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In my office I have a Debian server, a Ubuntu workstation, and a Windows laptop. I have a samba share directory on the server where I keep my source code. I access the files in this directory on both my workstation and laptop. What I like about this setup is that I can seamlessly move between the workstation and laptop to do my work. However, what I don't like is when I have to move files around inside the share directory, eg. copying a 100MB file from one location in the shared directory to another. If I use the GUI tools on my endpoints (Windows Explorer or Nautilus) to copy a file, it pulls the file from the server to my machine, then pushes the new copy back to the server. I'm connected over wireless so this is typically a slow process. I have no trouble doing these operations in a shell on the server, but I feel like that's defeating the purpose of using the share.

My question: Are there any tools that can speed this up? It seems like it could be so simple: if I'm moving files inside the share, issue a remote command to the server instead of using the local machines file system.

Alternatively, is there another way to set this up with another shared directory technology?

I'm not afraid of the command line, I would just prefer to be able to do everything inside of the GUI tools like file explorers and Eclipse.

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  • What you are talking about is by design. Your workaround of shelling into the server and copying the files locally is the solution to taking the "middle man/client" out of the picture when the issue is a slow link at the client.
    – TheCleaner
    Feb 5, 2013 at 21:10
  • I figured as much. I would have thought there might be a more convenient method by now, but that does not seem to be the case. Feb 5, 2013 at 21:44
  • I might just end up wiring everything with Gig Ethernet through the walls. That would solve the problem :) Feb 5, 2013 at 21:51

3 Answers 3

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Another approach is to use VNC. You then control the server as if you were sitting in front of it without any file copy operations between the server and your workstations.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VNC

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  • +1 for the suggestion. This would clearly work, but then I would have to install a desktop environment along with Eclipse and all the other tools I need on the server. A few years ago I tried setting up a VNC server on my workstation in order to control it from my laptop, with the thought that whether I'm at my desk or on the couch with my laptop, I'm still using the "same computer". Logistically it worked, but the performance over wireless was annoying. Feb 5, 2013 at 21:49
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    I hear ya; it's not ideal, but it's functional. To trim the fat, you could use xfce and vnc4server. Great article here on how to go about it: scotttyee.com/blog/2009/12/09/linux-headless-ubuntu-with-vnc . Another approach is to use an sftp gui; I believe filezilla handles things pretty well on a PC.
    – Stephan
    Feb 5, 2013 at 21:58
  • I forgot to mention I have another box that I've been using to play with VMware. Its wired to the same router as my server. Maybe I'll make a development VM on there, and VNC into that Feb 6, 2013 at 6:10
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    The biggest wrench here, to me, is the windows laptop. If you were on Linux or a Mac, you could easily set up X11 forwarding, which is far nice than VNC.
    – Stephan
    Feb 6, 2013 at 20:29
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    Sure. You could probably forward X11 to your windows machine as well, depending on the version; this might get you started: courses.cms.caltech.edu/cs11/misc/xwindows.html though I can't say I've done it myself.
    – Stephan
    Feb 7, 2013 at 1:42
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So it sounds like you have the server hosting the CIFS share using samba? Why not do the following:

On Ubuntu: create a /etc/fstab entry to mount the CIFS share on boot, and work out of that directory (no data movement required!)

On Windows: map as network drive, have it reconnect on login, and work out of that directory. No data needs to be moved.

If you need your laptop to access those files on the server while you're away, enable that mapped network drive to be a 'briefcase': http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Sync-using-Briefcase

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  • That's exactly how I have it set up. My question is about improving performance when I'm moving stuff inside the shared folder from one of my workstations. Feb 5, 2013 at 21:43
  • Have you tried to move around files when everything is wired vs. wireless? Are you using 802.11n for wifi? I'm curious if the speeds when wired would be satisfactory. You can compare by using 'robocopy' on windows and 'rsync --progress' in Ubunutu.
    – heyjon
    Feb 6, 2013 at 6:00
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This is a relatively old question but relatively in-vogue given the current work from home restrictions for many of us in regards to the pandemic.

A VPN-Less option is something called SMBStream which I'm assuming uses the QUIC protocol underneath the hood to achieve its magic. It accelerates access to SMB shares over the internet to almost LAN speeds.

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