KIP, Powerprint Request software -samba

[Jeremy Allison]

On Wed, Aug 11, 2004 at 10:46:12AM -0500, mnehemiah at urschel.com wrote:
> 
> Description: Engineering dept uses wide format Kip brand printers,  They
> use proprietary kip software for maintenance on large numbers of image
> files on the server. Before samba, the files were on $NT4(&nt4 era
> hardware).  In their software, opening a typical directory(4000 files)
> took a long time ~15s.  Now, on samba they get 2min10seconds directory
> open time.    I set up a test network to troubleshoot.  My test network, I
> can get the directory time down to 38secs. on samba 3.0.5  Several
> engineers use this program daily for file moving, manipulation, etc.  and
> it is just unbearable to use.   I tried an xp share, and the time was
> 8secs.  I have been in contact with KipAmerica on this issue, and they are
> not interested in helping.  I hope one of you guys can look at this for
> me, it seems easy to recreate, and I think there is a definite problem
> somewhere here.
> 
> To Re-create:
> I originally worked with our production files.
>     For re-creation purposes,  Just use 4000 empty files. It is slightly
> faster with empty files.  bash: for n in `seq 4000`;do touch $n;done.
> Download windows software from Kip, Powerprint Request latest version.
> www.kipamerica.com/software_downloads.asp
> or direct download - www.kipamerica.com/powerprint_2004/PP5SR3_Request.exe
> -(free download)  Install software on a windows box.  Have shared folder
> with files mounted on windows box.
>     Powerprint request software opens up with a directory/File browse
> window.  find your folder with the 4000 files, click on it and watch how
> long it takes
> to open.

4000 files doesn't sound that many, but just to check.
Can you create a new share and point the Kip software
at it. On that share set the following parameters :

[kip_share]
	case sensitive = yes
	default case = lower
	preserve case = no
	short preserve case = no

and try again with the 4000 files. Let me know if this
is faster (or fast enough).

Thanks,

	Jeremy.