Network File Sharing

**Coral_Sea** · 09-28-2003, 04:00 PM

Given that Samba can do anything that NFS can plus Samba lets you share files with Windows boxes (which NFS cannot do), if you use NFS or both Samba and NFS, why?

**Stuart** · 09-28-2003, 05:16 PM

I use samba because I have one Linux box, and one Windows box on my lan, and I need to have those files available (there are various mp3s and oggs on each box)

**Schotty** · 09-29-2003, 12:38 AM

I use NFS or openafs (ibms nfs like tool).

NFS is perfect for unix environments. Openafs has a win32 client that works on any NT flavor. so that would be ideal if you have an nt4, 2000, or xp box around that is in the sharing mood.

I only use smb for my windows friends. Even that, I can usually just use nautilus and do "smb://" and get any files. Or they can sftp it off.

**Coral_Sea** · 09-29-2003, 01:26 AM

[quote author=Schotty link=board=4;threadid=7831;start=0#msg71631 date=1064795916]
...just use nautilus and do "smb://" and get any files.
[/quote]

I didn't know you could do that with Nautilus. But, if you want to access the Unix file system from Windows, you need Samba, don't you? Unless you want to buy a Windows NFS client (I think Hummingbird used to sell one).

I've used NFS before to share files between Linux boxes but when I found out that Samba can do the same thing (and is easier to configure and use, IMHO), I dropped NFS.

I'll have to try that little trick with Nautilus.

**Schotty** · 09-29-2003, 03:20 AM

I would reccomend then to check out ibm's openafs. The benefits of NFS are there, cleaned up the downfalls, and it does work with NT based windows flavors.

**demian** · 09-29-2003, 01:16 PM

When it comes to *nix to *nix file sharing it's strictly nfs for me. I do have samba running and actually that's what's used by most people (all our 100+ workstations are windows boxes). But I would never even consider using samba to share files between *nix machines. That's like running Linux on a vfat filesystem so that you can access it with windows...

I just trust nfs more than I ever could trust samba. It's mature, it's well tested, it's a native Unix tool. I've had too many weird things happen with permission screw-ups and the like when using samba.

**Coral_Sea** · 10-04-2003, 04:12 AM

[quote author=demian link=board=4;threadid=7831;start=0#msg71669 date=1064841374]
But I would never even consider using samba to share files between *nix machines. That's like running Linux on a vfat filesystem so that you can access it with windows...
I've had too many weird things happen with permission screw-ups and the like when using samba.
[/quote]
For my small home LAN, Samba is okay. I've experienced permission conflicts but it hasn't been too bothersome for what I use it for. Definitely sounds like NFS is the way to go for secure 'nix to 'nix vs. Samba but I'll stick with just Samba for simplicity.