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diff --git a/docs/docbook/projdoc/unicode.sgml b/docs/docbook/projdoc/unicode.sgml new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..7d8f0a03be --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/docbook/projdoc/unicode.sgml @@ -0,0 +1,93 @@ +<chapter id="unicode"> +<chapterinfo> + <author> + <firstname>Jelmer</firstname><surname>Vernooij</surname> + <affiliation> + <orgname>Samba Team</orgname> + <address><email>jelmer@samba.org</email></address> + </affiliation> + </author> + <pubdate>25 March 2003</pubdate> +</chapterinfo> + +<title>Unicode/Charsets</title> + +<sect1> +<title>What are charsets and unicode?</title> + +<para> +Computers communicate in numbers. In texts, each number will be +translated to a corresponding letter. The meaning that will be assigned +to a certain number depends on the <emphasis>character set(charset) +</emphasis> that is used. +A charset can be seen as a table that is used to translate numbers to +letters. Not all computers use the same charset (there are charsets +with German umlauts, Japanese characters, etc). Usually a charset contains +256 characters, which means that storing a character with it takes +exactly one byte. </para> + +<para> +There are also charsets that support even more characters, +but those need twice(or even more) as much storage space. These +charsets can contain <command>256 * 256 = 65536</command> characters, which +is more then all possible characters one could think of. They are called +multibyte charsets (because they use more then one byte to +store one character). +</para> + +<para> +A standardised multibyte charset is unicode, info available at +<ulink url="http://www.unicode.org/">www.unicode.org</ulink>. +Big advantage of using a multibyte charset is that you only need one; no +need to make sure two computers use the same charset when they are +communicating. +</para> + +<para>Old windows clients used to use single-byte charsets, named +'codepages' by microsoft. However, there is no support for +negotiating the charset to be used in the smb protocol. Thus, you +have to make sure you are using the same charset when talking to an old client. +Newer clients (Windows NT, 2K, XP) talk unicode over the wire. +</para> +</sect1> + +<sect1> +<title>Samba and charsets</title> + +<para> +As of samba 3.0, samba can (and will) talk unicode over the wire. Internally, +samba knows of three kinds of character sets: +</para> + +<variablelist> + <varlistentry> + <term>unix charset</term> + <listitem><para> + This is the charset used internally by your operating system. + The default is <emphasis>ASCII</emphasis>, which is fine for most + systems. + </para></listitem> + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry> + <term>display charset</term> + <listitem><para>This is the charset samba will use to print messages + on your screen. It should generally be the same as the <command>unix charset</command>. + </para></listitem> + </varlistentry> + + <varlistentry> + <term>dos charset</term> + <listitem><para>This is the charset samba uses when communicating with + DOS and Windows 9x clients. It will talk unicode to all newer clients. + The default depends on the charsets you have installed on your system. + Run <command>testparm -v | grep "dos charset"</command> to see + what the default is on your system. + </para></listitem> + </varlistentry> +</variablelist> + +<para> + +</sect1> +</chapter> |