smbclient

Samba

23 Oct 1998

NAME

SYNOPSIS

smbclient servicename [password] [-s smb.conf] [-B IP addr] [-O socket options][-R name resolve order] [-M NetBIOS name] [-i scope] [-N] [-n NetBIOS name] [-d debuglevel] [-P] [-p port] [-l log basename] [-h] [-I dest IP] [-E] [-U username] [-L NetBIOS name] [-t terminal code] [-m max protocol] [-W workgroup] [-T<c|x>IXFqgbNan] [-D directory] [-c command string]

DESCRIPTION

This program is part of the Samba suite.

smbclient is a client that can 'talk' to an SMB/CIFS server. It offers an interface similar to that of the ftp program (see ftp (1)). Operations include things like getting files from the server to the local machine, putting files from the local machine to the server, retrieving directory information from the server and so on.

OPTIONS

• servicename servicename is the name of the service you want to use on the server. A service name takes the form //server/service where server is the NetBIOS name of the SMB/CIFS server offering the desired service and service is the name of the service offered. Thus to connect to the service printer on the SMB/CIFS server smbserver, you would use the servicename

  
  //smbserver/printer

  
  Note that the server name required is NOT necessarily the IP (DNS) host name of the server ! The name required is a NetBIOS server name, which may or may not be the same as the IP hostname of the machine running the server.

  
  The server name is looked up according to either the -R parameter to smbclient or using the name resolve order parameter in the smb.conf file, allowing an administrator to change the order and methods by which server names are looked up.

  
  

• password password is the password required to access the specified service on the specified server. If this parameter is supplied, the -N option (suppress password prompt) is assumed.

  
  There is no default password. If no password is supplied on the command line (either by using this parameter or adding a password to the -U option (see below)) and the -N option is not specified, the client will prompt for a password, even if the desired service does not require one. (If no password is required, simply press ENTER to provide a null password.)

  
  Note: Some servers (including OS/2 and Windows for Workgroups) insist on an uppercase password. Lowercase or mixed case passwords may be rejected by these servers.

  
  Be cautious about including passwords in scripts.

  
  

• -s smb.conf This parameter specifies the pathname to the Samba configuration file, smb.conf. This file controls all aspects of the Samba setup on the machine and smbclient also needs to read this file.

  
  

• -B IP addr The IP address to use when sending a broadcast packet.

  
  

• -O socket options TCP socket options to set on the client socket. See the socket options parameter in the smb.conf (5) manpage for the list of valid options.

  
  

• -R name resolve order This option allows the user of smbclient to determine what name resolution services to use when looking up the NetBIOS name of the host being connected to.

  
  The options are :"lmhosts", "host", "wins" and "bcast". They cause names to be resolved as follows :

  
  

  
  

  • lmhosts : Lookup an IP address in the Samba lmhosts file. The lmhosts file is stored in the same directory as the smb.conf file.

    
    

  • host : Do a standard host name to IP address resolution, using the system /etc/hosts, NIS, or DNS lookups. This method of name resolution is operating system depended for instance on IRIX or Solaris this may be controlled by the /etc/nsswitch.conf file).

    
    

  • wins : Query a name with the IP address listed in the wins server parameter in the smb.conf file. If no WINS server has been specified this method will be ignored.

    
    

  • bcast : Do a broadcast on each of the known local interfaces listed in the interfaces parameter in the smb.conf file. This is the least reliable of the name resolution methods as it depends on the target host being on a locally connected subnet. To specify a particular broadcast address the -B option may be used.

    
    

  
  If this parameter is not set then the name resolver order defined in the smb.conf file parameter (name resolve order) will be used.

  
  The default order is lmhosts, host, wins, bcast and without this parameter or any entry in the "name resolve order" parameter of the smb.conf file the name resolution methods will be attempted in this order.

  
  

• -M NetBIOS name This options allows you to send messages, using the "WinPopup" protocol, to another computer. Once a connection is established you then type your message, pressing ^D (control-D) to end.

  
  If the receiving computer is running WinPopup the user will receive the message and probably a beep. If they are not running WinPopup the message will be lost, and no error message will occur.

  
  The message is also automatically truncated if the message is over 1600 bytes, as this is the limit of the protocol.

  
  One useful trick is to cat the message through smbclient. For example:

  
  cat mymessage.txt | smbclient -M FRED

  
  will send the message in the file mymessage.txt to the machine FRED.

  
  You may also find the -U and -I options useful, as they allow you to control the FROM and TO parts of the message.

  
  See the message command parameter in the smb.conf (5) for a description of how to handle incoming WinPopup messages in Samba.

  
  Note: Copy WinPopup into the startup group on your WfWg PCs if you want them to always be able to receive messages.

  
  

• -i scope This specifies a NetBIOS scope that smbclient will use to communicate with when generating NetBIOS names. For details on the use of NetBIOS scopes, see rfc1001.txt and rfc1002.txt. NetBIOS scopes are very rarely used, only set this parameter if you are the system administrator in charge of all the NetBIOS systems you communicate with.

  
  

• -N If specified, this parameter suppresses the normal password prompt from the client to the user. This is useful when accessing a service that does not require a password.

  
  Unless a password is specified on the command line or this parameter is specified, the client will request a password.

  
  

• -n NetBIOS name By default, the client will use the local machine's hostname (in uppercase) as its NetBIOS name. This parameter allows you to override the host name and use whatever NetBIOS name you wish.

