Hello, Often people (or applications) want to store additional information about a file. E.g. history, approval state, search tags, etc. Some file formats offer to integrate these metadata, some not (e.g. exif- headers, id3, etc.). My idea would be to create an additional <filename.xyz>.meta file next to a <filename.xyz> in the same folder. If the <filename.xyz> gets renamed/deleted/moved, the <filename.xyz>.meta file should be also renamed/deleted/moved in case it exists. Is this possible with Samba or are there better ways to do handle metadata ? Regards Thomas
Am Sonntag, 27. Mai 2007 09:24 schrieb Thomas Bley:> Hello, > > Often people (or applications) want to store additional information > about a file. E.g. history, approval state, search tags, etc. Some > file formats offer to integrate these metadata, some not (e.g. exif- > headers, id3, etc.). > My idea would be to create an additional <filename.xyz>.meta file next > to a <filename.xyz> in the same folder. If the <filename.xyz> gets > renamed/deleted/moved, the <filename.xyz>.meta file should be also > renamed/deleted/moved in case it exists. > > Is this possible with Samba or are there better ways to do handle > metadata ? > > Regards > Thomas > >Hi Thomas, Samba is accessed from a lot of different clients. Many of them support meta file information ? - OS/2 extended attributes ? - windows alternate data streams and EAs ? - *nix xattr ? - .... Samba3 does support most of those meta file/dir information, but not 'alternate data streams'. Under linux have a look at 'man setxattr' how to cope with that. (see also cmds like setfattr, getfattr, ...) Samba3 itself uses VFS_* wrappers to convert the smb xattr calls into corresponding calls of the underlying operating system. File systems support different max. summed up sizes for all xattr, e.g. ? - ext2 / ext3 ? ? ~3.9KB ? - reiserfs/XFS ? ?N * 64KB ? - JFS ? ? ? ? ? ? 128KB Have a look at the end of http://samba.org/ftp/unpacked/samba4/howto.txt It's from samba4, but explains some basic requirements for xattr support. http://www.suse.de/~agruen/acl/linux-acls/online/ is a bit outdated, but does also mention 'extended attributes'. As the article claims, some care must be taken during backup / restore, when EAs or ACLs have been used. Your 2 file approach is not supported bei samba - and imho is always a bad idea. Cheers, Guenter
Hello, Often people (or applications) want to store additional information about a file. E.g. history, approval state, search tags, etc. Some file formats offer to integrate these metadata, some not (e.g. exif- headers, id3, etc.). My idea would be to create an additional <filename.xyz>.meta file next to a <filename.xyz> in the same folder. If the <filename.xyz> gets renamed/deleted/moved, the <filename.xyz>.meta file should be also renamed/deleted/moved in case it exists. Is this possible with Samba or are there better ways to do handle metadata ? Regards Thomas
Am Sonntag, 27. Mai 2007 09:24 schrieb Thomas Bley:> Hello, > > Often people (or applications) want to store additional information > about a file. E.g. history, approval state, search tags, etc. Some > file formats offer to integrate these metadata, some not (e.g. exif- > headers, id3, etc.). > My idea would be to create an additional <filename.xyz>.meta file next > to a <filename.xyz> in the same folder. If the <filename.xyz> gets > renamed/deleted/moved, the <filename.xyz>.meta file should be also > renamed/deleted/moved in case it exists. > > Is this possible with Samba or are there better ways to do handle > metadata ? > > Regards > Thomas > >Hi Thomas, Samba is accessed from a lot of different clients. Many of them support meta file information - OS/2 extended attributes - windows alternate data streams and EAs - *nix xattr - .... Samba3 does support most of those meta file/dir information, but not 'alternate data streams'. Under linux have a look at 'man setxattr' how to cope with that. (see also cmds like setfattr, getfattr, ...) Samba3 itself uses VFS_* wrappers to convert the smb xattr calls into corresponding calls of the underlying operating system. File systems support different max. summed up sizes for all xattr, e.g. - ext2 / ext3 ~3.9KB - reiserfs/XFS N * 64KB - JFS 128KB Have a look at the end of http://samba.org/ftp/unpacked/samba4/howto.txt It's from samba4, but explains some basic requirements for xattr support. http://www.suse.de/~agruen/acl/linux-acls/online/ is a bit outdated, but does also mention 'extended attributes'. As the article claims, some care must be taken during backup / restore, when EAs or ACLs have been used. Your 2 file approach is not supported bei samba - and imho is always a bad idea. Cheers, Guenter