[Samba] Directory appears different dependent on access path

Michael Adler madt at tapil.com
Mon Mar 5 07:50:46 MST 2012


I'm very confused by a recent home directory inconsistency and am hoping 
someone can give me a clue where to look for the problem.  It started when 
I used Adobe Illustrator to write a file to my home directory on a Samba 
share.  Illustrator writes a new file by creating a temporary file, 
completing the write, and then renaming the file to the user-specified 
name.  What I see as the final result is inconsistent:  from the Windows 
machine that created the file I see what I would expect -- the name I 
specified exists.  On the Samba host I see the temporary file name, with 
the correct contents, and the rename appears never to have happened.

All the evidence I have points to some persistent state on the Windows 
machine that causes it to transform the temporary name to the 
user-specified one, though that seems unlikely.

  * This behavior persists after rebooting both the Windows machine and the
    Samba server.
  * Looking through the path used to rename the file (e.g. \\foo\bar)
    consistently shows the renamed file.
  * Looking from Windows through another path resolving to the same
    directory (e.g. \\foo\users\bar) shows the temporary name.
  * Looking through the fully qualified host name (e.g. \\foo.com\bar)
    shows the temporary name.
  * Looking through \\foo\bar from some other Windows machine shows the
    temporary name.

The only place I see the renamed file is on the machine that created it 
using only the exact share name used when creating it.

To add some complexity:  Samba 3.6.3 is running on FreeBSD 9 with ZFS.  I 
looked in all the ZFS snapshots for the file system and didn't find any 
instance of a snapshot with the renamed file name.  All the ZFS state I can 
find has only the temporary name.


Any advice on where to look, what state might be corrupt or what I might 
try to flush would be appreciated.

Thank you,
-Michael



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