To download MFS find your platform and click the corresponding download link below.

Latest Release:

v1.7.7 for Haiku
AFPServer_Haiku.zip

Previous Releases:

v1.5 for BeOS BONE
AFPServer_BONE.zip

v1.5 for BeOS R5 net_server
AFPServer_netserver.zip

v1.3 for BeOS R5 PPC
AFPServer_ppc.zip

The full release notes for the latest release can be viewed here.

Macintosh File Server for Haiku

Version 1.7.7

NOTE: 1.7.6 fixed an incompatibility with MacOS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It is recommended that all users upgrade to version 1.7.6 or later!

What is MFS?

Macintosh File Server (MFS) for Haiku, a multi-threaded file server written from the ground up for the BeOS, has now been enhanced to work on Haiku. MFS will allow Macintosh clients to share files with a Haiku machine using the Mac's own native Apple Filing Protocol (AFP).

This AFP Server is compliant (mostly) with the AFP3.3 specification and can support clients that use AFP2.2 through AFP3.3. This means that the file server supports Mac clients that are running either the Classic MacOS or MacOS X. MFS only supports TCP/IP connections so AppleTalk-only clients are unfortunately not supported. As of version 1.6, the server requires Haiku to run.

Who should use MFS?

MFS should be stable enough for personal use but has not been tested enough to qualify for a "production quality" description. I would suggest you test out MFS seriously before deploying it in your production environment or using it to store and/or transfer your valuable files and data.

Haiku itself has not achieved release quality yet, so your mileage may vary when using MFS on Haiku. In my testing Haiku has proven to be fairly stable, but has crashed in the kernel on me a few times when copying a large amount of files (greater than 1GB).

What does it cost?

MFS is completely free for all to use and enjoy. The only thing you can't do is sell it, or redistribute it in a manner where anyone would profit from the distribution.

If you use MFS, please do send me email. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who finds this server/capability useful. And of course, I'm interested in any feedback you have. Send mail to someguysoftware@me.com.

MacFile Preferences Application

The file server is controlled by the MacFile preferences application. This tool enables you to create Macintosh file share points, identify users who have logon and admin privileges, set logon and send messages, and provides some statistics about server usage.

Here is a screen shot of the preferences application running on Haiku:

What's new in v1.7

Server

- Added support for the DHCAST128 (SSL encryption) user authentication method (UAM) for login. This means that all MacOS X systems can now login to MFS using its own native encrypted password authentication. Supporting this requires that OpenSSL be installed on Haiku systems running MFS, but it looks like OpenSSL is supplied by default on the pre-alpha Haiku builds so it should not be an issue for anyone.
- Added support for much more stringent access checking based on user level (admin, guest, user) to make the server more secure.

v1.7.7 - Fixed bug with sleeping Mac clients and added support for AFP3.3 and Time Machine.

v1.7.6 - Fixed bug that prevented files from being accessed when using MacOS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

v1.7.5 - Enhanced the directory and user permissions support to greatly increase the security of the server. Please see the full release notes for further details.

v1.7.2 - On older Classic MacOS clients, some file copy operations would fail when a file did not contain a resource fork. This is due to the client attempting a zero-byte write to the file's resource fork which BFS correctly returns an error code. Also, a security bug was fixed where a malicious programmer might gain access to unshared directories on the server.

v1.7.1 - The server now supports client reconnects. This is a feature where if the client loses connectivity or crashes, it can reconnect to the server to clean up any session mess it left behind. The client can also reconnect in the case of a disconnect and continue as if the disconnect had never occured. In later versions of the MacOS, the client disconnects frequently, I guess to save server resources (?), so this is a much used feature in later clients.

MacFile Configuration

- Added default button in the custom server name dialog. The default uses the system's hostname.
- Fixed a bug with the "Save" button in the logon message configuration box in the MacFile configuration utility.

The BeUAM

- The installer will now stop sharing the BeUAM installation folder on systems and replace it with a MacUtilitiesFolder.
- The BeUAM is officially deprecated as of this release as it actually blocked MacOS X 10.5 clients from logging into MacFile when installed. Be sure to remove it from your MacOS X system as per section 2.2 in the release notes.