Mind if I read your code?

[Juan Lang]

--- "Christopher R. Hertel" <crh at ubiqx.mn.org> wrote:
> Not sure what is meant here, but...
> 
> NetBIOS is an API, and Samba doesn't actually
> implement that API.  Samba 
> bypasses NetBIOS and goes directly to the NBT layer.
>  The problem, as I 
> understand it, is that Samba "hogs" control over the
> NBT layer.  Other 
> applications and services that want to communicate
> using NBT (possibly via 
> a NetBIOS API) can't easily do that.

Yeah, I used NetBIOS rather than NBT in case someone
(not you, Chris) didn't recognize the acronym.  It's
NBT that I meant though.

> We have talked about this kind of thing before. 
> Things like creating an 
> API to allow a separate application or service to
> register NetBIOS names 
> so that it can send and receive NetBIOS Datagrams
> and Session Messages.

Precisely what I meant.

I should point out that Andrew Bartlett made a good
point offline here:  perhaps being able to run RPC
servers in addition to Samba is more appealing than
being able to run NetBT servers in addition to Samba. 
The DOS application porters Simo alludes to wouldn't
benefit without NetBIOS, but if they're a small
crowd..

> On my own, I've been toying with the idea of an NBT
> Daemon.  
<snip>
> It would also have an API
> (similar to NetBIOS, but probably not the same) so
> that you could write
> code that would talk and listen on the "NetBIOS
> LAN".

The NetBIOS API has some baroqueness you don't really
want to deal with.  MS apparently avoids it
internally, preferring to use the TDI interface to
talk to NetBIOS-compliant protocol drivers.  If you
need strict API compatibility, well.. there's Wine.

> Tridge has pointed
> out some potential security pitfalls here, but the
> basic idea is sound.

Actually, I can see some potential security gains: a
privileged server that has a very narrow scope (accept
incoming connections, respond to NBT session requests
and match them against registered names) would be much
easier to verify correct than one that did more.

--Juan

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