samba — A Windows SMB/CIFS fileserver for UNIX
Samba
The Samba software suite is a collection of programs
that implements the Server Message Block (commonly abbreviated
as SMB) protocol for UNIX systems. This protocol is sometimes
also referred to as the Common Internet File System (CIFS). For a
more thorough description, see
The smbd daemon provides the file and print services to SMB clients, such as Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Windows for Workgroups or LanManager. The configuration file for this daemon is described in smb.conf(5)
The nmbd daemon provides NetBIOS nameservice and browsing support. The configuration file for this daemon is described in smb.conf(5)
The smbclient program implements a simple ftp-like client. This is useful for accessing SMB shares on other compatible servers (such as Windows NT), and can also be used to allow a UNIX box to print to a printer attached to any SMB server (such as a PC running Windows NT).
The testparm utility is a simple syntax checker for Samba's smb.conf(5) configuration file.
The testprns utility supports testing printer names defined in your printcap file used by Samba.
The smbstatus tool provides access to information about the current connections to smbd.
The nmblookup tools allows NetBIOS name queries to be made from a UNIX host.
The smbgroupedit tool allows for mapping unix groups to NT Builtin, Domain, or Local groups. Also it allows setting priviledges for that group, such as saAddUser, etc.
The smbpasswd command is a tool for changing LanMan and Windows NT password hashes on Samba and Windows NT servers.
The smbcacls command is a tool to set ACL's on remote CIFS servers.
The smbsh command is a program that allows you to run a unix shell with with an overloaded VFS.
The smbtree command is a text-based network neighborhood tool.
The smbtar can make backups of data on CIFS/SMB servers.
smbspool is a helper utility for printing on printers connected to CIFS servers.
smbcontrol is a utility that can change the behaviour of running samba daemons.
rpcclient is a utility that can be used to execute RPC commands on remote CIFS servers.
The pdbedit command can be used to maintain the local user database on a samba server.
The findsmb command can be used to find SMB servers on the local network.
The net command is supposed to work similar to the DOS/Windows NET.EXE command.
swat is a web-based interface to configuring smb.conf.
winbindd is a daemon that is used for integrating authentication and the user database into unix.
wbinfo is a utility that retrieves and stores information related to winbind.
editreg is a command-line utility that can edit windows registry files.
profiles is a command-line utility that can be used to replace all occurences of a certain SID with another SID.
log2pcap is a utility for generating pcap trace files from Samba log files.
vfstest is a utility that can be used to test vfs modules.
ntlm_auth is a helper-utility for external programs wanting to do NTLM-authentication.
smbmount,smbmnt and smbmnt are commands that can be used to mount CIFS/SMB shares on Linux.
smbcquotas is a tool that can set remote QUOTA's on server with NTFS 5.
The Samba suite is made up of several components. Each
component is described in a separate manual page. It is strongly
recommended that you read the documentation that comes with Samba
and the manual pages of those components that you use. If the
manual pages and documents aren't clear enough then please visit
If you require help, visit the Samba webpage at
The Samba software suite is licensed under the GNU Public License(GPL). A copy of that license should have come with the package in the file COPYING. You are encouraged to distribute copies of the Samba suite, but please obey the terms of this license.
The latest version of the Samba suite can be obtained via anonymous ftp from samba.org in the directory pub/samba/. It is also available on several mirror sites worldwide.
You may also find useful information about Samba
on the newsgroup
If you have access to a WWW viewer (such as Mozilla
or Konqueror) then you will also find lots of useful information,
including back issues of the Samba mailing list, at
This man page is correct for version 3.0 of the Samba suite.
If you wish to contribute to the Samba project,
then I suggest you join the Samba mailing list at
If you have patches to submit, visit
Contributors to the project are now too numerous
to mention here but all deserve the thanks of all Samba
users. To see a full list, look at the
change-log in the source package
for the pre-CVS changes and at
The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed.
The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer.
The man page sources were converted to YODL format (another
excellent piece of Open Source software, available at