Samba Problem (opening in read only)

[nellyneils008]

Hi All,
Got a problem with my samba..its installed on Suse 11.4.
All shares are set up well and seem to be working fine.
My problem is, when someone works on a document and saves normally, and then closes the document, another person with full access to that document cant open it. It rather opens in Read Only mode..looks like the document shows that its still open on the other side..yet its really closed.
Is there any solution for this?

Thank You In Advance.

[ktech11]

What application are they using to open the document? Sometimes Microsoft Office documents will open as read-only from a share and the user simply has to click on enable editing. If office thinks the document could cause a security problem, it will open this way.

[its_really_me]

would be good to see the smb.conf file while the problem sounds a bit odd. Couple of questions:
- can a user create a file?
- can a user delete a file?
- the documnet opens for write with one user but not then after from another user. Can the same user open it again?
- what OS is user 1 and user 2 on?

I am thinking of creation and deletion of temp files, maybe hidden ...

[chebarbudo]

Hey nellyneils008,

One thing you can do when a doc appears open (even though it's closed) is to run the following command on the server : smbstatus.
It will give you the current locks. You will then now if the doc appears locked because samba believes it or because the client invented it.

Regards
Santiago

[nellyneils008]

Hi,
Thank you for you responses...
First, both users are using windows xp SP2 machines and they are always working on word and excel documents.
The folder where the documents are is a public folder and all users have full Read & Write permissions. They can create and delete files normally. Problem is, if one user has worked on the document and closes it, the other user who opens in there and then can't edit and save normally. It indicates that the document is in use and they can only 'save as'.
Im wondering if its the SUSE OS.., ive worked with samba for a few years and i had never come across such a problem.

[chebarbudo]

Hi nellyneils008,

Can you please give more consistent data like command output?
As I previously said, have you tried to run smbstatus when a doc looks locked and shouldn't be?
Can you please post the result of :
ls -l before and after a user has worked on a file.
smbstatus before and after a user has worked on a file.

Regards
Santiago

[atreyu]

My problem is, when someone works on a document and saves normally, and then closes the document, another person with full access to that document cant open it. It rather opens in Read Only mode..looks like the document shows that its still open on the other side..yet its really closed.
Is there any solution for this?

have you tried setting ACL permissions on the directory itself, at the system level? it seems to me like adding all samba users to one system group, then making that group the group owner of the dir, then using setfacl to make sure all new files created in that dir are writable/owned by that group would do it.

See the setfacl and getfacl man pages for info and examples on how to use it.