Subject: That old alias thing again

From: [email-masked] (Lee Blevins)
Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 08:26:46 -0400

Will the broken alias thing ever be fixed?

I keeps netatalk from ever being a serious fileserver for my company.

Why hasn't this got the attention it should?

Netatalk is the only AFP that has this problem that I know of.

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From: Axel Rose <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 17:50:04 +0200

The only solution there is besides having a HFS on the server
is to build and maintain a database recording IDs for each file.
A HFS disk ensures permanent IDs. Otherwise only a database can.

With the commercial software packages it took also quite a while
until this was stable. Furthermore it needs careful administration.

Don't forget that aliases are used internally in documents of
all kind.

I'd love to hear that such a server desktop database is considered
by developers. If not you will inevitably end with corrupted
Quark files for instance if the IDs change by a remount, a restart
or whatever.

A probable solution would involve another set of netatalk owned files,
more configuration, another server daemon, a lot of work and in the
beginning surely more user frustration compared to the few who actually
complain about alias problems now. I don't know anything about the
development resources but can imagine that arguments are there ...

Best,
Axel.

>Netatalk is the only AFP that has this problem that I know of.

Well - others had their problems too ...

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Axel Rose                               "Was man nicht weiß,
   Springer & Jacoby                        das eben braucht man.
   Digital GmbH & Co. KG                    Und was man weiß,
   mailto:[email-masked]                       kann man nicht brauchen."

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From: [email-masked] (Lee Blevins)
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2001 10:53:40 -0400

> development resources but can imagine that arguments are there ...

So for those of us in proffessional prepress netatalk remains just a
curiosity and not a contender for a file server.

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From: Axel Rose <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2001 17:40:29 +0200

Hello Lee,

>curiosity and not a contender for a file server.

Agreed.
The alias problem is much more important than the OPI functionality
promised for the future. It's a nightmare to watch for corrupted files
and to know that after a restart due to a power failure users start
to complain about all sorts of problems with their documents.

In prepress departments it's quite normal to directly access files on
the server, not copying them to a local hard disk and back, which would
make no problems with aliases.

The next trouble is that you won't see changes in the Finder when
you move files into a shared volume from Unix. Users have to reopen
a folder to see that change. Imagine an automatic restoration from
a tape library. This works under Unix, uses tar and moves the file
into a destination folder.
(call it "that old refresh thing again")

I operate a distiller server papd->lpd->ghostscript->pdf file in a
netatalk shared volume. All the time you got to reopen the destination
volume/folder to find your distilled file.

If on the other hand you just store e.g. PDF/Word/jpeg/html files, share
with PC clients, netatalk is a great tool in my eyes. So please don't
get me wrong. If netatalk evolves commercial providers are enforced
to give better value than they do in the moment under certain aspects.

Best regards,
Axel.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Axel Rose, Springer & Jacoby Digital GmbH & Co. KG, mailto:[email-masked]
  pub PGP key 1024/A21CB825 E0E4 BC69 E001 96E9  2EFD 86CA 9CA1 AAC5
     "If this be error, and upon me proved, I never writ."

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From: jeff <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 09:38:21 -0400

> curiosity and not a contender for a file server.

I understand your doubts about netatalk, but we're currently finishing 
up a possible solution for the persistent alias problem that netatalk 
has been having, which will be ready for the 1.5 release. Grab the CVS 
version from sourceforge and submit some bug reports if you can.

Thanks,
Jeff

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From: [email-masked] (Lee Blevins)
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 18:56:37 -0400

> version from sourceforge and submit some bug reports if you can.

It didn't compile on freebsd 3.2. I realize that's an old version. 

Does it require 4.x?

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From: "Chris Herrmann" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 09:09:25 +1000

Just a curious question, more than anything. for those fearless souls out
there, how worthwhile would it be for us to cruise the cvs repository, and
grab nightly releases there, rather than just grabbing 1.5pre6 and
complaining about the same bugs...

I see 1.5pre7 was just released too! woohoo! going to have a play with it
now...

Cheers all,

Chris

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From: Ian Wojtowicz <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 01:26:09 -0700

I keep getting the following message in my log file:

ad_refresh: can't parse AppleDouble header.

Any ideas what the cause of the problem might be? I've tried deleting my
.AppleDouble directories in order to let netatalk recreate them, but that
doesn't seem to help.

I'm using Netatalk 1.4b2.

___________________________________________________________________________
ian wojtowicz                                          http://bitmovers.com

Bitmovers produces the best tool currently available
for online application development. Get your copy at:

         http://maui.bitmovers.com

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From: "Jason Quigley" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 15:01:12 +0200

Hi Chris!

Where did you find the announcement about 1.5pre7?

Thanks,
Jason.