[Samba] Hide empty Samba shares?

[Stan Hoeppner]

On 9/5/2012 9:23 AM, Sam Bulka wrote:
> Stan Hoeppner <stan <at> hardwarefreak.com> 
>>
>> Samba is not MS Windows.  Just because a feature exists in MS Windows
>> does not make it "basic" translated "expected" in other platforms.  If
>> you were a long time Samba/*nix user and switched to MS Windows you'd
>> have the same complaint in reverse (though there are few such defections).
> 
> Samba was initially developed by watching Windows network protocol to allow 
> share files btw Linux and Windows. Of course its expected to offer basic 
> features Windows users are used to when sharing files with Windows.

Yes, of course, and it does.  But you're missing the point.  The feature
in question isn't part of the SMB/CIFS protocol stack, thus Samba can't
duplicate it.  It's an operating system specific feature implemented in,
and unique to, MS Windows.  Microsoft controls both their SMB/CIFS code
stack and their operating system code.  Thus they are free to create
internal proprietary interfaces between the two that provide unique
functionality.

The Samba team doesn't control the Linux, *BSD, AIX, Solaris, etc
operating system code, so they can't simply add the interfaces to each
OS that are necessary to implement what you call the "basic"
functionality that Microsoft provides.  It's not "basic" functionality
at all, but extended functionality, as it's not part of the SMB/CIFS
stack.  It's proprietary.

I'm guessing that due to your lack of knowledge of software development
models that you didn't understand anything I just stated above.  So I'll
boil it down to this:

If you critically need this feature, switch back to MS Windows.  It will
likely never be implemented in a Samba+OS stack.

-- 
Stan