I have researched and researched and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I have added

UUID=44DC4A9EDC4A8A5E

to the /etc/environment file and I have verified and confirmed that it is indeed set as an environment variable with printenv UUID and export. Running echo $UUID displays the UUID without any problem. The UUID is for my external HDD at /dev/sda1 and I have verified and confirmed that it is correct.

What I'm trying to do in smb.conf for my samba share is this:

[Raspberry Pi External HDD]
comment = Western Digital 5tb
public = yes
writeable = yes
browsable = yes
path = /media/pi/%$(UUID)
create mask 0777
directory mask = 0777

However, it doesn't work. If I replace %$(UUID) with the actual UUID it works fine.

What am I doing wrong?

cross post: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comme...le_in_smbconf/ (and answered)

What version of samba is running on your Pi and does it support environment variables?

In my opinion it would be better to hard code the path nam

testparm checks the smb.conf for syntax errors. If it passes then I would assume it is supported.

Also check the log files for errors