Super weird Samba bug-what is in the main folder is not seen by remote PCs????

road hazard · 10-15-2020, 02:01 PM

UPDATE: Looks like it's a known issue and the answer is using the 'mangled names = no' in smb.conf. Will try and update my post later but I think that will fix this.

Could somebody please explain this behaviour? I see this weirdness with multiple folders. So my main media server has some movies shared out:

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Name: contents of samba share from server.png
Views: 23
Size: 13.6 KB
ID: 34317

But over Samba, from another Linux box, the other PC doesn't see one of the folders:

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Name: what the other pc sees via samba1.png
Views: 19
Size: 9.9 KB
ID: 34318

But the missing movie DOES show up elsewhere:

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Name: what the other pc sees via samba2.png
Views: 21
Size: 7.0 KB
ID: 34319

....notice the P7Z... folder? That's where my missing movie was. Does Samba have problems handling colons? Because I see this same problem on other folders that all happen to have a colon in the name.

Known bug? Is there a workaround? Or is the workaround top stop using colons in my names?

Does NFS have this same problem?

eSelix · 10-15-2020, 02:17 PM

Samba use Microsoft netbios protocol, and as Windows cannot use few characters in filenames (like colon, which is part of disk letter) it can not be used in Samba too. NFS should not have that problem.