[Samba] smbd *not* breaking hard links when saving files

Hugo Connery hmc at env.dtu.dk
Fri May 28 01:41:18 MDT 2010


Hi,

When I deployed our samba setup 3 years ago, using 3.0.23 x86_64 from the ftp.sernet.dk<ftp://ftp.sernet.dk> distribution
smbd used to break hard links when saving files.  This was useful as one could make a backup
based purely on a recursive hard link copy. When a user updated a file, it would break the link,
which left us with a 'previous' version in the backup tree and the new version in the served tree.

smbd does not seem to do this anymore (RedHat distribution 3.0.33 x86_64).  That is, when one
saves a file the link is not broken, and both hard links (served and backup) are the same
 (the new version).  This defeats my backup mechanism.

I would like to know if the 'breaks hard links on save' functionality is still available.  It was very nice
to have a history of snapshots based purely on hard link copies.

Thanks, in advance, for any assitance.

Regards,
--
Hugo Connery, Head of IT, DTU Environment
http://www.env.dtu.dk



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