SWAT features

[John H Terpstra]

On Monday 14 March 2005 08:32, Deryck Hodge wrote:
> Hi, all.
>
> I've been working on SWAT in trunk for the last few weeks.  My work
> started as nothing more than a cosmetic redesign, trying to modernize
> SWAT and offer a clean, sophisticated interface.  As I've gotten deeper
> into this, it seems to me that SWAT could use some improvements to its
> overall design -- not just aesthetically, but functionally.
>
> For example, some features seem aimed at making setup as easy as
> possible (the wizard tool) while others (globals and shares) offer
> complete editing capabilities to smb.conf.  This working at
> cross-purposes became clear to me as I tried grouping functions under
> 3-4 over-arching navigation headings.

SWAT was first introduced by Tridge as a web-based editor for smb.conf and to 
permit Windows (SMB) passwords to be changed.

SWAT got a few people excited that it had potential to become a Samba 
management interface. Then around 2001 following a Samba presentation I gave 
someone suggested that we shoud add a wizard to SWAT so that it could be 
configured by someone who knows nothing about Samba. I added the Wizard at 
the CIFS conference in 2001. 

Following initial enthusiastic response to the Wizard we began receiving a lot 
of criticism that SWAT is not secure. This resulted in many Debian and 
Madrake Linux users effectively putting the kybosh on SWAT. Red Hat never 
installed it by default, etc. there was not a lot of incentive to keep 
working on a tool that has so little real traction. SWAT is lacking for an 
active maintainer and has little to no community interest.

One major criticism of SWAT is that it stomps on all comments in the smb.conf 
file and removed all options that are set at default. This has been a major 
criticism since the first release of SWAT.

Our efforts at documenting SWAT in the Samba-HOWTO-Collection has not seen a 
lot of gain. My recommendation is that we kill SWAT and remove it from the 
code tree.

In the Samba-Guide the recommendation is made to use the 'testparm' facility 
to validate smb.conf. SWAT calls the same smb.conf management libraries that 
testparm does. The Samba-Guide recommends maintaining a fully commented 
(documented) smb.conf.master file and that the smb.conf file be generated by 
executing:

# testparm -s smb.conf.master > /etc/samba/smb.conf

This results in an smb.conf that is optimised in the same way as SWAT does, 
but provides a source smb.conf.master file in which people can maintain and 
keep the documentation/notes that make them happy.

I see the 'testparm' facility as a replacement for SWAT in so far as file 
optimisation is concerned.

>
> My question then -- what do people use SWAT for?  Is it primarily a
> web-based front end for editing smb.conf?  An entry point for
> documentation?  A gui for setting up Samba without knowing much about
> smb.conf?  Also, what features do you like most/least?  And what's
> missing from SWAT in your opinion?

I'd like to know what people use SWAT for today. How many really do want/use 
it? Who knows!

There is a document in the Samba-4 code tree called swat2.txt that sets out 
thoughts collated by Vance Lankhaar and was last editted in July 2004. I am 
interested to see what responses there are to your request.

>
> Thanks for the input.  Cheers,
>
> deryck

- John T.
-- 
John H Terpstra
Samba-Team Member
Phone: +1 (650) 580-8668

Author:
The Official Samba-3 HOWTO & Reference Guide, ISBN: 0131453556
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