[Samba] Long filenames and 8.3 conversion

[James Finnall]

Hello List,

Can anyone please help explain how Samba handles long
filename conversion to DOS 8.3 tilde format?

I have a client with a Windows app that works great when using
8.3 type filenames.  When an attempt to use long filenames is
made, the files are created great and the data is there.  But
when the app builds the index and attempt to retrieve the data
file is made, the wrong file is presented.  

I have viewed the index file and it contains the DOS 8.3 tilde 
representation of the filename, not the long filename.  

Now to my knowledge these 8.3 tilde filenames do not exist 
anywhere on the server.  At least I unable to locate them.  
The file system is an extended 2 file system and it would not 
have it.  I do not see a file where it is stored and I do not see 
any symlinks created to provide the 8.3 filename service to 
the long filename of the file.

I attempted to use a FAT32 file system where at least I think
the 8.3 tilde format should be created, set up the share and the
client mapped it and copied the data folder over to it.  But when
the index was built and an attempt was made to retrieve a record,
the same problem presented itself and the wrong file was provided.
So even on a FAT32 file system where the tilde format should exist,
Samba still doesn't use it.

If the same test is run using the local hard disk under Windows and 
FAT32 file system, it works perfectly.

So I am at a loss where these 8.3 tilde filenames originate from.  They
also do not look like the standard Microsoft type of conversion.  These
filenames have the first five characters from the file, the tilde, and then 
two characters that are alphanumeric type, and even some chars are 
punctuation chars.

But I cannot find where these names are stored to be associated with the
correct filename anywhere.  It appears they are created in an arbitrary 
manner and then disposed of!  Perhaps there is a setting that I am
missing in my smb.conf to provide proper support for these converted
filenames.

Any information on this to enlighten me in this area would be of great
assistance in trying to provide the client a solution to this problem.

Thank you,
James