samba - Jan 2005 - Why would nsswitch.conf be needed at all ?

Hi,

I have setup a samba server as a domain member to share print queues.

As I'm doing print quotas, I need the users to be authenticated properly.

The setup works except that it appears that I need to add winbind to my
nsswitch.conf.

This is kind of upsetting as I don't see a reason why I have to share
windows users' namespace with my linux users base (mainly root and system
users btw).

As far as samba is concerned, it creates uid/gid mappings on the fly. Why would
it absolutely need the system to be able to resolve username/uids ?

Maybe I missed something ?

Thanks for your insights.

> I have setup a samba server as a domain member to share print queues.
> As I'm doing print quotas, I need the users to be authenticated
properly.
> The setup works except that it appears that I need to add winbind to my
nsswitch.conf.
> This is kind of upsetting as I don't see a reason why I have to share
windows users' namespace with my linux users base (mainly root and system
users btw).
> As far as samba is concerned, it creates uid/gid mappings on the fly. Why
would it absolutely need the system to be able to resolve username/uids ?
windbind does this exactly in order to be able to provide such
information via NSS.  Samba is a UNIX process, it needs to know about
the users.
> Maybe I missed something ?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Adam Williasm [mailto:adam@morrison-ind.com]
> > I understand the spirit, but, as far as my application is 
> concerned (print server only for windows boxes), don't I have 
> a way of not having to include winbind in nsswitch ?
> 
> Currently I think the answer is no.  Perhaps you can just 
> access all the 
> printers as guest?
> 
> Alhtough I have no idea why there is a problem adding winbind 
> to nss; it 
> makes logs easier to read, etc...
Maybe if Frederic explains why he's so reluctant to add winbind to his
nsswitch.conf file, his concerns can be addressed.  Right now I'm not clear
on why he sees this as a big issue.