[Samba] Re: Long Directory Names and DOS

[Brandon Laing]

Hey list,

I thought I'd try this one more time. I can't believe there isn't any way to get directory names to be listed properly under DOS 6.2. My original message was:

I'm having some trouble getting Samba to properly display directory names for a DOS machine. Basically, I have a few old DOS 6.2 boxes mapped to a Samba box to drop some files into.
 The folder name on the Samba box is 'filerouter' (no quotes). Under the normal DOS filename structure, I would assume the name would be adjusted to filerou~1, or something similar, to
 fit with the 8.3 standard. Instead, I'm getting something very strange like FF8DZ9~C. I've been trying to find out if there is any way I can control this, or get Samba to properly display the
 directory name under DOS, but so far I haven't had much luck. I did try playing around a bit with the 'mangled names' option in the smb.conf file. If I force mangled names to be turned
 off, then I can't see any folders at all unless I create them from DOS, but then I lose some functionality from other programs that look to this folder. We have a bunch of DOS scripts set up
 though, looking for the folder name to include the ~ in the path, so I'm hoping there is a way to get this set up properly. Anyone have any advice? I don't see why Samba is doing this, or
 how it could be a good thing. If I had more than 1 folder that was longer than 8 characters, there is no way I'd be able to tell which folder was which with these strange, cryptic names.
 Other Linux boxes and Windows boxes see the folders just fine, just not DOS. How can I specify how I want these folder displayed?

BTW, the Linux box is running Fedora Core 1 with all the latest updates installed.

As an update since then, I've tried just about every mangled names option I can think of. I've tried specifying the DOS character set (CP850), none of which has made any difference. Any folder that I create that is more than 8 characters shows up as a very strange folder name. I can't think of anything else to try, except going through every script and program we have written and change the folder name to something that's 8 character or less, and folder names work fine then. I'd really rather not do that though, and I just can't believe that there isn't a way to make this work properly. Any suggestions, please?

Thanks,
Brandon