13 Preferences

This chapter lists all the preferences that are pertinent to EtherShare. Find a description of how to set, view, change or delete preferences, with the HELIOS utility programs "prefdump", "prefvalue", and "prefrestore", in the Base manual.

Important: Make sure that preference keys DO NOT start or end with a slash ("/") character, and note that they are case-sensitive! Also, if any preference key or preference value includes spaces, that key or value must be enclosed in quotes.

13.1 AFP server preference keys

(Requires a restart of the service (see "srvutil" in the Base manual) to take effect.)

This preference allows disabling the AFP 3.1 features for Mac OS X clients. Setting it to FALSE causes the server to connect Mac OS X clients via the AFP 2.2 protocol version.

This preference allows using clear text passwords on login. For Mac OS 7/8 compatibility reasons, the EtherShare UB default is TRUE which means that these Mac clients will be able to log on to the server.

If set to FALSE, the Change Password- option in the Mac Connect To Server- dialog will not be available. If the authentication server uses authentication against a system that does not support changing passwords, this preference will automatically change to FALSE.

If set to TRUE, the "Guest" option in the Mac Connect To Server- dialog becomes available. Otherwise it will appear grayed out and cannot be selected.

Specifies the AppleTalk (NVE) name of the file server. This is the name with which it is known to the network. Several names in a row, separated by a comma, are optional.

By default, new files and folders which were created via AFP will keep the ownership of the user who created it. As AFP 2.2 for Mac OS 8/9 clients does not support individual file permissions, changing this preference to TRUE brings back the EtherShare 2.6/3.1 behavior which inherits the file owner from its parent directory. TRUE/FALSE will only affect AFP 2.2 and AFP 3.1 volumes with disabled useunixperm preference (see "Preferences" in the Base manual).

Specifies the name of the AppleTalk zone(s) to which the file server should be allocated. The chosen zone must be one of the local zones that the server is connected to. You can test this with the zones -l command.

Specifies the number of "region locks" that the server allows simultaneously (if PCShare is installed on the same server it must be allocated the same settings).

The default for this preference is 10 * sessions, where sessions is equal to the number of units (clients) for which you bought your license.

Do not set this preference to an unnecessarily high value because this would increase HELIOS Services' requirement for UNIX system resources.

Specifies the maximum number of workstations (clients) that are permitted to work on the file server simultaneously. This value should normally be the same as the total number of Mac workstations that are connected to the AppleShare server. The value you choose should be less than or equal to the number of sessions allowed by your software license. The maximum tolerable number of workstations depends on the type of Mac applications you mostly use (whether they are file-intensive or client-server applications), on the configuration of your server system, and on its expansion stage. The default value for sessions is the number of sessions allowed by your software license.

Files which start with a dot (".") in their file name are marked to be "hidden" for all volumes on connected clients.

This preference specifies the maximum number of files that can be opened by one file server process simultaneously. The achievable maximum cannot exceed the maximum number of open files per process currently allowed by the host. To save system resources, do not set this value larger than set by the "ulimit" UNIX command.

"afpsrv" normally simulates Finder info (such as file type and creator) automatically for files without Mac resource. The file type is determined by inspecting the file's contents. This allows about 20 different icons to be shown for non-Mac files.

In the case of files created by Windows applications, the file type is typically indicated by adding a suffix to the file name, the so-called file name "extension". For example, DOS executable programs have the extension ".COM" or ".EXE" and DOS batch files have the extension ".BAT". Under EtherShare, suitable icons can be displayed for such files by specifying them in the extension mapping table. This is particularly useful in the case of Mac applications which are able to directly read documents created by the MS-DOS version without prior conversion. This preference allows you to specify the location and name of the extension mapping table.

Specifies the maximum number of AppleTalk data packets that are passed from "afpsrv" to workstations through the network during a transaction. The number of packets may need to be limited if the buffer size in the workstations is too small. localwinsize can be varied to optimize the data transfer rate.

Specifies the maximum number of AppleTalk data packets that are passed from workstations to "afpsrv" through the network during a transaction. The number of packets may need to be limited if the buffer size in the UNIX server is too small. remotewinsize can be varied to optimize the data transfer rate.

"afpsrv" normally simulates Finder info (such as file type and creator) automatically for files without Mac resource. The type of file is determined by inspecting the file's contents. This allows about 20 different icons to be shown for non-Mac files. Specify binonly if this feature is not required, in which case all non-Mac files will be treated as type DATA/UNIX, which means that UNIX text files will then become invisible to most Mac text editors.

Setting this preference to TRUE will prevent the AFP server from reading the header of each non-Mac file to determine its document type.

The login dialog in the Connect to Server accepts passwords of any length from 0 byte to max. 8 bytes. Short passwords may represent a security risk. A password of zero length is equivalent to no password. Specify minpwlen as a numeric value between 0 and 8. To improve security, a meaningful minimum value for this preference is 5.

As a time-saving feature when logging on, the AppleShare selection in the Connect To Server- dialog on the Mac lets you save your file server user name and/or user password on the Mac's local hard disk.

To improve security, set this flag to FALSE to disable the saving of user passwords in this way, in which case all users have to enter their password manually each time they log on to EtherShare.

The file server caches Finder information in RAM memory to optimize performance. findercache specifies the number of Finder entries to cache, and thus the amount of RAM needed that should be allocated for this purpose. Higher values require more RAM but lead to a file server speed improvement for some Finder operations.

Note: Each entry requires about 100 bytes of RAM. The cache is used by only one single "afpsrv" (i.e. client) at a time, since it cannot be shared.

Whenever you modify a Mac file, the changes you make do not necessarily affect both the data file and resource file, and in many cases only the data file is changed. "afpsrv" only checks the modification date of the data file when it needs to display date and time information in the Finder. Accordingly, "afpsrv" is designed to always update ("touch") the modification date of the data file, even if only the resource fork has been modified.

However, "afpsrv" does not normally update the modification date of the resource file if only the data fork has been modified. The modification date of the resource file is usually not important, even to incremental backup procedures, and updating it would waste system resources and slow down the file server somewhat. Nonetheless, situations may exist where differences between the modification date of the data and resource files can cause difficulties. Such situations are typically those involving automatic data migration to slower external storage.

Specify the filedatesync flag to cause "afpsrv" to always synchronize the modification date of the resource and data files, even if only the data fork has been modified.

This preference sorts the directories coming from the server to the Mac clients by name.

This preference specifies the default mode for new directories. The default value given above (0000) specifies the access rights and means that the owner has "Read, Write and Execute" rights for directories on the server.

This preference is only recognized by the server if the preference useunixperm (see Base manual) is not active (which is the default).

Important: If the integer value is preceded by a leading zero, this indicates an octal value. Do not leave the leading zero out! Otherwise the value is interpreted as a decimal number which will lead to incorrect results!

In the Mac OS file system only the owner of a folder or volume can permanently change the folder's layout, e.g. sorting order, icon placement and label settings. This feature has been added to allow workgroups, e.g. users who are all members of the same group, to change layout settings or labels according to the organization of their work.

By default, "afpsrv" will return the number of offsprings (entries in a subdirectory) as 9999 when enumerating a directory. This option can be turned off by using this flag set to FALSE. Then, the AFP call "GetFileDirParms" on a directory gives the real number of entries.

This feature is especially useful if folders containing many subfolders, which on their part may contain many files, are in use. The Mac Finder, or the application program, will not only request file information in the current folder but also on files in subfolders, although this information is currently not used. Therefore, this option may accelerate the opening and displaying of folders with many subfolders. There are few Mac applications which rely on the exact offspring count. For those, disabling of this preference may be required.

This preference will cause line end translation for all files of type "TEXT", without regard to creator.

The texttran flag has been added to "afpsrv" in order to turn off the newline translation for all types of text files. texttran set to FALSE will disable line end translation for all files of type "TEXT", without regard to creator.

This feature may be helpful in case Mac applications do write binary data into text files.

Note: Starting with Mac OS 9, client applications including the "Finder", do create/copy files on a server volume with a temporary type instead of the final type "TEXT". Only after writing the file completely, the temporary type is set to the final "TEXT" type. Due to this changed behavior, EtherShare can convert line endings only when they are read from the server, but not when files are stored on the server.

Specifies the time in seconds a Mac client is allowed to stay logged-on to "afpsrv".

