Problem with smbfs (missing files/directories)

Alexandre Molari (mhw@wittsend.com)
Thu, 14 Mar 96 08:48 EST


Hello all...

This is my second attempt to post this. The first one went out
two weeks ago and I haven't seen my own post back (don't say it - I
normally do see my own posts) and I haven't seen any replies. There's
normally at least one or two "me too's" or "not me's". I guess the
original must have gotten swallowed up somewhere so here it is again.
Deepest appologies if you've seen it and ignored it already...

----- Begin Original Message -----

My apologies for sending this to more than one list but I wasn't
sure which would be most appropriate. I'm not sure who manages the smbfs
kernel module or who would be most able to handle this problem.

I have run into a strange problem with smbfs. I have a number of
Windows for Workgroups systems and Windows 95 systems in a network with
Linux boxes acting as file servers / fire walls / engineering systems.

One of the things we do is to back up the management's Windows
systems by using smbfs to mount their drives to the Linux systems and
dump them to 8MM tape.

Recently, one of our management types gave me a list of "directories"
on "his system" that he wanted backed up. Suprise! One of the directories
did NOT show up in an "ls" of a mount of his file system (mounted root
directory of his "C:" drive). It also was NOT found by "find" when I ran
"find . -print" on that directory! I could, however, "cd" to that directory
even though it did not show up in a directory listing! i.e. When in his
mounted directory "ls" did not show "foo" but "cd foo" succeeds and "ls" then
shows the contents of "c:\foo"!

That was strange enough! I then went to the samba client and did
a listing of his drive. The missing directory and many other items showed
up in the smbclient directory which did not show up in the smbfs directory
listing! It looks like maybe somewhere from 5 to 10 percent (CWAG - Crude
Wild Ass Guess) of the entries from this system do not appear in the smbfs
listing which do appear in the smbclient listing. There does not appear to
be anything "missing" from the smbclient listing, only the smbfs listing.

This did NOT appear related to "hidden" files or "system" files
since many of the missing entries where common files and directories while
other "hidden" or "system" entries did appear in both.

Since noticed, I have tried back tracking the problem with regard to
kernel version. This seems to appear consistantly (same entries are always
missing) in every version of the smbfs that has been included in a kernel I
have compile and run on these systems. It definitely exists in 1.3.69.

I'm researching this further (since it has placed my entire backup
system on total hold till shot - grrr). I would sure be open to suggestions
as to where to look or what to try to isolate the problem though. It has the
"feel" (I know - stupid subjective impression) of a boundry condition in the
directory listing but I have not been able to ascertain what the boundry
condition is or where it is occuring.

Things I have not done as yet -

I have not reproduced the problem with other WfW or W95 systems.
The problem may be there - I just haven't empiricly tested each and every
system as yet to determine where it does and where it does not show up. I
do know that this one system is consistantly missing these entries from
every Linux system I have tried. I don't know if it is something highly
peculiar to his W95 system or not.

I have not artifically rearranged directory ordering yet. I can't
screw with this dude's system (much as I would LOVE to :-( ). I have to
reproduce it on another system and try the sort out parameters from there.
It's on my short list to do but engineering doesn't have any W95 systems to
play with (we're all Linux and other UNIX! Yeah!).

I have not determined (as yet) if this affects anything deeper
that the root file system. The root directory is positively confirmed.
If it also affects deeper sub-directories, then all of my backups are
suddenly called into question!

I would love to get this thing shot since it is causing our
management type droids to question whether we should be using Linux
in our main stream corporate operations. So far, I've kept them happy
and quiet (relative to the UGLY alternatives :-) ). I need to solve this
to keep it that way. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Mike

--
 Michael H. Warfield    |  (770) 985-6132   |  mhw@WittsEnd.com
  (The Mad Wizard)      |  (770) 925-8248   |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
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