[Samba] Programatically Modifying Users

[Nigel Rantor]

Gerald (Jerry) Carter wrote:
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> Nigel Rantor wrote:
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> 
>>So, I can't find anything on SAMR rpc on the samba site, 
>>is this a very new bit of the project? Any good resources
>>where I can find out more about it or is just talking
>>to the samba-tech list first the way to go?
> 
> 
> Start by looking at the Samba code.  The samr pipe is used
> for managing user and group accounts.  For example, connect
> to a Samba server with usrmgr.exe and watch the traffic using
> ethereal.

Roger Red Leader, I'll go grab the latest code then, I'm currently using 
3.0.7

>>I have seen jCIFS, although in it's current state it 
>>only (AFAICT) supports the access of remote SMB shares. I
>>haven't yet contacted the devs to see what else is in the
>>works though or what it would take to add.
> 
> 
> I just verified this week that Mike is working on rpc support
> (hey Mike! :-)) but has some more work to do on it before
> the feature is available in a release.

Groovy. My main problem is that I'm under time pressure (isn't 
everyone?) to make this bit of the project "go faster", as you can 
imagine calling out to the samba CLI tools from Java is *painfully* slow.

>>Aye, already have been looking at it. One of my other 
>>issues at the moment is the GPL issues. Since the samba
>>project has not been designed to have bits of it used by other
>>code I need to ensure that whatever I do won't violate the
>>GPL. The project I'm working on is not OSS at all, let alone GPL.
> 
> 
> Sorry.   Can't use any Samba code in that case.  Are we
> talking about a Unix/Linux application here ?  or a Windows
> management tool for Samba?  You would write your client
> on Win32 pretty easy since the API calls are already there.
> If you are working on Unix, your only hope is to write your
> own dce/rpc library or maybe find one that is useable
> under a license sompatiable with your work.

It is a Java app on Linux.

Okay, and here comes some stuff that might provoke some reaction so I'll 
climb into my flame-suit.

IANAL but AFAIK ETC ETC

The GPL only prohibits the distribution of modified works, it says 
nothing about those works that are not distributed.

In this case there is no intention whatsoever of redistributing source 
of any kind, modified or otherwise.

I am working on a system that is used internally by a business.

Having said that, I am an OSS advocate and my ideal route to providing 
this functionality would be either (as you have suggested) to contribute 
to getting the SAMR stuff up to scratch/using jCIFS (which is licensed 
under the LGPL) or producing some form of library that I would license 
under GPL to provide Java hooks to the functionality that I require. 
This package would then not be required for the operation of the system 
I'm working on, it *already* works by calling out to CLI programs, and 
could be used under the terms of the GPL "at arms length".

I'll repeat, reiterate and recombobulate that I am not a lawyer, but 
I'll be making sure that anything I do or am involved in is above board 
WRT the GPL.

I hope this doesn't mean I'll suddenly become persona non grata here, I 
only just arrived :-)

> Note that the Samba4 IDL files (not the actual code or
> pidl itseld) are available for use under more liberal
> license.  You could write your own IDL compiler and use those.

Euugh, I've already written one IDL compiler for CORBA...that was hairy 
enough.

Ta,

   n