samba - Dec 2002 - "force group" not working with shared directories

I'm trying my darnedest to set up a samba server to share some directories 
for certain user groups. Several of the shares will be housing databases 
(incl. MS Access) which will be accessed by several users, often at the 
same time, and thus need to deal with both file-locking and group 
ownership.

I have read that I need essentially the following in my smb.conf file:
[lab]   
        path = /usr2/lab
        available = yes   
        public = yes
        guest only = no
        writeable = yes  
        browseable = yes
        valid users = foonly, hart
        only user = no
        oplocks = No
        level2oplocks = No
        create mask = 770
        directory mask = 770
        force group = lab

with the important lines being "create mask", "directory
mask" and "force
group".

The problem is that while the "create mask" and "directory
mask" lines
work, the "force group" line does not, and the group "lab"
is never forced
for new files/directories created in that share. I have tried both "=
lab"
and "= +lab" (not really understanding the difference) and neither
worked.

I've had some samba experience in the past, but it has always been 
rudimentary (printer sharing, basic/non-readable file sharing) and trying 
to make this work is baffling me.

Any advice would be mucho apreciated. (oh, and before anyone askes, yes, 
I'm SIGHUP'ing my smbd each time I change the config).

-- 
Sam Hart
University/Work addr. <hart@physics.arizona.edu>
Personal addr. <criswell@geekcomix.com>
end

On Fri, 20 Dec 2002, Sam Hart wrote:
> I'm trying my darnedest to set up a samba server to share some
directories
> for certain user groups. Several of the shares will be housing databases
> (incl. MS Access) which will be accessed by several users, often at the
> same time, and thus need to deal with both file-locking and group
> ownership.
>
> I have read that I need essentially the following in my smb.conf file:
> [lab]
>         path = /usr2/lab
>         available = yes
>         public = yes
>         guest only = no
>         writeable = yes
>         browseable = yes
>         valid users = foonly, hart
>         only user = no
>         oplocks = No
>         level2oplocks = No
>         create mask = 770
>         directory mask = 770
>         force group = lab
>
> with the important lines being "create mask", "directory
mask" and "force
> group".
>
> The problem is that while the "create mask" and "directory
mask" lines
> work, the "force group" line does not, and the group
"lab" is never forced
> for new files/directories created in that share. I have tried both "=
lab"
> and "= +lab" (not really understanding the difference) and
neither worked.
>
> I've had some samba experience in the past, but it has always been
> rudimentary (printer sharing, basic/non-readable file sharing) and trying
> to make this work is baffling me.
>
> Any advice would be mucho apreciated. (oh, and before anyone askes, yes,
> I'm SIGHUP'ing my smbd each time I change the config).
Set the directory SUID group and if you want forced user do SUID user
also. Much preferred way instead of doing this in samba.

It's a Unix file system issue, not a samba issue.

- John T.
-- 
John H Terpstra
Email: jht@samba.org