We use samba at work to share files from a server machine to machines running Linux and Windows. It works great but if a user creates a new folder, they cannot then write to it without someone sshing into the server and changing the folders permissions.

Can anyone tell me how to configure samba to allow users to write to directories that they have created?

in your smb.conf file, add this line under the share section:
create mask = 0765 (or whatever mask you want)

How do I know what mask I want? and what am I tellling it to do?

the mask is a octal 3bit setting where it has the opposite effect of chmod permissions. If you do a chmod 777 then it gives rwx, in a mask if you set it to 777 then it removes all three (like a chmod 000). If you set your mask to 222, then it effectivly gives a chmod 555. You will probably want to tinker with it a while to get it the way you want.

Thanks for the help. But I'm still struggling.

I've edited /etc/samba/smb.conf. I picked a share and added create mask = 0000 (figuring this would act like doing a chmod 777). I restarted samba and from a remote machine created a folder, moved into the folder and tried to create a text document and got the error "Access Denied, could not write to .................".

Have a done something wrong should there be a section labelled "share" or do you put the line into the individual shares?

put it into the individual shares. Take a look at the actual folder that was created. do an ls -l and it will show you the permissions on the folder.

[user1]
your config here
create mask = 0000

[user2]
your config here
create mask = 0000

Sorry to interrupt you guys~

Here is the portion of my smb.conf that enables roaming profiles:
What are the masks for? SInce i was working fine so i did not bother to understand what is does, mind explaning a bit?

These are the permissions of the folder I created. With no mask added to smb.conf.

drwxr-xr-x 1 nobody nogroup 0 2004-08-02 13:48 New Folder_3

Then I added this create mask line to my smb.conf file and restated samba:

[reception]
create mask = 0000
comment = Shelter Reception Folders
path = /home/media/My Documents (Networked)/Reception/
read only = No
guest ok = Yes

This is the result:

drwxr-xr-x 1 nobody nogroup 0 2004-08-02 14:03 New Folder

Exactly the same - what am I doing wrong?

Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I just noticed something else weird. If I create a folder on the samba share as root I can write to it but I get this error if I try to delete it (even though it cannot be busy as all I have done is create it an try to delete it immediately):

mainbox:/mnt/reception# mkdir Test
mainbox:/mnt/reception# rm Test/ -fr
rm: cannot remove directory `Test/': Device or resource busy
mainbox:/mnt/reception# exit

I'm sorted now (I hope). The problem was that I hadn't specified a guest account. I've now added "guest account = <<UserName>>" to my smb.conf. Changed all the files in the share to be owned by that user and it all seems to be working OK.