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

Kees van Vloten keesvanvloten at gmail.com
Tue Jan 7 13:13:57 UTC 2025


Op 07-01-2025 om 11:01 schreef Rowland Penny via samba:
> 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.

The work those links refer to is the protocol specification of unix 
extensions for smb3. It is not samba specific, it allows different 
clients and servers to implement these extensions and be compatible 
among each other. And it also prevents conflicts with other smb extensions.

My knowledge comes from attending SambaXP, which I can advice to 
everybody on the list. I it nice and really helpful to meet and get to 
know the developers in person and learn about Samba related developments.

SambaXP is planned on April 7th and 8th, to finish this advertisement:  
you can buy tickets here: https://sambaxp.org/ :-)

- Kees.

>
> 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
>>>
>



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