Re: netatalk with the GS

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Marc Sira <toh@victoria.tc.ca> wrote:

> I recall a discussion a month or so ago regarding the use of a IIgs as a
> client to a netatalk Appleshare server, and complaints of unsupported user
> authentication methods (UAMs).

I was involved in that discussion, mainly filling in information about
what AFP supports as standard (but I didn't know what the IIgs used).  I
haven't actually encountered netatalk.

> There are a couple of small caveats, such as that  Localtalk Bridge (freely
> available from Apple) has slight incompatibilities with Mac OS 8.5 and later.

This can be avoided by running an older version of MacOS on the briding
machine (just plonk in an old SE/30 or something of similar vintage), or
buying a hardware Ethernet/LocalTalk bridge.

> Documented on Apple's TIL site is the one I noticed (it crashes when changing
> Appletalk interfaces, so don't do that). The other thing I noticed is probably
> a bug in the ProDOS support rolled into afpd; specifically, dates go out by
> exactly 30 years between the server and GS client.

> Files on the server with the current date will appear to the GS to be dated
> 30 years in the future, and files copied from the GS with today's date will
> appear to be 30 years old to any other client, or to the server's filesystem.

I wonder if it is something to do with the Unix epoch starting on 1 Jan
1970.

Aha!  AFP transfers times as a 32-bit signed integer representing the
number of seconds before or after 0:00:00 1 Jan 2000 (positive values
are 21st century, negative are 20th century).

It looks like the Unix 32-bit timestamp is being copied directly into
the AFP data structure, rather than having the appropriate number of
seconds (30 years worth) subtracted first, and the same lack of
correction is happening in the other direction.

I'm surprised that this doesn't affect other clients, as it should
behave exactly the same on a Mac.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand