[Personalbackup-users] Re: Problem resolving smb names

[Raf <mil...@ho...>]

Kind LinuxTuxie and list's Members

>> Where should I look for SmbClient module's
>> output errors?
> You could increase the debug level by setting the debug flag to '1' in the 
> file register.cgi on lines 481 and 492.
While I was going to change the DEBUG flag, I've seen the
following code line in register.cgi:

open (NMBLOOKUP, "$nmblookup -U $winsserver -R $machine |") || 
PBUtils->loginfo ("die", "$nmblookup -U $winsserver -R $machine failed.");

I'm not a Perl programmer, but I guessed this is an external
program call, like in Bash scripts ;-)
So I ran 'nmblookup -U localhost -R client' at
shell prompt and resulted in name resolve error.

Here is my environment:

SERVER
Linux Fedora Core 2
Personalbackup1.01 (CVS downloaded)
Samba with WINS support enabled

CLIENT:
WinXP Pro stand alone (no domain logon)
sharing a folder with "everybody full-control"
world readable

Here my idea: the WinXP machine doesn't
register itself to the WINS of Samba, so the
command 'nmblookup -U localhost' returns error.
But if I run 'nmblookup client' then the
name is resolved correctly.
Nmblookup, when -U option is given, doesn't
try to resolve the name with a broadcast 255, but
only thru the WINS server.

I tried to set the variable $winsserver to empty,
but the 'nmblookup -U -R client'
returns error, because it tries the 0.0.0.0 WINS server,
which actually doesn't exist.

If I modify the code with:

open (NMBLOOKUP, "$nmblookup $machine |") || PBUtils->loginfo ("die", 
"$nmblookup -U $winsserver -R $machine failed.");

the name is correctly resolved and I can add the share
to the backup list.
Of course the backup deamon still doesn't find the client;
it should be necessary to modify daemon script too.

In an environment where a WINS server doesn't exist,
Personalbackup would anyway try to use it, even if
the $winsserver variable is empty.
Moreover, if a WINS server exists, but a machine
isn't registered on it, its name will result unreachable
by Personalbackup.
It should be useful to try 'nmblookup nametoberesolved'
and then, if it fails, try to ask WINS server.

Regards

Raf

P.S.
Is it possible to add to the WISHLIST
the option to choose the backup start time
on a per-share basis?
Thank you.