samba - Jul 2002 - Samba 2.2.4 - files have disappeared!

Hello all.  I have two linux machines, Red Hat 7.1 with kernel 2.4.9-34
(Red Hat stock), with Samba 2.2.4 installed.  Both of these machines usa
Samba to mount several shares from a common Windows 2000 server.

These machines also run Courier IMAP.  For those not familiar with email
systems, Courier uses the "Maildir" method of email storage and
retrieval; each message is stored as a separate file within a certain
directory.  When a message is delivered to an account, it is stored as a
file within a directory labeled "new".  Then, when that account's
user
logs in via IMAP, any messages within the "new" directory are moved to
a
folder labeled "cur".

This morning, a user reported seeing some of his email apparently
disappear.  When he first logged in, eight messages appeared as blank
entries in his email client.  When he tried to access any of those
messages, he got a message stating they had been deleted from the
server.  A resync with the server wiped out the blank entries entirely.

I checked the email delivery logs, and sure enough, there were entries
for messages that were no longer in his inbox.  I then checked the
system logs, and discovered these lines:

   Jul 22 10:44:46 mx3 kernel: smb_open:
      cur/1027231579.11116.mx3.iatdev.com,S=3095@2, open failed,
      result=-2
   Jul 22 10:44:46 mx3 kernel: smb_open:
      cur/1027231579.11116.mx3.iatdev.com,S=3095@2, open failed,
      result=-2
   Jul 22 10:44:46 mx3 kernel: smb_readpage_sync:
      cur/1027231579.11116.mx3.iatdev.com,S=3095@2, open failed,
      error=-2

These three lines were repeated seven times, with a different file name
in each repitition.

I am aware that the error code "-2" means "file not found",
and I am
also aware of the inevitable problems that happen when multiple machines
are trying to access the same remote file server.  However, this user
says this occured the first time he accessed his account today; he was
not, for example, trying to move old messages at the same time his
account was being checked for new email.

The missing messages are all dated yesterday (7/21) and today (7/22),
and this person has not accessed his account since Saturday (7/20).  It
really seems like the attempted move of new messages from the "new"
directory to the "cur" directory failed somehow, resulting in the
messages disappearing altogether!

Is this a known issue with either Samba 2.2.4 or the Samba code present
in Red Hat's release of kernel 2.4.9-34?  If so, are there any
workarounds?  I really need to ensure this will not happen again,
because we do not want to get in the habit of losing people's emails!

Thanks for the help.

---Kris Kelley

On Mon, 22 Jul 2002, Kris Kelley wrote:
> and this person has not accessed his account since Saturday (7/20).  It
> really seems like the attempted move of new messages from the
"new"
> directory to the "cur" directory failed somehow, resulting in the
> messages disappearing altogether!
> 
> Is this a known issue with either Samba 2.2.4 or the Samba code present
> in Red Hat's release of kernel 2.4.9-34?  If so, are there any
> workarounds?  I really need to ensure this will not happen again,
> because we do not want to get in the habit of losing people's emails!
smbfs has some known problems with the same file being opened by multiple
clients or on the client and the server. It's really hard to tell what
happened from your description (can you repeat it?).

Do I understand you correctly that the mail software is running on linux,
but stores the files on the windows box? Couldn't you store the files
locally on the linux box instead and have the windows users connect
to a samba server?

/Urban