[Samba] Can a macOS (Posix) client see symlinks on FreeBSD server as symlinks on client?

[Rowland Penny]

On Tue, 7 Jan 2025 10:48:44 +0100
Kees van Vloten via samba <samba at lists.samba.org> wrote:

> 
> Op 07-01-2025 om 10:33 schreef Rowland Penny via samba:
> > On Mon, 6 Jan 2025 22:11:42 -0800
> > Jim DeLaHunt via samba <samba at lists.samba.org> wrote:
> >
> >> On 2025-01-06 01:39, Rowland Penny via samba wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Sun, 5 Jan 2025 22:43:23 -0800
> >>> Jim DeLaHunt via samba <samba at lists.samba.org> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Hello, Samba folks:
> >>>>
> >>>> Is there a setting I could invoke, either on my server's Samba
> >>>> configuration or on my macOS smbfs configuration, which would
> >>>> make the hundreds of legacy symbolic links on the server's Posix
> >>>> file system appear as symbolic links on the macOS client?
> >>>>
> >>>> Does Samba claim that it will present symlinks on the server file
> >>>> system as symlinks to a client?
> >>>>
> >>>> ...[elided]...
> >>> ...[elided]... There is ongoing work for the SMBv3 version of
> >>> 'unix extensions', but at present (as far as I am aware) there is
> >>> no support for symlinks and, from the comments made by one of the
> >>> Samba devs, it is unlikely to ever support symlinks, though
> >>> reparse points are likely.
> >> Thank you for the reply, Rowland. This matches a reply at SuperUser
> >> Stack Exchange, <https://superuser.com/a/1824854/114802>. It said,
> >> '[OP's] mount most likely uses SMBv3, which has "POSIX extensions"
> >> as the equivalent, but as far as I know, those are not yet 100%
> >> implemented in Linux and Samba.'
> >>
> >> It would be helpful to be able to trace the statement of "Samba
> >> server 4.x using protocol SMB 3.1.1 will not create symlinks on
> >> server file system, and will write Minshall+French symlinks only"
> >> to release notes or a roadmap or some other kind of documentation.
> >> I don't know Samba's documentation practices very well. Does that
> >> sort of thing get written down in an authoritative location?
> >>
> > Most of the information about the SMBv3 extensions seems to be
> > locked into the heads of the Samba devs, probably mainly because
> > they are not fully developed, but there are traces on the Samba
> > wiki, try searching on 'smb3 extensions'.
> Not just in the heads: 

OK, so there is info out there, but how do you find it ?
In my opinion, it should be on the Samba wiki, but it isn't.

Rowland



> there were talks about this topic on the last
> few SambaXP conferences and David Mulder has written a specification
> for the 'smb3 unix extensions' standard.
> 
> https://mytechinsights.wordpress.com/2022/09/28/smb3-unix-extensions/
> 
> https://codeberg.org/SMB3UNIX/smb3_posix_spec
> 
> - Kees.
> 
> >
> > Rowland
> >
>