A new version of Samba/iX is available for downloading, but its creators want you to be sure you need it before you install the file and resource sharing tool. Version 7j adds “pseudo statfs” calls and alters filenaming to support the extended Posix filename characters that were recently introduced for the HP 3000. The version is still based on the 1.9.16p9 port, which Michael Gueterman of Easy Does It Technologies said last fall was several versions behind the latest Samba. Gueterman and Lars Appel, who created the new version, are “not particularly eager to have people switch to it, since no conversion program for the filename characters is available. It makes it incompatible with what HP is shipping, and is bound to cause problems for people if they’re not careful. I’ve got thousands of files written by Samba/iX 7c to my HP 3000, and until I have time to go through them and manually alter the filenames of any files that will be affected by the change, I’m not switching.”

Appel said “The j stands for Java, and that’s basically the niche where 7c was a pain. With the 7c filename mapping, the dollar character ($) in PC filenames is mapped to _24_ on the 3000 side. Unfortunately, Java needs $ in filenames for certain purposes. I decided to also tweak the “disc free” issue, as I have had a few troubles with 0 sectors free space on a 0 sector-sized disk. I built this version for personal reasons, but had no objection to sharing it — as long as people only use it when they really need it, and understand the risks/issues compared to the HP official 0.7c version.”