I have a client who used to have an NT server, we replaced it with Gentoo Linux and Samba v3.0.9 and they are now having what appears to be some sort of file-sharing issue with Excel. When a user opens an Excel file on the file server it opens properly, no errors or warnings of any kind. But when they try to save the file, Excel warns them that "the file may have changed by someone else, do you want to overwrite, or make new copy" (or some such similar dialog). The file has not changed, and they were the only one with it opened. This happens to everyone, on any Excel file that they open. Here is some smbstatus output when a user opens an Excel spreadsheet: # smbstatus | grep xls 25002 DENY_NONE 0x2019f RDWR NONE /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls MonMar 7 11:12:16 2005 Ok, so Samba shows that the user has the file "Spreadsheet2.xls" opened in read-write mode. So far so good. BUT... What is interesting is this: # lsof -p 25002 |grep xls smbd 25002 louis 28uw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 32rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 33rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 34rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 35rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 36rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 37rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 39rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 40rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 41rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 42rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 43rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 44rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 45rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls smbd 25002 louis 46rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls It looks like Excel opens the file ONCE with "read and write access", with a write lock on part of the file (28uw), then it proceeds to open the file 14 more times for READ access. What the heck for? On the good side, when someone else attempts to open this file while louis has it opened, they are properly told by Excel that the file is currently in use and that they can open it it read only mode. (or some such similar message) Any thoughts on how to stop Excel from telling the user that their file has changed when it definitely has not? Bill Arlofski waa-samba@revpol.com
Bill Arlofski wrote:> > I have a client who used to have an NT server, we replaced it with > Gentoo Linux and Samba v3.0.9 and they are now having what appears to be > some sort of file-sharing issue with Excel. > > When a user opens an Excel file on the file server it opens properly, no > errors or warnings of any kind. But when they try to save the file, > Excel warns them that "the file may have changed by someone else, do you > want to overwrite, or make new copy" (or some such similar dialog). > > The file has not changed, and they were the only one with it opened. > This happens to everyone, on any Excel file that they open. > > Here is some smbstatus output when a user opens an Excel spreadsheet: > > # smbstatus | grep xls > 25002 DENY_NONE 0x2019f RDWR NONE > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls MonMar 7 11:12:16 2005 > > Ok, so Samba shows that the user has the file "Spreadsheet2.xls" opened > in read-write mode. So far so good. > > BUT... What is interesting is this: > > # lsof -p 25002 |grep xls > > smbd 25002 louis 28uw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 32rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 33rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 34rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 35rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 36rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 37rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 39rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 40rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 41rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 42rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 43rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 44rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 45rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > smbd 25002 louis 46rw REG 8,3 34304 705301 > /home/shared/projects/Spreadsheet2.xls > > > It looks like Excel opens the file ONCE with "read and write access", > with a write lock on part of the file (28uw), then it proceeds to open > the file 14 more times for READ access. What the heck for? > > On the good side, when someone else attempts to open this file while > louis has it opened, they are properly told by Excel that the file is > currently in use and that they can open it it read only mode. (or some > such similar message) > > > Any thoughts on how to stop Excel from telling the user that their file > has changed when it definitely has not? > > Bill Arlofski > waa-samba@revpol.comUpgrading to 3.0.11 FIXED this problem. - Bill Arlofski waa-samba@revpol.com
Kaplan, Marc wrote:> Bill, > > I'm curious about this issue, which version of Excel were you using? Or > did it even matter what version of Excel? > > Thanks, > > -Marc > >They are using Microsoft Excel 2002 - Service Pack 1 - Bill Arlofski waa-samba@revpol.com