Symbolic links created on an cifs-mounted fs are not removeable. Here /icybox/jan is an cifs-mounted directory (imported from an Icybox IB-NAS4210-B, i.e. Linux 2.6.15, samba 3.0.25a). Symbolic links pointing (i) to a local directory, (ii) to an subdirectory on the share and (iii) dead symbolic lincs are not removeable.

There is no error message using rm on the symbolic link, but the links still exists.

It's opensuse 11.2, linux 2.6.31.8-0.1-default, and recently mount.cifs from cifs.mount-3.5.0-13.i586. It didn't work in former versions of mount.cifs.

The mount is done by autofs via the line

jan     -fstype=cifs,sfu,serverino,sync,credentials=/etc/auto.janhome.cred      ://bert/janhome

The recent parts of the smb.conf on the exporting Icybox machine are:

[global]                                                                       
follow symlinks=yes                                                            
dead time=5                                                                    
preserve case=yes                                                              
map to guest=bad user                                                          
mangled names=yes                                                              
unix password sync=false                                                       
unix charset=UTF-8                                                             
dos filetimes=yes                                                              
short preserve case=yes                                                        
domain logons=no                                                               
encrypt passwords=yes                                                          
log file=/var/log/log.smbd                                                     
delete readonly=yes                                                            
workgroup=WE4                                                                  
directory security mask=777                                                    
null passwords=yes                                                             
use sendfile=no                                                                
wide links=yes                                                                 
wins support=no                                                                
load printers=no                                                               
max log size=20                                                                
server string=BERT                                                             
guest account=guest-share                                                      
use receivefile=no                                                             
delete veto files=yes                                                          
default case=upper                                                             
browseable=yes                                                                 
name resolve order=lmhosts host wins bcast                                     
case sensitive=no                                                              
pid directory=/var/run                                                         
security=user                                                                  
interfaces=eth0                                                                
dos charset=CP1250                                                             
printing=lprng                                                                 
printcap name=/etc/printcap                                                    
security mask=777                                                              
display charset=UTF-8                                                          
share modes=yes                                                                
veto files=/lost+found/Network Trash Folder/.AppleDouble/.AppleDesktop/Icon^M/ 
dns proxy=no                                                                   
lock directory=/var/run                                                        
socket options=IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY SO_SNDBUF=65535 SO_RCVBUF=65535      
[janhome]                                                                      
use receivefile=yes                                                            
create mask=0775                                                               
write list=jan                                                                 
path=/mnt/ide1/janhome                                                         
directory mask=0775                                                            
writeable=no                                                                   
available=1                                                                    
valid users=jan                                                                
use sendfile=yes