No support for SMB shares on Linux, even via kio-fuse?

[colin_e]

I have a Linux (Debian) home server that exports a bunch of folders as SMB (Samba) shares, along with multiple Windows PCs as clients.

I am now switching to Linux (KDE Neon). As a long time FreeFileSync user I naturally installed the Linux version of FFS.

On Windows I don't have to pre-mount anything, I can just use a UNC path, of the form (\\servername\sharename\...) on either side of a comparison, and I can run a sync against that directory.


However, FFS doesn't show the

Network


option when you browse for files, and dragging an

smb:/


filepath from Dolphin just tries to create a new directory in the FFS installation directory, which looks like a very bad idea.

It appears that FFS has lost it's native support for SMB in the Linux version (neither

smb:// urls


or the

\\servername


syntax works). The KDE desktop also has another option, the

kio-fuse


driver that supports automounting of "foreign" filesystems, but FFS is not taking advantage of that either.

This sounds like a common use case, or at least one that will become more common as the exodus from Windows (hopefully) builds. Any chance of it being handled better in FreeFileSync?

[Plerry]

Seems strongly related to viewtopic.php?t=11895

[colin_e]

It is related to Topic 11895 as you say. The one extra piece of information I would add is that most variants of Linux _can_ do what's described there as a workaround for MacOS, i.e. you poke around with a tool such as a file browser (e.g. Dolphin or Thunar) to prompt the system to auto-mount the remote filesystem, then you poke around some more to find the mount point, and then you can point FFS at the mount point and far as it's concerned it's a local directory, the other OS or desktop environment tools are doing all the work.

However-

1) These mount points are ephemeral. They will typically disappear at the end of a login session, and be created at different locations in a future session, so saved FFS sync specs will not work.

2) FFS itself will probably not be able to prompt the auto-mounting process, so you have to use the file browser or some other tool first to get the remote shares mounted before FFS will work.

3) It's unlikely you'll get any help with retention of authentication credentials, so you'll have to re-log in to the remote system for every session

The Windows edition of FFS resolves all these problems because it supports the SMB protocol natively. Remote sync dirs over SMB, potentially using UNC paths "just work". This is a big deal in terms of the value FFS brings to managing mixed networks.

In Linux you can mitigate some of these issues, especially if your network is small and relatively stable, e.g. either by permanently mounting the SMB shares on local mount points, or more exotic solutions using auto-mounting. However it's a lot of "plumbing" to do by hand, and disappointing when the Windows version deals with this so much better.