Note: If port 548 is busy because the Apple file server has already connected to it, "afpsrv" connects to any free port and you can connect.
This does also work in the Mac OS 9 "Chooser". In the Mac OS 9 "Network Browser" it works, provided that you connect via AppleTalk > (Zone) > Hostname.

Specifies the maximum size of AFP TCP/IP data packets that are passed from "afpsrv" to workstations through the network during a transaction.

Specifies the time interval in seconds how often "afpsrv" checks the amount of free space on the server.

Specifies (in seconds) how often volstatinterval is communicated to the Mac client.

Specifies the IP address the "afpsrv" program offers to the Mac clients for logging in via IP-protocol. (If this value remains unspecified, i.e. empty, all IP addresses on all network interfaces are offered.)

This preference is applied for handling more than one
IP address, and is given out in a string in which the addresses are specified comma-separated.

Specifies the path of the file containing the access list with the IP addresses which are permitted to log on to "afpsrv".

If set to TRUE, this preference lets "afpsrv" append a record to the system messages if, due to the IP access list, access to one or more users has been denied.

Specifies the time interval in seconds after which "afpsrv" sends a tickle packet to signal that the server is still running.

Specifies the path to the "xfer.log" log file. If set, the file names of all files edited (written, read, saved, etc.) in HELIOS volumes are recorded and stored sequentially in an "xfer.log" file. In general, folder operations (new, move, rename), file moves within a volume, file name changes, and file deletions are not logged. Nor are operations under UNIX or from PC clients. Use this option with care since it causes considerable load on the server. This information is stored in the "xfer.log" file, in the same format as used by FTP server log files. Each server entry is composed of a single line, consisting of the fields described in the following table, with the fields separated by spaces. If the path to the file "xfer.log" points to the same log file (typically in "/usr/adm") as used by the FTP server daemon (ftpd(8)), and "ftpd" logging is enabled, then both FTP and "afpsrv" file operations can be recorded in the same log.

Note: Make sure an empty "xfer.log" file exists at the specified location and set file permissions sufficiently so that "owner", "group", and "others" can write to that file.

Setting this preference to TRUE (IP type of service: Low Delay) will let the host send IP-datagrams for "afpsrv" processes with higher priority and lower delay compared to IP-datagrams of other processes which did not set lowdelay. The exact behavior depends on the protocols configured queueing discipline.

13.2 AppleTalk preference keys

(Requires a restart of the service (see "srvutil" in the Base manual) to take effect.)

This preference causes an "ifconfig allmulti" command while configuring network interfaces.

This preference defines the AppleTalk network settings for the specified hardware network interface. The "if" preference value consists of a list of settings, separated by colons (see 13.2.1 "About the "if" and "nif" preferences"). The if value must be specified in UTF-8.

13.2.1 About the "if" and "nif" preferences

An entry of this type is required for each hardware interface (e.g. Ethernet). ifname is the name of the interface as known to the kernel. netno is the network number in the AppleTalk network. The network number must be specified as a range with a dash (e.g. 10-15); the interface will then automatically be configured by "atalkd" as a Phase II network with this number range.

snode is the starting node number at which "atalkd" starts to look for a free node for the EtherShare host on the AppleTalk network (dynamic node number allocation). By convention, servers in an AppleTalk network have node numbers higher or equal to 128 (EtherShare usually starts at 140). zonename is the name (or a list of names delimited by colon) of the AppleTalk zone for this interface.

The "le0" interface has been allocated the network number range 30-35. Compared to an outdated Phase I network, the maximum number of AppleTalk devices allowed on the network in the above example increases from 254 to
(35-30+1) * 254. You must not use the same network number range for more than one hardware interface.

The "installer" program automatically sets up preference values for the AppleTalk preference keys.

Note: If you see a Programs/atalkd/nif preference entry instead of Programs/atalkd/if, this indicates that the configuration has been edited by means of the "netconf" program, and that the interface stated here, has been set to inactive.

13.3 Mail server preference keys

(Requires a restart of the service (see "srvutil" in the Base manual) to take effect.)

This preference is the AppleTalk type of the Mail server. This is the type with which it is known to the network. type should normally be set to "MailServer".

