[Samba] Merely Opening Excel Files Increments Last-Modification date on Samba Shares

[Eric Heintzberger]

It would appear that this problem can be avoided by
putting "force user = someuser" in the relevant share
definition, and then doing "chown someuser" on the
relevant excel files.

--- Eric Heintzberger <eric_e_heintzberger at yahoo.com>
wrote:
> Thanks for the information. The problems and
> solutions
> you cite *are* related, I think, because I have
> found
> that my problem occurs only on Excel files that the
> user does not own -- an important fact I didn't see
> before. 
> 
> --- RRuegner <robert at ruegner.org> wrote:
> > Eric Heintzberger schrieb:
> > 
> > > Thank you for responding to my post. 
> > > 
> > > As for your question, my concern is not that (as
> > you
> > > put it) "the date of last modification [is] the
> > date
> > > of the file". It is, rather, this:
> > > 
> > > If today I do "cat file.txt" on a text file
> whose
> > > last-modifiation date is December 23, 2003, I
> > would
> > > not expect "ls -l file.txt" to display April 17,
> > 2004
> > > as the last-modification date.
> > > 
> > > Similarly, if right now I simply open, then
> close
> > an
> > > xls file, without saving any changes, I would
> not
> > > expect its last-modification date to change to
> > now. 
> > > 
> > > The last-modification date should not change as
> a
> > > result of just reading the file. There would
> have
> > to
> > > be some writing too.    
> > > 
> > > Are you saying that MS-Excel is designed so that
> > > reading an xls file in MS-excel actually writes
> > > changes to the file, even if the end-user does
> not
> > > save or auto-save any changes?
> > > 
> > > Regards, 
> > > 
> > > --- RRuegner <robert at ruegner.org> wrote:
> > > 
> > >>Eric Heintzberger schrieb:
> > >>
> > >>>Hello Everyone!
> > >>>
> > >>>Perhaps some of you have some advice for
> dealing
> > >>
> > >>with
> > >>
> > >>>this problem? I've done quite a bit of googling
> > on
> > >>>this one, but I can't find anything useful. 
> > >>>
> > >>>Ever since I started using Samba as PDC, I have
> > >>
> > >>had
> > >>
> > >>>this problem: when users merely open MS-Excel
> > >>
> > >>files on
> > >>
> > >>>samba shares, the file's Last-Modification date
> 
> > >>
> > >>is
> > >>
> > >>>incremented to the current time. 
> > >>>
> > >>>I have seen similar behavior with MS-Word files
> > >>
> > >>long
> > >>
> > >>>ago when using WINNT4 as PDC, and it was caused
> > by
> > >>
> > >>a
> > >>
> > >>>macro-virus, but in this case, it doesn't seem
> to
> > >>
> > >>be
> > >>
> > >>>virus-related. 
> > >>>
> > >>>If the same Excel file is copied to a user's
> > local
> > >>
> > >>"C"
> > >>
> > >>>drive, the problem ceases.
> > >>>
> > >>>The problem of modifying-by-merely-opening
> began,
> > >>
> > >>I
> > >>
> > >>>think, when I  changed the PDC to samba.  
> > >>>
> > >>>I had this problem using Samba 2.7* on RedHat
> 7.2
> > >>
> > >>over
> > >>
> > >>>a year ago. I'm currently using samba 2.2.8a on
> > >>>FreeBSD 4.9 with a similar configuration, and I
> > >>
> > >>still
> > >>
> > >>>have the problem. 
> > >>>
> > >>>Is it possible to stop this problem using
> > >>
> > >>adjustable
> > >>
> > >>>configuration parameters in smb.conf? 
> > >>>
> > >>>Here's my smb.conf, in case it's needed:
> > >>>
> > >>>---------------------------
> > >>>[global]
> > >>>netbios name = netbiosname
> > >>>workgroup = workgroup
> > >>>security = user
> > >>>domain logons = yes
> > >>>time server = yes
> > >>>server string = Samba %v on %L
> > >>>log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
> > >>>max log size = 2000
> > >>>
> > >>>### Security Settings ###
> > >>>hosts allow = [omitted for this post] 127.
> > >>>hosts deny = ALL
> > >>>invalid users = root
> > >>>;Unreadable files shouldn't even appear
> > >>>;hide unreadable = yes
> > >>>;Prevent browsing by default
> > >>>browseable = no
> > >>>
> > >>>### Users and Passwords ###
> > >>>[omitted for this post]
> > >>>
> > >>>### Performance ###
> > >>>deadtime = 15
> > >>>getwd cache = yes
> > >>>lpq cache time = 45
> > >>>socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY
> > >>>oplocks = yes
> > >>>level2 oplocks = yes
> > >>>#veto oplock files = /*.xls/*.XLS/
> > >>>
> > >>>### Domain ###
> > >>>local master = yes
> > >>>os level = 65
> > >>>domain master = yes
> > >>>preferred master = yes
> > >>>domain logons = yes
> > >>>logon script = %U.bat
> > >>>logon drive = M:
> > >>>logon path = \\netbiosname\profiles\%U
> > >>>
> > >>># Name Resolution
> > >>>wins support = yes
> > >>>wins proxy = yes
> > >>>dns proxy = yes
> > >>>
> > >>># Case
> > >>>preserve case = yes
> > >>>short preserve case = yes
> > >>>default case = lower
> > >>>case sensitive = no
> > >>>
> > >>>----------------------------------
> > >>>
> > >>>#Sample  Share Definition:
> > >>>
> > >>>[clients]
> > >>>  comment = Client Directory
> > >>>  path = /usr/local/samba/clients
> > >>>  browseable = yes
> > >>>  force create mode = 0664
> > >>>  force directory mode = 0775
> > >>>  force group = users
> > >>>  invalid users = invlink
> > >>>  map archive = no
> > >>>  printable = no
> > >>>  public = no
> > >>>  valid users = @users
> > >>>  writable = yes
> > >>>
> 
=== message truncated ===



	
		
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