Preventing access by CIFS clients to cyclic directory structures

About cyclic directory structures

A cyclic directory structure is one that includes a symbolic link that uses a "dot" or "dot-dot" component to make a reference to a directory at the same level or higher in the same tree.

Because CIFS clients don't understand symbolic links, a CIFS client following a cyclic directory structure goes deeper and deeper into the tree until Data ONTAP reaches its maximum path length. When this happens, Data ONTAP returns an error.

Disabling CIFS access to cyclic directory structures

To disable CIFS access to cyclic directory structures, complete the following step.

Step	Action
1	Enter the following console command: options cifs.symlinks.cycleguard on This option is turned on by default.