Samba/Conventions

Reader Message Boxes

This work makes regular use of message boxes—called "Reader Message Boxes"—to draw the reader's attention to some important point of fact. Several different message boxes are used, and each serves a specific purpose. The Message Boxes used throughout this text are as follows:

DANGER!!! WARNING: This box is used to contain information intended prevent the reader from making some potentially serious error. This could be something as simple as indicating that activation of a feature may lead to security issues and how to mitigate such a risk.

TIP REMEMBER: This box is used to drop various small, but helpful tips for the reader to find. Such as: "Remember that in order to produce a hidden share in Samba the share name must end with a '$' dollar sign. Do not think that naming your shares [dot]share-name will have the same result, it won't."

The Windows World GOTCHA: This note tends most often to serve as a reminder of the way things work in the 'Windows World', which might be forgotten by those who do not use Windows based machines on a regular basis. For example: "Remember, in the Windows World, and by extension Samba, when the file-level and share-level permissions combine the Most Restrictive set of permissions wins."

The MacOS X World GOTCHA: This note tends most often to serve as a reminder to peculiarities of deploying or using Samba shares in a homogeneous environment that includes Macintosh Computers. For example: "Even though Microsoft Windows machines cannot see shares that have a dollar-sign '$' after them, MacOS X Samba clients can see these shares. Remember that obscurity alone is not sufficient to secure your shares (especially in this case) and to make doubly sure none of the Macintosh users have excessive permissions."

The Linux World GOTCHA: This note is intended to give users who are new to Linux a helping hand in understanding the differences between Linux and non Unix-like platforms, such as Microsoft Windows. For example: "Remember, Linux uses a different set of file permissions than Windows. Permissions are often expressed in numbers such as '7' (read-write-execute), '5' (read-only), or '0' (no rights).

Technical Note TECHNICALLY: This note is used to briefly express hard-core technical information to the reader. This is often followed by hyperlinks to Wikipedia, or RFC's for more information. Such as: "Remember: Samba, as of version 3, lacks direct support for Microsoft's Active Directory technology. Though Active Directory is a proprietary extension of the LDAP protocol, and Samba can use OpenLDAP to store user account information—do not confuse the two. For more information on the LDAP protocol see: RFC 4510. For more information on Samba 4 which will have direct Active Directory support (also by OpenLDAP) see: Samba4.