Article

by Dewey Hylton

Problem:

Easily integrating your Linux host into a Windows environment ...

Solution:

This solution allows one to very easily navigate any number of windows/samba servers and shares with any file management application (and from the shell).

1. Add a line to /etc/auto.master to base your network mounts on, and point to its configuration file - such as:
   

   /mydomain /etc/auto.mydomain

2. Create the host-level configuration for that mount point (place in /etc/auto.mydomain for this example, all on one line):
   

   * -fstype=autofs,-Dhost=& file:/etc/auto.mydomain.sub

3. Create the share-level configuration (on two lines in /etc/auto.mydomain.sub in this example):
   

   * ${host}:/&
   *     -fstype=smbfs,workgroup=mydomain,uid=myuser,credentials=/home/myuser/.smb/mydomain ://${host}/&
   

4. Create your credentials file:
   

   touch /home/myuser/.smb/mydomain 
   chmod /home/myuser/.smb/mydomain
   echo  > /home/myuser/.smb/mydomain 'username = myuser'
   echo >> /home/myuser/.smb/mydomain 'password = mypassword'

5. Restart autofs:
   

   /etc/init.d/autofs restart

6. Test/use the new configuration:
   

   ls /mydomain/somewindowshost/somesharename
   ls /mydomain/smbhost2/othershare/directory

A very cool aspect of this configuration is that root access is no longer needed after the configuration has been made. The end-user has ownership of the credentials file, and that file is referenced every time a mount is made. That means the user can simply edit the credentials file after changing the windows/samba password, and new mounts will utilize the new password.

Environment:

prerequisites:

• recent linux distribution
• smbfs/cifs kernel module
• samba client
• autofs