samba - May 2012 - Splitting up directories with Samba variables

In my smb.conf file, I currently I have a user share definition as:


[userdir]
     path = /samba/%U
     writeable = yes

The problem is, the user pool is in the tens of thousands, so it is not 
practical to have that many directories within /samba.
I'd like to somehow dynamically configure the path with subdirectories, 
using the first, and second letter of the username as the first and 
second nested subdirectory.
So the share path for username  "JOHN" would point dynamically to  
/samba/J/O/JOHN.

Does anyone know how to accomplish this using the user session variable 
%U?  Is there any concept of using a sub-string for a Samba variable?

On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 10:16:47PM -0500, Heather Choi
wrote:
> In my smb.conf file, I currently I have a user share definition as:
> 
> 
> [userdir]
>     path = /samba/%U
>     writeable = yes
> 
> The problem is, the user pool is in the tens of thousands, so it is
> not practical to have that many directories within /samba.
> I'd like to somehow dynamically configure the path with
> subdirectories, using the first, and second letter of the username
> as the first and second nested subdirectory.
> So the share path for username  "JOHN" would point dynamically to
> /samba/J/O/JOHN.
> 
> Does anyone know how to accomplish this using the user session
> variable %U?  Is there any concept of using a sub-string for a Samba
> variable?
No, there's no way I can think of to do this. Anyone else
have any good ideas ?