Samba/VMS V2.2.8 build # 20041021 bug report

[RR - Rod Regier]

Presence of an extensionless-file on an OpenVMS directory will block
access
to a same-named directory tree residing on the same directory.

For example:

directory [TOP] contains the files:

NEXT.
NEXT.DIR;1  (a valid directory file)

SMB client access to the Samba server on that node to reference [TOP]
will not display
the presence of the directory [.NEXT] unless the file "NEXT." is deleted
or renamed.

It seems that this behaviour is an artifact of mapping VMS .dir files to
the non-VMS extensionless convention for directory names used on Windows
and UNIX,
causing a namespace clash with actual extensionless files.

In OpenVMS, only files with an extension .DIR, a version number of ;1
and
the "directory file" attribute are valid directories.

My recommendation would be to have the Samba/VMS implementation treat
extensionless files specially in a lookup.  If an extensionless file is
found,
continue looking for a directory of the same name.  If a directory is
found,
show the directory.  Thus, the (extensionless) file becomes hidden
instead of the directory,
which is probably the lesser of two evils, given how uncommon
extensionless files
tend to be on VMS.

--
Rod Regier, Software Development           bus: (902)422-1973 x108
Dymaxion Research Ltd., 5515 Cogswell St., fax: (902)421-1267
Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 1R2 Canada    mailto:RRegier at dymaxion.ca
                                               http://www.dymaxion.ca
"VMS is today what Microsoft wants Windows NT V8.0 to be!" Compaq,
22-Sep-1998