "browser" to the address
> > of smb://workgroup/ as defined.  But then the programmer would need to
> > include a "Entire Network" link, to take them back to "smb://" since the
> > default doesn't send the user there.
> 
> The library wouldn't implement "default workgroup" at all.  If
> Konqueror wanted to read and default to a certain workgroup for
> a certain user, it could send a "smb://defaultworkgroup/" request,
> rather than "smb://".
> 
> 	- Kevin Colby
> 	  kevinc at grainsystems.com
> 


-- 
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