[Samba] Samba file server share sets Windows Hidden attribute

[Mark Foley]

On Fri Jan 26 15:14:48 2024 Mark Foley via samba <samba at lists.samba.org> wrote:
>
> I'm having a very odd problem. I have a domain member running Samba 4.18.9, just
> installed last weekend. It is a file server for the office who use Windows 10
> and have a "drive" mapped to this host.
>
> When users scan/append to existing PDF files on this mapped drive, they
> disappear. Viewed on Windows, the H (hidden attribute) gets set. The user can
> scan a new file to their mapped drive and it is visible. The user can
> alternatively scan/append/save this modified file to their Desktop, then copy it
> back (overwrite) it on the Samba share and it is visible.
>
> <snip>

Thanks to a response from a poster on LinuxQuestions.org I found I had to set
the "store dos attributes = on" attibute in smb.conf. I've already expressed my
feelings about changing defaults which affect production programs, and this is
another example. Our users and I spent a week trying to figure out what was
going on.

The LQ poster said that the default had been changed in version 4.9.0+. I then
searched all the release notes from my previous 4.6.16 version until I did find
this change noted in the release notes for 4.9.0.

I'm sure this default change broke more systems that it fixed as this is a major
behavior change.  I don't think people usually read all release notes for all
updated facilities during automatic OS upgrades.  I went from 4.6.16 on
Slackware 14.2 to 4.18.9 on Slackware 15.0, so not very likely to read all the
release notes in between. 

Anyway, problem fixed and I would suggest that developers think twice about
altering default behavior for things are are signficant behavior changers.

--Mark