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Request: Enable defining also subdirectories of shares as network media servers
#1
Up front: UAPP's feature to define network shares as media servers is a great one, in particular because it just does "play from directory", but does not try to put the audio tracks found on the network share into its music library which is an awfully lengthy process (as Neutron does ...).

My use case: Android Digital Audio Player (Cayin N8ii with Android 9), one laptop with Windows 8.1, one with Linux openSUSE Tumbleweed. All on my home network. Both laptops provide collections of audio files residing on their hard disks. I have defined network shares on each laptop, where the music is organized by well-structured directories underneath the shares' top directories. I want to access the two network shares from the Android DAP in UAPP via Samba, preferentially via Samba V2/V3. The Windows and Linux machines are set up appropriately.

I do find that the simplest configurations work in UAPP, but a more complex one not really.

(1) Samba V1: Defining network media servers in UAPP via Samba V1 works. I can define a string like
    smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName
or
    smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName/Dir1/Dir2/
in order to access the share's top directory or anything underneath.
Actually, I have to enter smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName/Dir1/Dir2// with TWO / at the end, where the last / gets discarded upon hitting OK in the network definition dialog.
Looks suspicious already.

(2) Samba V2/V3: Defining network media servers in UAPP via Samba V2/V3 works in a restricted manner. I can define the server and share names like
    smb://192.168.178.nnn
    MyShareName
to access the share's top directory successfully.
However, I cannot specify a subdirectory as in
    smb://192.168.178.nnn
    MyShareName/Dir1/Dir2/
or anything like that in order to access anything located underneath. The error message displayed upon trying to access such a deeper directory presents some scrambled string for what it is trying to access. E.g. something like ...Dir2/smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName/Dir1/Dir2/, which seems to indicate an issue in string building.

Please consider this as a feature suggestion: I would like to define subdirectories of the network share as my media servers, since the share's top directory contains both relevant music and irrelavant other things in separate directories and subdirectories.

Addendum: Total Commander on my Android DAP is able to define anything as a network drive, for all SMB versions in the same way. Just define
    smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName
or
    smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName/Dir1/Dir2/
This works in particular for Samba V3.

Thanks a lot in advance for considering this request when your time allows.
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#2
(07-21-2022, 04:59 PM)111MilesToGo Wrote: Up front: UAPP's feature to define network shares as media servers is a great one, in particular because it just does "play from directory", but does not try to put the audio tracks found on the network share into its music library which is an awfully lengthy process (as Neutron does ...).

My use case: Android Digital Audio Player (Cayin N8ii with Android 9), one laptop with Windows 8.1, one with Linux openSUSE Tumbleweed. All on my home network. Both laptops provide collections of audio files residing on their hard disks. I have defined network shares on each laptop, where the music is organized by well-structured directories underneath the shares' top directories. I want to access the two network shares from the Android DAP in UAPP via Samba, preferentially via Samba V2/V3. The Windows and Linux machines are set up appropriately.

I do find that the simplest configurations work in UAPP, but a more complex one not really.

(1) Samba V1: Defining network media servers in UAPP via Samba V1 works. I can define a string like
    smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName
or
    smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName/Dir1/Dir2/
in order to access the share's top directory or anything underneath.
Actually, I have to enter smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName/Dir1/Dir2// with TWO / at the end, where the last / gets discarded upon hitting OK in the network definition dialog.
Looks suspicious already.

(2) Samba V2/V3: Defining network media servers in UAPP via Samba V2/V3 works in a restricted manner. I can define the server and share names like
    smb://192.168.178.nnn
    MyShareName
to access the share's top directory successfully.
However, I cannot specify a subdirectory as in
    smb://192.168.178.nnn
    MyShareName/Dir1/Dir2/
or anything like that in order to access anything located underneath. The error message displayed upon trying to access such a deeper directory presents some scrambled string for what it is trying to access. E.g. something like ...Dir2/smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName/Dir1/Dir2/, which seems to indicate an issue in string building.

Please consider this as a feature suggestion: I would like to define subdirectories of the network share as my media servers, since the share's top directory contains both relevant music and irrelavant other things in separate directories and subdirectories.

Addendum: Total Commander on my Android DAP is able to define anything as a network drive, for all SMB versions in the same way. Just define
    smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName
or
    smb://192.168.178.nnn/MyShareName/Dir1/Dir2/
This works in particular for Samba V3.

Thanks a lot in advance for considering this request when your time allows.

In the SMBv2/v3 case, I am obviously trying to do something not allowed by Samba on Linux. My Linux machine reports the Samba log (smbd.log) as:
Code:
[2022/07/25 08:15:56.239452,  0] ../../source3/smbd/server.c:1741(main)
  smbd version 4.16.1-git.235.f435da606f7SUSE-oS15.9-x86_64 started.
  Copyright Andrew Tridgell and the Samba Team 1992-2022
[2022/07/25 10:15:05.669386,  0] ../../source3/param/loadparm.c:3429(process_usershare_file)
  process_usershare_file: share name MyShareName/Dir1/Dir2/ contains invalid characters (any of %<>*?|/\+=;:",)
Maybe there is a way to achieve connecting to subdirectories of a share by some other means in Samba V2/V3.

Also obviously, Samba V1 has been less restrictive - but Samba V1 is as dead as can be...
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