1Date: February 26, 1999
2
3Subject: smbmount / smbmnt / smbumount
4=============================================================================
5
6The Samba-Team wishes to make known that the above programs are a part of
7the SMBFS software package for the Linux operating system. They are very
8definitely NOT part of Samba and are in general NOT supported by the
9Samba-Team.
10
11In repsonse to flames to comp.protocols.smb and to feedback to
12samba@samba.org we wish to place on record that the reason for which
13these programs have not received the attention that some folks expect
14from the Samba-Team is as stated above, they are NOT part of samba.
15
16Out of empathy for the Samba user base we have taken the liberty of
17including patched source code for the above "SMBFS package" utilities
18in the Samba tarball.
19
20Mike Warfield is temporary caretaker of SMBFS and may be contacted at
21mike@samba.org.
22
23In deference to the fact that these programs are NOT part of Samba
24the default binary packaging facilities included in the samba tarball
25do NOT automatically create the updates needed for the Linux 2.2.x
26kernel. If you require the updated smbmount / smbmnt / smbumount tools
27then it will be necessary to modify the samba2.spec file to include
28the --with-smbmount option to the samba "configure" script _AND_
29you will need to add these files to the appropriate locations in the "install"
30and "files" sections also. The platform specific RPM SPEC files that you
31will need to modify may be found under ~samba/packaging/"platform".
32
33The Samba-Team has considered the alternatives. These are:
34	1) Include all SMBFS code with Samba:
35		- rejected because we do not have the resources to support it.
36		- SMBFS is specific and limited to Linux
37	2) Just build the smbmount / smbmnt / smbumount binaries:
38		- doing this will break RPM dependencies for the SMBFS package
39		- this is not a good option either
40	3) Encourage people to use the "smbsh" utility that is part of samba
41		and is being developed to replace the need for "SMBFS"
42		- this is portable to platforms other than Linux
43		- it allows each user to authenticate as themselves instead
44		  of allowing all users to use an SMB session that is
45                  authenticated as just one user.
46
47We have chosen the later and hope that our users will understand and support
48the decision that has been made.
49
50For and on behalf of the Samba-Team
51John H Terpstra
52