Manipulating file in CIFS removes all prior versions of file

[commalf]

Hi, everyone.  I am running Alfresco 4.0d Community (standard 64-bit installer package) on Ubuntu Server 12.04 (completely vanilla server install; no prior LAMP, etc. - I let Community's installer install everything).

I can add a Versionable aspect to any file through the web interface and can upload/download files, track and revert versions through the web with no issues.  However, as soon as I perform any operation on a file in CIFS (e.g., open in Word 2011->modify->save or even just drag an updated version of the file with the same name into the CIFS directory through Mac OS 10.8.0 Finder), the original file (along with all of its version history) is deleted and refreshing the file's page in Alfresco Share reports that the file no longer exists.  I can then see the new file (with the same name) in Alfresco Share in my repository and the new file has no Versionable aspect or version history.

I have read as much as I can find online about issues handling CIFS file operations and I understand that various applications have different behaviors when writing to CIFS, so I understand the difficulty in trying to reconcile CIFS operations (which may involve deleting, renaming in saving in a single File->Save operation) with Alfresco's file version database.

I want to CIFS to behave as one would expect a "dumb" file share without versioning to, but I want Alfresco to keep all versions of all directories and files created and present these files/versions in the web interface with Share.  I need to avoid having a simple CIFS operation (like a file save) eliminate all the Version history for a file.  Is there a way I can do this?  I've tried adding a Versionable aspect to the default content model (to be applied to all files), but all records of the original files and their versions are still deleted in Share upon any CIFS write operation.

Thanks very much for your help.

[mrogers]

You need some of the more recent fixes to support mac word 2011

[commalf]

Mrogers,

Thanks very much for your reply.

Overwriting any versioned file on a CIFS share via drag-and-drop through the Finder seems to cause Alfresco to delete all records of the original versioned file and create a new record for the copied file.  This seems to be a behavior with CIFS and is not specific to Word documents.

Is there a way to prevent all versionable files overwritten in CIFS from being removed from Alfresco's web interface?

Is there a way to prevent a versionable file deleted in CIFS from being removed from Alfresco's web interface?

[mrogers]

No a delete or a rename is a delete or rename regardless of which client it comes from.

The good news is that Alfresco 4 has the machinery to deal with this type of problem in a generic manner.   The bad news is that support for mac stuff was added after 4.0.d.

[commalf]

Thanks again for your response.

1.  Is there a way to keep all files placed in the Trashcan in the Trashcan indefinitely until they are restored?

2.  Is there a way to have Alfresco automatically do the following: whenever a file is saved/written, if there is a file with the same name/location in the Trashcan, automatically restore the file from the Trashcan first, then save the newly saved/written file as a new major version of the original file?