This preference sets the AppleTalk (NVE) name of the Mail server. This is the name with which it is known to the network. Several names in a row, separated by a comma, are optional. The name value must be specified in UTF-8.

Specifies the name of the AppleTalk zone to which the Mail server should be allocated. The chosen zone must be one of the local zones that the host is connected to. You can test this with the zones -l command. The zone value must be specified in UTF-8.

Specifies the directory path to which all incoming mail is spooled. Outgoing mail is not spooled, since it is passed directly to the UNIX mail system.

Gives the interval in seconds with which the mail directory is polled for new mail. Usually, you use the "biff" program for mail notification instead, since you get immediate notification this way, and because "biff" needs less system overhead.

The Mail server only polls for mail at the time interval specified by mailinterval if "biff" has been disabled or is not available for some reason.

This preference is a string containing the official name (UNIX mail name) of your host. This is the name which users of other systems need to include in their mail address when they want to reach you. It is made up of a name (e.g. the host name "osiris") and the domain in which the host resides (e.g. "helios.de").

Specifies the name and path of a file containing a list of e-mail addresses. The list can be accessed by and maintained from Helios Mail. You can use it to save time when you often mail to the same people.

Is the name and path of the UNIX program used to send mail. You should normally use the "sendmail" program for this purpose. In some cases, you may need to use
"/usr/bin/mail" instead. However, you may encounter problems with the mail program, such as lack of 8-bit transparency. You need 8-bit transparency if you want to send mail containing national accented characters such as "umlauts". A character conversion table in the Mail server allows you to send mail containing "umlauts" to UNIX users, too.

This switch specifies whether or not to use the UNIX "biff" program for mail notification. "biff" is the preferred method, since it needs less system overhead than polling for mail. However, on some systems "biff" is already used by other programs such as "comsat", and may not be available for use by the Mail server. In this case, the Mail server automatically falls back to polling for mail.

If you want to release "biff" from "comsat" for use with the Mail server, bracket out the corresponding line in the UNIX configuration file "/etc/inetd.conf" by inserting a "#" at the start of the line.

Then re-initialize "inetd" with the command kill -1 <proc>, where <proc> is the process id of the "inetd" process. Finally, restart the Mail server with "srvutil". The usage is described in chapter 9.1 "srvutil" in the Base manual.

History: "Biff" was the name of a dog belonging to a Berkeley programmer who wrote part of the UNIX mail system. Biff used to bark each time the postman delivered a (conventional paper) letter to the door.

When you installed the HELIOS software, a new address book was automatically created as the empty UNIX text file "addressbook" in "HELIOSDIR/var/conf". You can add new addresses to the list with the New Address... function of Helios Mail. When you use the address book, normally you will also see all users of your UNIX host, including root, in addition to users you have included manually with the New Address... function. Specify FALSE to turn off this feature, in which case the address book will only show users who have been included manually.

If you check Save name in the Helios Mail login window, Helios Mail makes a note of your name, and the zone and name of the Mail server you want to use. Next time you start Helios Mail, you only need to enter your password. Furthermore, if you log on first to the EtherShare file server on the same host, you will not have to enter your name and password for either the Mail server or the "Mail Notification Feature" anymore. This is convenient, but presents a security risk if you leave your Mac unattended with volumes mounted - even if you have quit Helios Mail, others can start it again and have access to your mailbox without needing to type in any password. Specify FALSE to force Helios Mail to ask for a password each time it is started. This is like deactivating the Save name box in the Helios Mail login window, but applies to all Helios Mail users on that host. In this case do not forget to always deselect Save password in the same window.

Specifies the maximum number of data packets that are passed from "mailsrv" to workstations through the network during a transaction. The number of packets may need to be limited if the buffer size in the workstations is too small. This preference can be varied to optimize the data transfer rate.

Specifies the maximum number of data packets that are passed from workstations to "mailsrv" through the network during a transaction. The number of packets may need to be limited if the buffer size in the UNIX host is too small. This preference can be varied to optimize the data transfer rate.

Specifies the path of the UNIX vacation program. It is required if you want to make use of the Helios Mail vacation message option. For details about the vacation program and the ".vacation.msg" file, see the respective UNIX man pages.

