[Samba] Hide empty Samba shares?

[Volker Lendecke]

On Wed, Sep 05, 2012 at 09:12:11PM -0500, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
> 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.

Well, what we might be able to do is to add a scripting
interface to the "available" parameter that is checked every
time the share is about to be accessed. This would give a
flexible interface to whatever the OS provides.

Volker

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