Testing with 4.10.9 and 4.11.1.

smbd/nmbd/testparm all fail when LOCKDIR (ie. /var/lock) is a symbolic link to another directory.

smbd and nmbd will fail silently, exiting with error code 1.

testparm will exit with the message "Unable to initialize messaging context!"

This is the tail end of strace on smbd when LOCKDIR (/var/lock) is a symbolic link to /run/lock:

fcntl64(3, F_SETFD, FD_CLOEXEC)         = 0
getpid()                                = 1289
umask(000)                              = 000
mkdir("/var/lock", 0755)                = -1 EEXIST (File exists)
umask(000)                              = 000
lstat64("/var/lock", {st_mode=S_IFLNK|0777, st_size=11, ...}) = 0
exit_group(1)                           = ?
+++ exited with 1 +++
rpi22:~ # ls -la /var/lock
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            11 Sep  3 10:27 /var/lock -> ../run/lock
rpi22:~ # ls -la /var/lock/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root            60 Sep  3 10:27 .
drwxr-xr-x   17 root     root           500 Sep  3 10:27 ..
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            40 Sep  3 10:27 subsys
rpi22:~ # ls -la /var/lock/subsys/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            40 Sep  3 10:27 .
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root            60 Sep  3 10:27 ..


This is not an issue with 4.19.13, and is a change of behaviour with 4.10.x and 4.11.x.

Is this by design, or a bug in which case can the old behaviour be reinstated ie. follow the symbolic link? This is breaking existing installations that are working fine with a symbolic link up to and including 4.9.13.

This is the strace from smbd on 4.9.13 when /var/lock is a symbolic link to /run/lock (smbd starts successfully):

fcntl(3, F_GETFD)                       = 0
fcntl(3, F_SETFD, FD_CLOEXEC)           = 0
getpid()                                = 1309
lstat("/var/lock", {st_mode=S_IFLNK|0777, st_size=11, ...}) = 0
lstat("/var/lock/msg.lock", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=120, ...}) = 0
lstat("/var/lock/msg.lock", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=120, ...}) = 0
lstat("/run/samba/msg.sock", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0700, st_size=120, ...}) = 0
lstat("/run/samba/msg.sock", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0700, st_size=120, ...}) = 0
getpid()                                = 1309
getpid()                                = 1309
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/var/lock/msg.lock/1309", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_NONBLOCK, 0644) = 6
fcntl(6, F_SETLK, {l_type=F_WRLCK, l_whence=SEEK_SET, l_start=0, l_len=0}) = 0
read(4, "\27\247Q\321\v\373?\233", 8)   = 8
ftruncate(6, 21)                        = 0
write(6, "11186936027586602775\n", 21)  = 21