Managing Files on a Mac from Windows client w/ TC?

alxwz · Post by *alxwz » 2005-12-23, 15:05 UTC

Hi all,

I run a Mac as my main file server (actually, a regular G3 blue/white configured as a desktop running OS X 10.2 Jaguar on HFS+ file system, serving files via Samba) while I usually use my Thinkpad running Win2000 and TC for everyday computing.

Because there's no adequate file manager for Mac, I want to manage all my files from TC running on the client.

Are there any problems to be expected with managing lots of files (gigabytes, largest single files several 100 MB), a big part of those Mac files and programs (data + resource forks)? I'm wondering if some bug might hit me, operation would be much slower than using a file manager on the target machine (does TC cache anything locally when operating with files on a remote computer?), resource forks could be damaged etc.

I have a lot of rearranging to do with those files and want to be on the safe side.
Any experiences?

Alex

majkinetor · Post by *majkinetor » 2005-12-23, 15:26 UTC

I guess it is a good news for you that Intel and Apple are now boy and girl.

2 Sam Zen [ot]
what do you think about that Sam Zen

alxwz · Post by *alxwz » 2005-12-23, 15:33 UTC

Apple and Intel - I don't think this will change anything. Especially as you can see by my configuration that I'm not after the latest and greatest

And I have the problem now. Want to combine several gig from three or four drives into a newly arranged files/folders structure.

And I can think of yet another potential problem: Unicode names for files and folders.

Sheepdog · Post by *Sheepdog » 2005-12-23, 15:52 UTC

Unicode may be a problem because Total Commander is a ANSI Program and uses ANSI names.

I never worked on a mac but I use extensively the network functions of TC. And I never faced a problem with those copy/move/delete functions in it.

The only disadvantage is the known problem when the network hangs (e.g. networkdrive is not available or anything) TC hangs too until windows reports the network connectuion is lost. That can take a few minutes sometimes. On the other hand - when the network connection is stable I had no problems.

sheepdog

BTW if you search the english forum for "samba problems" you get 15 hits. Maybe this could be of interest for you.

majkinetor · Post by *majkinetor » 2005-12-23, 17:29 UTC

Apple and Intel - I don't think this will change anything

Wrong! You will be able to run Mac software on PC and PC software on MAC without heavy emulators.

I am sorry I can't help you with MAC problem because I don't heave any beside me. I whish I have but... you can't heave everything you wont....

Sir_SiLvA · Post by *Sir_SiLvA » 2005-12-23, 21:07 UTC

majkinetor wrote:Wrong! You will be able to run Mac software on PC and PC software on MAC without heavy emulators.

Sure and ICFU is a greek goddess...

alxwz · Post by *alxwz » 2005-12-23, 22:30 UTC

Sheepdog wrote:Unicode may be a problem because Total Commander is a ANSI Program and uses ANSI names.

But as long as I only use "normal" characters (preferrably 7-bit-ASCII-compliant) I'm on the safe side?

Sheepdog wrote: BTW if you search the english forum for "samba problems" you get 15 hits. Maybe this could be of interest for you.

I get only 5 (besides this one). None of which is especially relevant in this case. My main concerns are working with Samba *and* a Mac counterpart which handles files very differently (many files split into resource and data forks as two "streams").

Please note that I *don't* want to transfer files to/from the server (at least that's not the point here) but only manage files/folders on the server. Will there be a slowdown compared to working directly (locally) on the server?

Sheepdog · Post by *Sheepdog » 2005-12-24, 01:19 UTC

But as long as I only use "normal" characters (preferrably 7-bit-ASCII-compliant) I'm on the safe side?

I would say that you only would possibly get problems if there are files/folders on the Mac with Unicode names that you'll try to move/copy.
As long as you create folders from within TC there should be no problem at all, because there are only functions used that don't use unicode.

But since I have no experience with a SAMBA server you would have to test it yourself (or someone else could tell you something about it.)

About the performance I just did a test:

Remote copying takes here about twice the time as local copying. Tested with 12 Mbyte files 8 sec local and 16 sec. remote.

Hope that helps a bit.

sheepdog

majkinetor · Post by *majkinetor » 2005-12-24, 08:38 UTC

@ Silvana

Sure and ICFU is a greek goddess...

We will se, my dear Silvana, we will see....

alxwz · Post by *alxwz » 2005-12-25, 00:19 UTC

Sheepdog wrote:I get the following links:
<snip: 15 links>

Yep, that's the difference between searching for "problem" vs. "problems".
BTW, when I search for "samba" and "problem", I get 27, both German and English. Strange.

Sheepdog wrote:I would say that you only would possibly get problems if there are files/folders on the Mac with Unicode names that you'll try to move/copy.
As long as you create folders from within TC there should be no problem at all, because there are only functions used that don't use unicode.
But since I have no experience with a SAMBA server you would have to test it yourself (or someone else could tell you something about it.)

Most of these names were created by the Mac which by default - I think - uses Unicode. I don't dare to just try it, as I don't have large enough hard drives to back all this up before the test, so it is a "live" operation. Personally, I stick to 7-Bit-ASCII-compliant names, but some substructures were created automatically (like saved websites), so I have no guarantee.
Not very encouraging.

Sheepdog wrote:About the performance I just did a test:
Remote copying takes here about twice the time as local copying. Tested with 12 Mbyte files 8 sec local and 16 sec. remote.

Interesting. Seems to meet my concerns. But what is it that makes remote copy/move operations slower than local ones on the server? At first sight, it should - since the real operation is done only on the server - take about the same time. I can't get a clue from past postings. Is it some kind of caching on the client? Maybe ghisler could shed some light on this?

Managing Files on a Mac from Windows client w/ TC?

Managing Files on a Mac from Windows client w/ TC?

Re: Managing Files on a Mac from Windows client w/ TC?