13.4 PAP server preference keys

(Requires a restart of the service (see "srvutil" in the Base manual) to take effect.)

This preference specifies the AppleTalk type of the PAP Server. This is the type with which it is known to the network. type should normally be set to "LaserWriter".

Specifies the AppleTalk (NVE) name of the PAP Server. This is the name with which it is known to the network. Several names in a row, separated by a comma, are optional.

Specifies the name of the AppleTalk zone(s) to which the PAP-Server should be allocated. Thus it determines the zone in which the print server can be seen in the Connect To Server- dialog. The chosen zone must be one of the local zones that the server is connected to. We strongly recommend to test this using the UNIX command zones -l. The zone value must be specified in UTF-8.

Address of the master TCP port. All active TCP printers (printers with active tcpname and TCPPublish flag) can be reached via this port. If the port number is set to 0 the master TCP port is deactivated.

entity is the name:type@zone of the printer (e.g. printer1:LaserWriter@HELIOS) with which it is known to the AppleTalk network. This name is not the same as the AppleTalk name of the printer queue. Note that if print jobs are sent from workstations directly to the printer, they bypass the printer queue, and thus do not gain the advantages of spooling, "prep" file management, etc. This preference reflects the settings from the HELIOS Admin Type, Zone, and Name menus.

Specifies the maximum number of data packets that are passed from "papif" to the printer through the network during a transaction. The number of packets may need to be limited if the buffer size in the printer is too small. This preference can be varied to optimize the data transfer rate.

Specifies the maximum number of data packets that are passed from the printer to "papif" through the network during a transaction. The number of packets may need to be limited if the buffer size in the host is too small. This preference can be varied to optimize the data transfer rate.

Specifies an IP address for the master TCP port. The "papsrv" will listen on this interface for TCP connections to the printers and registers its TCP printers for this address.

13.5 "papif" preference keys

Note: If the option Hide Printer is active, the entry "LaserWriter" becomes "LaserShare".

13.6 Terminal server preference keys

(Requires a restart of the service (see "srvutil" in the Base manual) to take effect.)

This preference specifies the AppleTalk type of the Terminal server. It is the type with which it is known to the network. type should normally be set to "UNIXTerminal". The same type must be set in the "Connection Settings" window of the Helios Terminal program.

Specifies the AppleTalk (NVE) name of the Terminal server. This is the name with which it is known to the network. Several names in a row, separated by a comma, are optional.

Specifies the name of the AppleTalk zone(s) to which the Terminal server should be allocated. This preference determines the zone in which the Terminal server can be seen in the Chooser of the Helios Terminal program. The chosen zone must be one of the local zones that the host is connected to. You can test this with the zones -l command.

This preference specifies a string which is output to each Mac terminal whenever a connection is made and before the login itself is started. For example, you can use this preference to output a company trademark.

Specifies the name of the terminal emulation. This name is written by "termsrv" to the UNIX environment variable "TERM" on starting a new connection. In the standard UNIX configuration, the VT100 emulation (i.e. a definition of terminal control codes) is defined in each of the files "termcap" and "terminfo". If you change term to specify another emulation, you must ensure that the new emulation definition has been added to both files. Whereas many programs refer to the "termcap" file, an entry is also required in "terminfo", since, under Solaris, some programs refer to "terminfo" (like the editor program vi) instead of "termcap". Note that the standard UNIX VT100 emulation is a subset of the VT320 emulation provided in Helios Terminal.

Specifies the maximum number of data packets that are passed from "termsrv" to workstations through the network during a transaction. The number of packets may need to be limited if the buffer size in the workstations is too small. The value can be varied to optimize the data transfer rate.

Specifies the maximum number of data packets that are passed from workstations to "termsrv" through the network during a transaction. The number of packets may need to be limited if the buffer size in the UNIX host is too small. The value of remotewinsize can be varied to optimize the data transfer rate.

13.7 EtherShare Administration server preference keys

This preference sets the AppleTalk (NVE) name of the Administration server. This is the name with which it is known to the network. Several names in a row, separated by a comma, are optional.

Specifies the name of the AppleTalk zone(s) to which the Administration server should be allocated. The chosen zone must be one of the local zones that the host is connected to. You can test this with the zones -l command.

