[OT] Is Samba client not following the protocol?

Deepak Shrestha d88pak at gmail.com
Wed Nov 28 04:55:02 UTC 2007


> It's only left out of the way, not really hidden.  Windows even has
> graphical tools to show you this stuff.  It seems, to me, that you're
> coming into this with a false expectation.


Not really a false expectation. Its more of a curiosity about why
network browser in linux is showing the stuffs which are not even
needed by the user. I will accept that if my folder$ will show but
what about C$, D$, E$ so on an so forth which was not even shared from
windows machine?

What I mean is if a guest connects to my network (with a linux pc as
client), he can see how many drives I have, what share names are used
and what are hidden shares at a glance. So why should I need to give
such information for a visitor who will just use the network for a
time being only?


> Anyway, what's more important is whether, or not, you can access
> anything through those shares.  Not whether it's possible to just see
> that they're present.
>
> I've seen a school that foolishly thought that simply hiding the C:\
> drive from view protected it from being messed with.  It does not.  You
> have to take other steps to protect something.  And when you've done so,
> and done so properly, it doesn't matter if people can see that there's
> something there.


I agree with you again in this matter but I am not looking from
security point of view but about network browser displaying
unnecessary information. I can solve this problem and do my little
trick again if I am using samba server and windows clients. But again,
what if I need to share somethig from windows machine? Linux network
browser will display all my drives and other unnecessary information.

For example:
How can one use a text editor properly if all the spaces, tab and line
feeds are shown together messing our text? This simply unnecessary for
simple user. These symbols are best understood by the text editor
being used and it should use it without disturbing the user.


> There are options in the Samba config file for what matches are used to
> indicate hidden files (see man smb.conf, and search through it for the
> keyword:  hidden).  There's a performance penalty for making use of
> them, though.  This is a case of setting what a Samba server serves out
> as "to be hidden".  This is just a status flag, it's still up to the
> client to not display them.
>
> Have you turned off the "hide hidden files" features in your file
> browsers?  On the client side of things, you need to hide hidden files,
> if you want them hidden.

In windows machines it doesn't matter whether I will hide or show the
hidden files. Hidden shares simply don't show up in the network
browser. In my fedora I haven't changed anything yet. Its fresh
installation and using gnome.

> And in what way are you seeing it in Nautilus, for example?  Are you
> browsing smb://hostname/sharename?  Are you seeing it in shares that
> you've mounted somewhere onto the filesystem tree?

Yes I am browsing the smb://hostname/ and it shows everything
including non shared drives.

So my point is
===========================================
Samba server - Windows client is OK
but
vice versa is not true.
Seems like client side of samba is not obeying the rules...
===========================================

How can I do what I want to do and mix these two machines
homogeneously? Any suggestion? I am asking this because I need to
share folders from windows machines and yet still implement hidden
shares for personal purpose.

Thanks




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