Problem with Samba 3.0.10

Boyce, Nick nick.boyce at eds.com
Mon Sep 25 17:26:35 GMT 2006


[disclaimer: I'm not a VMS sysadmin - just a lurking Unix one]

On 25th.September.2006, Günter Gratzer wrote :

> If I open a VMS-textfile on a WinXP computer via a texteditor the file 
> looks corrupted ... It seems there are troubles with CR/FL. Anybody 
> knows a solution for this problem?

I recall this topic coming up before on this list : text files getting "corrupted", depending on whether you open them directly on the VMS share, or copy them from VMS to Windoze first, and on which Windows utility you use to view/edit the text file with - *AND* on whether your VMS file is defined with Stream Sequential or Sequential Variable file-type.

The problem has to do with the original Unix Samba code only being prepared for one kind of "text" file, the kind that has CR/LF line endings, rather than the kind that has a record prefix giving the record length.

IIRC, Notepad and Word can cause trouble if used directly on a VMS-resident file, by deleting/renaming the original file, and then saving a completely new file with the same name as the original -- or is it that they save completely new content OF A DIFFERENT CONTENT TYPE over the top of a file that started with the other content type ?  Other editors may operate in a different way that side-steps the problem.  Something like that, anyway .... [somebody correct me].

There was no perfect solution at the time, but various work-arounds involving using different editors, or copying files from VMS to Windows first (using Explorer), or setting some kind of heuristic system parameter on VMS to analyse file content to decide how to handle it.

Have a look at these threads (and others nearby) on the Samba-VMS list from 2002/2003 : 
http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba-vms/2002-September/000379.html
http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba-vms/2003-March/000648.html
http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba-vms/2003-March/000715.html
http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba-vms/2003-March/000718.html
http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba-vms/2003-March/000720.html
which may or may not describe the issue you're seeing.

Play about with file types, and with different editors.

NB: this was all back at Samba 2.2.4/2.2.8 time - I'd be surprised if HP didn't have a proper fix planned for their official Samba V3-for-VMS.

Good luck.

Nick Boyce
EDS Central & Ireland ADU (UKIA), Bristol, UK


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