Configure Samba to Work Better with Mac OS X
Recommended fruit config
Below is a working recommended fruit config:
[Global] vfs objects = fruit streams_xattr fruit:metadata = stream fruit:model = MacSamba fruit:veto_appledouble = no fruit:nfs_aces = no fruit:wipe_intentionally_left_blank_rfork = yes fruit:delete_empty_adfiles = yes fruit:posix_rename = yes [TimeMachineBackup] fruit:time machine = yes # fruit:time machine max size = SIZE
Beware! This configures VFS objects in the global section, setting vfs objects in a share will *overwrite* the globally configured option, it will NOT supplement them.
Option details
Below are suggested parameters to use in smb.conf file of the Samba server to improve operability with Mac OS X clients. Note that some parameters may not work with your version of Samba - read the smb.conf and vfs_fruit man pages (on Linux) for your system. Other than those shown in the [TimeMachineBackup] share below, I recommend you include all parameters in the [Global] section of smb.conf. For ease of copy > paste, a clean smb.conf section is included at the bottom of this page.
[Global]
Apple extensions ("AAPL") run under SMB2/3 protocol, make that the minimum (probably shouldn't be running SMB1 anyway...) - defaults to SMB2_2 in Samba 4.11+:
min protocol = SMB2
Apple extensions require support for extended attributes(xattr) - defaults to yes in Samba 4.9+:
ea support = yes
Load in modules (order is critical!) and enable AAPL extensions:
vfs objects = fruit streams_xattr
How to store OS X metadata:
fruit:metadata = stream
For additional setting see the manpage vfs_fruit.
Server icon in Finder (added in Samba 4.5):
fruit:model = MacSamba
File cleanup:
fruit:veto_appledouble = no ...added in Samba 4.3 fruit:zero_file_id = yes ..added in Samba 4.8 fruit:wipe_intentionally_left_blank_rfork = yes fruit:delete_empty_adfiles = yes fruit:posix_rename = yes ...added in Samba 4.5
Time Machine may not work correctly without posix_rename. Time Machine appears to initially create a sparsebundle named with the file system UUID (something like 2C25DB10-6C01-598B-9C11-383D64CA7A37_2024-08-31-175707.sparsebundle). It then renames the entire bundle to your machine name (something like "My MacBook.sparsebundle"). With posix_rename set to no you may get the error "The backup disk image could not be created".
For Spotlight backend indexing using Elasticsearch (added in Samba 4.12):
[share] spotlight backend = elasticsearch
See smb.conf for 4.12 for other Elasticsearch parameters. Gnome tracker is still available (= tracker) or no indexing (= noindex), the default.
For Time Machine backup share (added in Samba 4.8):
[TimeMachineBackup] vfs objects = fruit streams_xattr fruit:time machine = yes
As far as I know, testparm will not validate vfs_fruit parameters. (my server runs an old version of Samba :-), but after you have built your smb.conf, you can check for errors anyway with #: testparm or #: testparm -v (which will give you the defaults as well.
From Finder, connect to your Samba server using "smb://User@Server".
Note that TM backups over smb may now be possible with your server.
Other Mac models can be found in "/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Info.plist". Use "Quick Look", Xcode or plutil to view or convert plist.
File Permission issues
Setting the global option fruit:nfs_aces = no will prevent macOS clients from modifying the UNIX mode of directories using NFS ACEs. An Access Control Entry (ACE) is part of the Access Control List (ACL).