Docu: Samba shares and hardlinks

[buhtz]

Introduction

Welcome to the project, if you pick up this Issue because of the
"GOOD FIRST USE" label. You will be mentored through the process if you
want. First the Issue is explained. At the end you will find some
guidance for first contributors. Please do not hesitate to ask questions.
Your solution don't need to be perfect.

Participation or contribution is not recommended unless you are familiar with Back In Time and are an active user. This project is not intended for learning basic Python skills or enhancing your profile at Microsoft GitHub.

Problem

It us currently unclear if and how Back In Time can interact with a Samba share as a backup destination. The question is if hardlinks are possible on a Samba share. And also if there are other issues to consider when using a Samba share as backup destination.

It is uncommon but seems to be possible to configure Samba that way that it can handle hardlinks. See https://superuser.com/q/855946/486099

Solution

Explore this behavior and document it.
Documentation can be done here in the issue or in the user manual (folder "doc/manual").

Your next steps

1. If this is your first contribution in this project please introduce
   your self and tell us about your skills, wishes and plans. Also let us
   know how you found the issue and the project.
2. Read the existing contributors documentation.
3. We can develop the next steps in the further discussion. Don't hesitate to ask.

[Sean-fn]

Hello, team! I'm excited to contribute to this project.

My background is primarily in Python, with more focus on machine learning, particularly in:

• Computer vision
• Natural language processing
• Using PyTorch for image generation and LLMs

I also have extensive experience with:

• Linux environments
• Containerization tools

I found this issue though the good first issue topic on Github page.
I'm eager to learn and grow alongside this community. I appreciate the mentorship offered and look forward to collaborating with the team.

Thank you for this opportunity, and I'm looking forward to getting started!

[buhtz]

Hello Sean,
thank you for your message and your efforts.

From my point of view everything is described in my initial post. So you could just start. But don't hesitate to ask if something is not clear.

It is a documentation issue, no coding need to be done. You are free to add your research findings as a simple text here in this issue or open a Pull Request. Depending on how long the text will be in the ending you could add a section to the FAQ.md, or you dive into the users manual in doc/manual/src and add a new md file there. We can modify the location or details in the text later together. The main work is doing research about BIT use cases with Samba involved.

The background of this issue is that we often do get support requests from users using Samba shares. We don't recommend Samba and don't use it by its own. Because of that we are not sure what works with Samba and how Samba should be configured when used with BIT. My suggestion is to setup some virtual machines and doing some manual testing what is possible and what are the edge cases. I also found the superuser-comment I linked to very interesting.

Best
Christian