samba - Jun 2010 - xls file locked for editing by unknown user

I'm not sure that this is the right place to ask about this, but one
of my users is having a problem with her files,specifically excel
files which she is editing with openoffice.

I suspect that she is closing down her PC without logging out or
something and so appears to be still logged in.

She is using Vista and the server is a Debian Lenny box.

Whenever she tries to access the files on the server the file is
apparently "locked for editing by unknown user".

I cannot find any .~ lockfiles and rebooting both machines does not
resolve this.

The permissions are set to 777 and the owner of the files is this
particular user.

As I say, I'm assuming this is a Samba issue.

Can anyone suggest a way to resolve this?

~ Dave

Dave Coventry wrote:
>I'm not sure that this is the right place to ask about this, but one
>of my users is having a problem with her files,specifically excel
>files which she is editing with openoffice.
>
>I suspect that she is closing down her PC without logging out or
>something and so appears to be still logged in.
>
>She is using Vista and the server is a Debian Lenny box.
>
>Whenever she tries to access the files on the server the file is
>apparently "locked for editing by unknown user".
>
>I cannot find any .~ lockfiles and rebooting both machines does not
>resolve this.
>
>The permissions are set to 777 and the owner of the files is this
>particular user.
>
>As I say, I'm assuming this is a Samba issue.
>
>Can anyone suggest a way to resolve this?
>
>~ Dave
Which version of Samba?

Does smbstatus(1) list the file as being locked?  If so, it should give
a pid you can examine.  The fuser(1) and lsof(8) commands can track
which process has a file open.

If rebooting the server does not clear the lock, there's either a lock
file or a cached lock record somewhere.  Try /var/lib/samba/locking.tdb.
Although it's binary, you can grep(1) it for the filename, or use
tdbdump(8) to display the contents.  According to
http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions#What_are_tdb_
files.3F, locking.tdb is not required to persist across restarts.  I
wouldn't try deleting this when Samba is running; even with Samba shut
down I would rename it rather than deleting it.

However, there has got to be a better solution to stale locks than
restarting Samba and deleting a tdb file every time it happens.  Does
the lock clear automatically after a time?  There may be lock tuning
parameters that could help - see smb.conf(5) for details.


Moray.
"To err is human.? To purr, feline"

Hi Moray, thanks for the assistance!

On 29 June 2010 10:41, Moray Henderson (ICT) <Moray.Henderson at
ict.om.org> wrote:
> Which version of Samba?
Samba version 3.2.5
> Does smbstatus(1) list the file as being locked? ?If so, it should give a
pid you can examine. ?The fuser(1) and lsof(8) commands can track which process
has a file open.
No. smbstatus returns "No locked files"
> If rebooting the server does not clear the lock, there's either a lock
file
> or a cached lock record somewhere. ?Try /var/lib/samba/locking.tdb.
>?Although it's binary, you can grep(1) it for the filename, or use
> tdbdump(8) to display the contents. ?According to
>
http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions#What_are_tdb_files.3F,
> locking.tdb is not required to persist across restarts. ?I wouldn't try
deleting
> this when Samba is running; even with Samba shut down I would rename it
> rather than deleting it.
There is no file in /var/lib/samba/ called 'locking.tdb'
The only files in that directory bearing a date later than 14th Dec
2009 are these three:
passdb.tdb
registry.tdb
wins.dat

Hi Klaus,

On 29 June 2010 14:04, Klaus Ruebsam <k.ruebsam at gmx.net>
wrote:
> Hi Dave,
>
> I?m not at all an expert on Samba, but might it be something quite
> simple as the ampersand-sign (&) within your directory name ?!?
There are other directories which do not have the ampersand, but which
also demonstrate the same behaviour, so I don't think it's the
ampersand.

On 29 June 2010 14:12, Denis Fateyev <denis at fateyev.com>
wrote:
> Did you have these locks immediately after you restarted the samba service?
Yes.
> If not, I suggest you to deploy `3.4 - 3.5` samba branch on test machine
and
> check it out with vista again.
The funny thing is it was working fine before. I don't have a test
machine(well, not ons site anyway)
> As I know, there is recommended to use samba version greater than 3.3, if
> you're planning to use it with vista.
> With test machine, you won't break anything in working configuration
and
> will check it's compatibility with new windows versions.
>
> I personally use `3.5.3` with windows xp and seven in my local network. The
> server with samba acts as domain controller and there are no any issues
with
> xp nor seven.
Okay, I'll look into installing a backports version,then...

>
> The current .tdb files must be in a different location on Debian Lenny
> Samba 3.2.5.  /var/cache/samba is another common place.  Try
>
>    testparm -sv | grep directory
Or

find / -name \*.tdb -print
>
>
>
> In Samba 3.4 the "state directory" and "cache
directory" parameters
> tell
> you where to find them.  Can't remember now if they were there in 3.2.
> If not, use
>
>    smbd -b | less
>
> and look for STATEDIR and CACHEDIR in the Samba build options.
>
>
> Moray.
> "To err is human.  To purr, feline"
>
>
>
>
>
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