[IDEA+RFC] Command line util for modifying services

[David Armstrong]

Hi all,

I would like to write a command line utility for samba which allows the user 
to create/modify/remove services on a Samba server.  To give you an idea why 
I would want such a thing, here is some background.

I am using Samba on my Linux file server to allow some windows users access 
to the cd writer installed in it, and it works like this:  The user first 
fills in a web form to say they want to create a cd - what type of cd (mode 
1, mode 2), capacity (74 min cd or 80 min), etc.  The cgi script runs mkisofs 
and mounts this to a mount point as a loopback device.  It then uses the 
command line utility to make the mounted directory available as a share.  The 
user fills this up with files across the network, and presses some more 
buttons in their web browser which burns all the files to a cd.

There are also other nice applications - such as being able to download a iso 
image [from a web site], drop this onto the Samba server, mount via loopback, 
and the resulting filesystem shared - no more need to burn a cd just to find 
the iso was corrupted, or that you only needed a few files from inside it.  A 
third application, which I can also see potential for is to have the Samba 
server act as a gateway between windows users and CVS - they use a web tool 
to download from CVS, and upload commits, but Samba is giving them the access 
to the CVS'd directory.

I would like to know if the way I am proposing to do things makes sense, or 
does something already exist for this?  I had considered giving the users 
access to SWAT, but I'd rather not!

I have started looking at the way SWAT adds and modifies Samba services, and 
believe that I could use the same library of functions from a command line 
program.  But, before I start hacking code on this, please let me know your 
opinions/thoughts on this.  Please cc me on replies.

thanks,
David Armstrong