Implementing Cifs: The Common Internet File System

-- Part of the Bruce Perens' Open Source Series.

This book covers the workings of Microsoft's filesharing system, CIFS. The large installed base of Windows systems has granted de facto standard status to the CIFS protocol suite. It lets programs make requests for files and services on remote computers on

-- Part of the Bruce Perens' Open Source Series.

This book covers the workings of Microsoft's filesharing system, CIFS. The large installed base of Windows systems has granted de facto standard status to the CIFS protocol suite. It lets programs make requests for files and services on remote computers on the Internet. Unfortunately, implementation documentation and detailed protocol specifications are scarce, incomplete, or inconsistent. This is a problem both for network administrators and third-party CIFS implementors and so the need for this book is clear. This book gathers together and presents -- in a readable, accessible form -- the arcane knowledge of the Samba Team in understanding the CIFS protocol. The content is based on years of experience asking and answering questions on the Samba Technical and jCIFS Developer's mailing lists, as well as countless hours spent pouring over obscure documentation, packet traces, and source code. The approach is layered with basic concepts first introduced and then discussed before drilling down into the actual workings and internals.