Symbolic Links and smb mounts

[pedzsan]

On my truenas server, I have symblic links. I created the links first on my Mac and then did an rsync to truenasath so it did not use a SMB mount point. The result on the truenas server is as I expect. e.g. `ls -l` lists the symbolic links and the paths that they link to.

I then mount the truenas file system via SMB onto the Mac client. The Mac client is running 15.2. The truenas server is running a version of BSD. The underlying file system is ZFS.

From the Mac client, I can not see any symbolic links at all. I can't see them via the command `ls -l` nor via the Finder. It is like the symbolic links can not be represented by the SMB protocol. I assume this is normal but I'm surprised that I am just now discovering this fact. I've used Macs and remote file servers for decades.

Is all of the above "normal"? Is there any way to use symbolic links via SMB shares?

 

[Brian33]

It is like the symbolic links can not be represented by the SMB protocol.

I am not all that knowledgeable about the SMB protocol, but this doesn’t surprise me at all. It would be cool if SMB could do this, so I would love to be corrected.

Is there any way to use symbolic links via SMB shares?

One approach: after you mount the SMB share on the Mac, create a sparse bundle disk image. The disk image’s volume can be formatted either HFS+ or APFS per your preference. Then you can use rsync and symbolic links will work as expected within the dis image. This is the approach that Time Machine uses when the backup destination is on a remote file server or a Time Capsule device.

 

[NoBoMac]

Links are supported, but believe there are configuration file entries that need to be enabled to allow for it.

And, no, I do not know what they specifically are. It's been AGES since I had to mess with Samba and grateful that I don't have to do it lately (read: hair pulling exercise to get things working between different environments, platforms last time I messed with it).