Sharing non-media folders of an LMCE drive

[PeteK]

I've got a question that came up when I tried to copy some home movies (.avi) to a RAID array mounted on the core for RAID-protected storage.  I copied them over to one of the media directories, and updatemedia picked them up and added them to the database (something I didn't want).  As of 0710, I didn't think there was a good way to make updatemedia skip certain directories, so I wanted to add these files in a directory outside of the normally scanned directory structure.  That got me thinking that in the longer term, I'd like to use the RAID array that I've got on the core for some more 'general storage' (non-media, or at least non-permanent media) through Samba, and I'd like to map that directory through samba without breaking the current system.  I created a samba share of /mnt/device/[hard disk device number], but I don't think this is the best solution.   Does anyone have any advice they can offer?

Thanks,
-PeteK

[jondecker76]

Not the best solution, but did you try putting these files as a subdirectory and then doing a folder lock to force updatemedia to skip that folder? (see http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Folder_lock)

A more proper way would be to configure samba to share the folder, but this takes a bit of knowledge - plus LMCE never likes it when you try to mess around with files that it automatically configures for you. For this reason alone, I would think the easiest thing to do is just try the folder lock, even if it isn't the most proper way.

I've never tried it, but there is an option of using LMCE directory structure, or select other options such as a specific user or Public (this is the pk_users device data of the device)..  Maybe try setting this to public?

[PeteK]

I looked at doing this, but it's not very elegant.  For one thing, I would like not to have to go through the existing Samba shares to get to the directory  public->video->(raid disk)->file storage area.  I'd like to be just able to map a 'storage area' and give it seperarate directory/create masks.  I'm just concerned about breaking LMCE's disk mounting methods.

-PeteK

[jondecker76]

I agree that we need a feature to safely add samba shares.

For now, maybe do the folder lock, and take care of the elegance on the client end by either mounting the locked directly, or using a symbolic link etc.  Admittedly its an ugly hack.

I've never went through the samba share generating code - thats the place to start. It may be possible that adding to this doesn't break LMCE. Hopefully someone else here knows.