[Samba] 'logon drive' questions

[John H Terpstra]

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004, flinchlock wrote:

> > If set in smb.conf and you use either tdbsam or ldapsam this will
> > automatically map the users UNIX home directory to the drive letter
> > specified _and_ will set the environment variable %HOMEDRIVE% on the
> > workstation.
>
> So, I guess the only use for mapping this (HOME), is to allow a user
> to share/access his/her *nix files on a Windows machine... right?

Correct.

> Most? applications don't need/use a HOME directory... right?

Correct. I do not know of a single Windows application that requires a
home drive. I know many applications that store information in the users'
profile though.

> > The %HOMEPATH% is derived from the Windows registry variables. When
> > you implement folder redirection (as I have documented in my new book
> > "Samba-3 by Example" - can be ordered from Amazon.Com now) to redirect
> > the user's desktop folder contents to network drives, then this
> > environment variable will be changed also.
>
> I'm just a home user, and I'll wait until Samba 3.1.x is out... and
> I *do* have an Amazon account.

What is Samba-3.1.x? I am not aware that we have made any commitments to a
3.1.x release. We are planning a 3.0.3, however I should point out that
3.0.2a is looking good based on feedback so far. It will likely become
known as a very stable reference release.

> > But remember, roaming profiles are copied from the server to the local
> > machine - no matter what - this always happens. It you have set
> > Windows registry to delete roaming profiles on logout (a good
> > practice) you will not see any remnants of the profile after the user
> > has logged out. Otherwise, if roaming profiles are not set to delete
> > on logout you will find a mirror of the roaming profile (temporary
> > profile) under:
> >
> > C:\Documents and Settings\'username' and you will find that the
> > matching environment parameters for this are:
> >
> > HOMEDRIVE=C:
> > HOMEPATH=\Documents and Settings\'username'
>
> I'll need time to digest this.
>
> > You have been confusing two entirely different aspects of profile
> > handling. There are two components:
> >
> > 1) Those that specify where windows obtains the profile to copy across
> > the network to the client
> >
> > 2) The location of the working image of the desktop profile
>
> OK.  I guess my definition of HOME needs to be re-thought about.  When I
> think about HOME, I think about the home dir field in /etc/passwd.
> Seems like 'logon path' has NOTHING to-do with my thoughts about
> what/where HOME is.  I'll eventually figure it out... but I promise I
> won't ask you any questions.

Why? What was wrong with my answers? :)

- John T.
-- 
John H Terpstra
Email: jht at samba.org