This preference specifies the AppleTalk type of the Terminal server. This is the type with which it is known to the network. type should normally be set to "AdminServer".

Specifies the maximum number of workstations (clients) that are permitted to work on the Administration server simultaneously. This value can be the same as the total number of workstations that are connected to the AppleTalk network, but is usually smaller than that. The default value for sessions is the number of sessions allowed by your software license.

Specifies the name and path of the file in which the user, optional AFP user and group data for the NIS ("Yellow Pages") system are stored. If no value is specified, and NIS is active, "/var/yp" is assumed.

This flag - if set to TRUE - is specified to protect (lock) all configuration data. Then, merely maintaining spool queues is possible.

Specifies the path of the host directory which contains the server font list "FontDirectory". The fonts are contained in the file's subdirectories, arranged alphabetically.

EtherShare Admin allows users with sufficient permissions to configure the EtherShare system from any workstation on the network in a convenient and secure way. For example, it can be used to set up users, groups, volumes, and printers, and re-schedule print jobs. Normally, only the system administrator is allowed to make any changes. Non-privileged users can inspect the configuration and the print job queue, but cannot change anything except delete their own print jobs.

Members of the special "system administrators" group can use EtherShare Admin to make any changes they like, including printer configuration, and sending server messages with File > Send Message... to all users logged-on to the EtherShare server. However, these group members are not allowed to modify any information on users with an ID less than 100 (Note that the system administrator has a user ID of 0!). The sysadmgroup preference specifies the name of the special "system administrators" group.

Members of the special "queue administrators" group can use EtherShare Admin to manipulate print jobs and queue configurations from a workstation. Thus, they have even more privileges than members of the "printer administrators" group that is described below. Queue administrators are allowed to:

The queadmgroup preference specifies the name of the special "queue administrators" group.

Members of the special "printer administrators" group can use EtherShare Admin to manipulate print jobs from a workstation, i.e. they are allowed to:

The prnadmgroup preference specifies the name of the special "printer administrators" group.

As a time-saving feature when logging on, the AppleShare selection in the Mac OS X Connect To Server- dialog lets you save your file server user name and/or user password on the Mac's local hard disk.

To improve security, specify the flag to disable the saving of user passwords in this way, in which case all users have to enter their password manually each time they log on to HELIOS Admin.

Specifies the path of the file containing the access list with the IP addresses which are permitted to log on to "admsrv".

If set to TRUE, this preference lets "admsrv" append a record to the system messages if, due to the IP access list, access to one or more users has been denied.

current-time	Current local time in the form DDD MMM dd hh:mm:ss YYYY. Where DDD is the day of the week, MMM the month, dd the day of the month, hh the hour, mm the minutes, ss the seconds, and YYYY the year.
transfer-time	Total time in seconds for the transfer.
remote-host	Remote host name.
file-size	Size of the transferred file in bytes.
filename	Name of the transferred file.
transfer-type	Single character indicating the type of transfer. Can be one of: a for an ASCII transfer b for a binary transfer
special-action-flag	One or more single character flags indicating any special action taken. Can be one or more of: C file was compressed U file was uncompressed T file was tar'ed _ no action was taken
direction	Direction of the transfer. Can be one of: o outgoing i incoming
access-mode	Method by which the user is logged in: a (anonymous) Anonymous guest user. g (guest) Passworded guest user (see the guestgroup command in ftpaccess). r (real) Local authenticated user.
username	Local username, or if guest, the ID string given.
service-name	Name of the service being logged, usually AFP.
authentication-method	Method of authentication used. Can be one of: 0 none 1 RFC931 Authentication
authenticated-user-id	User id returned by the authentication method. An * is used if an authenticated user id is not available.
completion-status	Single character indicating the status of the transfer. Can be one of: c complete transfer i incomplete transfer


EtherShare UB⁺ User manual

EtherShare UB+ User manual

13 Preferences

13.1 AFP server preference keys

13.2 AppleTalk preference keys

13.2.1 About the "if" and "nif" preferences

13.3 Mail server preference keys

13.4 PAP server preference keys

13.5 "papif" preference keys

13.6 Terminal server preference keys

13.7 EtherShare Administration server preference keys

EtherShare UB⁺ User manual