Package samba-vfs-modules missing file glusterfs.so

[Neil R]

ENVIRONMENT
~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Release: 18.04

$ apt-cache policy samba-vfs-modules
samba-vfs-modules:
  Installed: 2:4.7.6+dfsg~ubuntu-0ubuntu2.5
  Candidate: 2:4.7.6+dfsg~ubuntu-0ubuntu2.5
  Version table:
 *** 2:4.7.6+dfsg~ubuntu-0ubuntu2.5 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:4.7.6+dfsg~ubuntu-0ubuntu2 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages

EXPECTED BEHAVIOR
I expected file `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/samba/vfs/glusterfs.so` to be installed.

ACTUAL BEHAVIOR
The file is not present. I asked on the Samba mailing list and they confirmed (https://lists.samba.org/archive/samba/2018-December/219821.html) that this file is missing from all of the Ubuntu Samba packages (https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?suite=cosmic&arch=any&searchon=contents&keywords=glusterfs.so). (As I look at the search results on that last page, it appears to be missing for Trusty, Xenial, Bionic, Cosmic, and Disco.)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: samba-vfs-modules 2:4.7.6+dfsg~ubuntu-0ubuntu2.5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-23.25-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-23-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Dec 6 06:32:24 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-07-10 (149 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 TERM=xterm
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 PATH=(custom, no user)
SourcePackage: samba
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Thanks for filing this bug in Ubuntu.

The Ubuntu samba build does not contain glusterfs support because the glusterfs packages are in the Universe pocket, and samba is in main. As such it cannot depend on glusterfs.

In bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/glusterfs/+bug/1274247, an attempt was made to bring glusterfs into main, but it was rejected.

[Neil R (neilr8133)]

Thank you for the (VERY fast) reply! I don't really understand your comment about there being a dependency since Gluster and Samba install independently and the module in question (to my understanding) is only enabled if specifically configured; but I guess it's irrelevant because the bug you mentioned says that A) The security team "NAK"ed it (twice), and B) As of 2018-09-25 it seems that there's not an [Ubuntu] team willing to maintain it, so it will not be included in Main regardless.

My confusion notwithstanding, I honestly and sincerely appreciate your quick response and letting me know that this will not be a path forward.

-Neil

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

> Gluster and Samba install independently and the module in question (to my understanding)
> is only enabled if specifically configured

If gluster support is enabled and shipped in samba-vfs-modules, which is in main, then this samba-vfs-modules will grow a dependency on gluster-common, which is in universe.

Basically this:

# ldd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/samba/vfs/glusterfs.so|grep gluster
 libglusterfs.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglusterfs.so.0 (0x00007f2442bb6000)
# dpkg -S /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglusterfs.so.0
glusterfs-common: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglusterfs.so.0

A simple way of seeing this is that I should be able to install all packages in main without having to enable the universe pocket.

[James Lewis (james-fsck)]

From what I can see... the glusterfs library in samba vfs grows a dependency, but if nothing else in the samba package does... then as I understand it, the only way you could need that library would be to install glusterfs-common... so surely that's a technicality?

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

It's not like that. The Depends field is populated from debian/control, and from automatically calculated dependencies (like that ldd trick). The moment a package lists something in Depends, if that something cannot be installed, then the package itself will not be installed. It doesn't matter if your smb.conf is referring to the gluster module or not.

Now, all that being said, I see that debian is using a trick and making glusterfs-common a "recommends" type of dependency, instead of "depends" which is stricter. But it's still not allowed to have a main package recommend an universe one.

But I could use a "suggests" (https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html#binary-dependencies-depends-recommends-suggests-enhances-pre-depends), which is an even weaker type of dependency.

Or move the gluster vfs module into its own package, and have that land in universe. Then there wouldn't be a problem at all.

Thanks for insisting on this. I'll reopen the bug, but mark it as wishlist for now.

[Mauro Mozzarelli (ezplanet1)]

Is there any chance that we will get samba glusterfs support in the next Ubuntu Server 22.04 release?
A server without this feature is not a respectable server.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

The security team is still doing a review of the glusterfs code at the moment, as part of the Ubuntu MIR process. If they give an ACK, and there are no other issues, then I can enable the gluster vfs module in the samba package.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Forgot to cluse this bug. It was fixed for Ubuntu 22.04 jammy, via https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/samba/2:4.15.5~dfsg-0ubuntu5:

samba (2:4.15.5~dfsg-0ubuntu5) jammy; urgency=medium

  * Enable glusterfs support (LP: #1894618):
    - d/control: revert disabling of glusterfs, since it's in main now
    - d/rules: in Ubuntu, glusterfs is not built for i386, so don't
      enable the samba glusterfs vfs mofule in that case
    - d/control: build-depend on libglusterfs-dev only on !i386 arches

 -- Andreas Hasenack <email address hidden> Wed, 09 Mar 2022 17:31:25 -0300