a writable file server

(Written by Paul Cobbaut, https://github.com/paulcobbaut/)

In this second example, we will create a share where everyone can create files and write to files. Again, we start by creating a directory

[root@linux samba]# mkdir -p /srv/samba/writable
[root@linux samba]# chmod 777 /srv/samba/writable/

There are two parameters to make a share writable. We can use read only or writable. This example shows how to use writable to give write access to a share.

writable = yes

And this is an example of using the read only parameter to give write access to a share.

read only = no

Then we simply add a share to our file server by editing smb.conf. Below the check with testparm. (We could have changed the description of the server...)

[root@linux samba]# testparm
Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
Processing section "[pubwrite]"
Processing section "[pubread]"
Loaded services file OK.
Server role: ROLE_STANDALONE
Press enter to see a dump of your service definitions

[global]
    netbios name = TEACHER0
    server string = Public Anonymous File Server
    security = SHARE

[pubwrite]
    comment = files to write
    path = /srv/samba/writable
    read only = No
    guest ok = Yes

[pubread]
    comment = files to read
    path = /srv/samba/readonly
    guest ok = Yes

test connection with windows

We can now test the connection on a windows 2003 computer. We use the net use for this.

C:\>net use L: \\teacher0\pubwrite
net use L: \\teacher0\pubwrite
The command completed successfully.

test writing with windows

We mounted the pubwrite share on the L: drive in windows. Below we test that we can write to this share.

L:\>echo hoi > hoi.txt

L:\>dir
 Volume in drive L is pubwrite
 Volume Serial Number is 0C82-272A

 Directory of L:\

21/01/2009  06:11    <DIR>          .
21/01/2009  06:11    <DIR>          ..
21/01/2009  06:16                 6 hoi.txt
               1 File(s)              6 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  13.496.238.080 bytes free

How is this possible ?

Linux (or any Unix) always needs a user account to gain access to a system. The windows computer did not provide the samba server with a user account or a password. Instead, the Linux owner of the files created through this writable share is the Linux guest account (usually named nobody).

[root@linux samba]# ls -l /srv/samba/writable/
total 4
-rwxr--r-- 1 nobody nobody 6 Jan 21 06:16 hoi.txt

So this is not the cleanest solution. We will need to improve this.

practice: writable file server

1. Create a directory and share it with Samba.

2. Make sure everyone can read and write files, test writing with smbclient and from a Microsoft computer.

3. Verify the ownership of files created by (various) users.

solution: writable file server