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@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ This is a development version of Samba, the free SMB and CIFS client and -server for unix and other operating systems. Samba is maintained by +server for UNIX and other operating systems. Samba is maintained by the Samba Team, who support the original author, Andrew Tridgell. >>>> Please read THE WHOLE of this file as it gives important information @@ -13,35 +13,36 @@ copy of which you should have received with this software (in a file called COPYING). -WHAT IS SMB? -============ +WHAT IS SMB/CIFS? +================= This is a big question. The very short answer is that it is the protocol by which a lot of PC-related machines share files and printers and other information such as lists of available files and printers. Operating systems that -support this natively include Windows NT, OS/2, and Linux and add on -packages that achieve the same thing are available for DOS, Windows, -VMS, Unix of all kinds, MVS, and more. Apple Macs and some Web Browsers -can speak this protocol as well. Alternatives to SMB include -Netware, NFS, Appletalk, Banyan Vines, Decnet etc; many of these have -advantages but none are both public specifications and widely -implemented in desktop machines by default. - -The Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS) is what the new SMB initiative +support this natively include Windows 9x, Windows NT (and derivatives), +OS/2, Mac OS X and Linux. Add on packages that achieve the same +thing are available for DOS, Windows 3.1, VMS, Unix of all kinds, +MVS, and more. Some Web Browsers can speak this protocol as well +(smb://). Alternatives to SMB include Netware, NFS, Appletalk, +Banyan Vines, Decnet etc; many of these have advantages but none are +both public specifications and widely implemented in desktop machines +by default. + +The Common Internet File system (CIFS) is what the new SMB initiative is called. For details watch http://samba.org/cifs. WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO USE SMB? ============================== -1. Many people want to integrate their Microsoft or IBM style desktop - machines with their Unix or VMS (etc) servers. +1. Many people want to integrate their Microsoft desktop clients + with their Unix servers. 2. Others want to integrate their Microsoft (etc) servers with Unix - or VMS (etc) servers. This is a different problem to integrating - desktop clients. + servers. This is a different problem to integrating desktop + clients. 3. Others want to replace protocols like NFS, DecNet and Novell NCP, especially when used with PCs. @@ -50,18 +51,26 @@ WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO USE SMB? WHAT CAN SAMBA DO? ================== -Here is a very short list of what samba includes, and what it does. For -many networks this can be simply summarised by "Samba provides a complete -replacement for Windows NT, Warp, NFS or Netware servers." +Please refer to the WHATSNEW.txt included with this README for +a list of features in the latest Samba release. + +Here is a very short list of what samba includes, and what it does. +For many networks this can be simply summarized by "Samba provides +a complete replacement for Windows NT, Warp, NFS or Netware servers." - a SMB server, to provide Windows NT and LAN Manager-style file and print services to SMB clients such as Windows 95, Warp Server, smbfs and others. +- a Windows NT 4.0 Domain Controller replacement. + +- a file/print server that can act as a member of a Windows NT 4.0 + or Active Directory domain. + - a NetBIOS (rfc1001/1002) nameserver, which amongst other things gives browsing support. Samba can be the master browser on your LAN if you wish. - a ftp-like SMB client so you can access PC resources (disks and -printers) from unix, Netware and other operating systems + printers) from UNIX, Netware, and other operating systems - a tar extension to the client for backing up PCs @@ -73,16 +82,14 @@ http://samba.org/samba, and browse the user survey. Related packages include: -- smbfs, a linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount remote SMB -filesystems from PCs on your linux box. This is included as standard with +- smbfs, a Linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount remote SMB +filesystems from PCs on your Linux box. This is included as standard with Linux 2.0 and later. -- tcpdump-smb, a extension to tcpdump to allow you to investigate SMB -networking problems over netbeui and tcp/ip. +- cifsvfs, a more advanced Linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount +remote SMB filesystems from PCs on your Linux box. This is included +as standard with Linux 2.5 and later. -- smblib, a library of smb functions which are designed to make it -easy to smb-ise any particular application. See -ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/smblib. CONTRIBUTIONS @@ -90,9 +97,10 @@ CONTRIBUTIONS If you want to contribute to the development of the software then please join the mailing list. The Samba team accepts patches -(preferably in "diff -u" format, see docs/BUGS.txt for more details) -and are always glad to receive feedback or suggestions to the address -samba@lists.samba.org. +(preferably in "diff -u" format, see http://samba.org/samba/devel/ +for more details) and are always glad to receive feedback or +suggestions to the address samba@lists.samba.org. More information +on the various Samba mailing lists can be found at http://lists.samba.org/. You can also get the Samba sourcecode straight from the CVS tree - see http://samba.org/cvs.html. @@ -107,7 +115,7 @@ If you like a particular feature then look through the CVS change-log who added it, then send them an email. Remember that free software of this kind lives or dies by the response -we get. If noone tells us they like it then we'll probably move onto +we get. If no one tells us they like it then we'll probably move onto something else. However, as you can see from the user survey quite a lot of people do seem to like it at the moment :-) @@ -119,17 +127,16 @@ DOCUMENTATION ------------- There is quite a bit of documentation included with the package, -including man pages, and lots of .txt files with hints and useful +including man pages, and lots of .html files with hints and useful info. This is also available from the web page. There is a growing -collection of information under docs/faq; by the next release expect -this to be the default starting point. +collection of information under docs/. A list of Samba documentation in languages other than English is available on the web page. If you would like to help with the documentation (and we _need_ help!) then have a look at the mailing list samba-docs, archived at -http://lists.samba.org/ +http://lists.samba.org/listinfo/samba-docs/ MAILING LIST @@ -197,12 +204,12 @@ A few tips when submitting to this or any mailing list. NEWS GROUP ---------- -You might also like to look at the usenet news group -comp.protocols.smb as it often contains lots of useful info and is -frequented by lots of Samba users. The newsgroup was initially setup -by people on the Samba mailing list. It is not, however, exclusive to -Samba, it is a forum for discussing the SMB protocol (which Samba -implements). The samba list is gatewayed to this newsgroup. +You might also like to look at the usenet news group comp.protocols.smb +as it often contains lots of useful info and is frequented by lots of +Samba users. The newsgroup was initially setup by people on the Samba +mailing list. It is not, however, exclusive to Samba, it is a forum for +discussing the SMB protocol (which Samba implements). The samba list +is gatewayed to this newsgroup. WEB SITE |