[Samba] Reason for no samba linux kernel driver

[Volker Lendecke]

On Wed, Jun 04, 2014 at 03:36:45PM +0530, fiedel jones wrote:
> First, thank you for your excellent work!
> 
> I have a naive question, out of curiosity, why is there no samba server
> support in Linux kernel unlike the cifs client support?
> 
> Wouldn't it be more easier to use if there is a samba server support in
> kernel and a corresponding user space demon to control it just like nfsd?
> 
> Also, I think performance of a kernel space driver would be far better than
> user space demon.
> Same way that a performance of kernel space file system driver is better
> than its implemented fuse driver.
> 
> Are there any specific reasons or just nobody thought about it as the
> current user space demons are working so well?

2 reasons: Portability and stability. Samba runs on many
more platforms than just Linux, and it being in user space
saves the system from completely crashing when Samba
crashes. Also, even in user space it is possible to be
pretty fast. You might be able to sqeeze out the last few
percent of performance in kernel space, but the additional
complexity that kernel space brings is not being seen as
worth the effort. If you are out for a SMB server in kernel,
take a look at OpenSolaris. They have this, deeply
integrated in ZFS.

With best regards,

Volker Lendecke

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