  
  

• -d debuglevel debuglevel is an integer from 0 to 10, or the letter 'A'.

  
  The default value if this parameter is not specified is zero.

  
  The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the log files about the activities of the client. At level 0, only critical errors and serious warnings will be logged. Level 1 is a reasonable level for day to day running - it generates a small amount of information about operations carried out.

  
  Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log data, and should only be used when investigating a problem. Levels above 3 are designed for use only by developers and generate HUGE amounts of log data, most of which is extremely cryptic. If debuglevel is set to the letter 'A', then all debug messages will be printed. This setting is for developers only (and people who really want to know how the code works internally).

  
  Note that specifying this parameter here will override the log level parameter in the smb.conf (5) file.

  
  

• -P This option is no longer used. The code in Samba2.0 now lets the server decide the device type, so no printer specific flag is needed.

  
  

• -p port This number is the TCP port number that will be used when making connections to the server. The standard (well-known) TCP port number for an SMB/CIFS server is 139, which is the default.

  
  

• -l logfilename If specified, logfilename specifies a base filename into which operational data from the running client will be logged.

  
  The default base name is specified at compile time.

  
  The base name is used to generate actual log file names. For example, if the name specified was "log", the debug file would be log.client.

  
  The log file generated is never removed by the client.

  
  

• -h Print the usage message for the client.

  
  

• -I IP address IP address is the address of the server to connect to. It should be specified in standard "a.b.c.d" notation.

  
  Normally the client would attempt to locate a named SMB/CIFS server by looking it up via the NetBIOS name resolution mechanism described above in the name resolve order parameter above. Using this parameter will force the client to assume that the server is on the machine with the specified IP address and the NetBIOS name component of the resource being connected to will be ignored.

  
  There is no default for this parameter. If not supplied, it will be determined automatically by the client as described above.

  
  

• -E This parameter causes the client to write messages to the standard error stream (stderr) rather than to the standard output stream.

  
  By default, the client writes messages to standard output - typically the user's tty.

  
  

• -U username This specifies the user name that will be used by the client to make a connection, assuming your server is not a downlevel server that is running a protocol level that uses passwords on shares, not on usernames.

  
  Some servers are fussy about the case of this name, and some insist that it must be a valid NetBIOS name.

  
  If no username is supplied, it will default to an uppercase version of the environment variable USER or LOGNAME in that order. If no username is supplied and neither environment variable exists the username "GUEST" will be used.

  
  If the USER environment variable containts a '%' character, everything after that will be treated as a password. This allows you to set the environment variable to be USER=username%password so that a password is not passed on the command line (where it may be seen by the ps command).

  
  If the service you are connecting to requires a password, it can be supplied using the -U option, by appending a percent symbol ("%") then the password to username. For example, to attach to a service as user "fred" with password "secret", you would specify.
  

  
  -U fred%secret
  

  
  on the command line. Note that there are no spaces around the percent symbol.

  
  If you specify the password as part of username then the -N option (suppress password prompt) is assumed.

  
  If you specify the password as a parameter AND as part of username then the password as part of username will take precedence. Putting nothing before or nothing after the percent symbol will cause an empty username or an empty password to be used, respectively.

  
  The password may also be specified by setting up an environment variable called PASSWORD that contains the users password. Note that this may be very insecure on some systems but on others allows users to script smbclient commands without having a password appear in the command line of a process listing.

  
  Note: Some servers (including OS/2 and Windows for Workgroups) insist on an uppercase password. Lowercase or mixed case passwords may be rejected by these servers.

  
  Be cautious about including passwords in scripts or in the PASSWORD environment variable. Also, on many systems the command line of a running process may be seen via the ps command to be safe always allow smbclient to prompt for a password and type it in directly.

  
  

• -L This option allows you to look at what services are available on a server. You use it as "smbclient -L host" and a list should appear. The -I option may be useful if your NetBIOS names don't match your tcp/ip dns host names or if you are trying to reach a host on another network.

  
  

• -t terminal code This option tells smbclient how to interpret filenames coming from the remote server. Usually Asian language multibyte UNIX implementations use different character sets than SMB/CIFS servers (EUC instead of SJIS for example). Setting this parameter will let smbclient convert between the UNIX filenames and the SMB filenames correctly. This option has not been seriously tested and may have some problems.

  
  The terminal codes include sjis, euc, jis7, jis8, junet, hex, cap. This is not a complete list, check the Samba source code for the complete list.

  
  

• -m max protocol level With the new code in Samba2.0, smbclient allways attempts to connect at the maximum protocols level the server supports. This parameter is preserved for backwards compatibility, but any string following the -m will be ignored.

  
  

• -W WORKGROUP Override the default workgroup specified in the workgroup parameter of the smb.conf file for this connection. This may be needed to connect to some servers.

  
  

• -T tar options smbclient may be used to create tar (1) compatible backups of all the files on an SMB/CIFS share. The secondary tar flags that can be given to this option are :

  
  

  
  

  • c Create a tar file on UNIX. Must be followed by the name of a tar file, tape device or "-" for standard output. If using standard output you must turn the log level to its lowest value -d0 to avoid corrupting your tar file. This flag is mutually exclusive with the x flag.

    
    

  • x Extract (restore) a local tar file back to a share. Unless the -D option is given, the tar files will be restored from the top level of the share. Must be followed by the name of the tar file, device or "-" for standard input. Mutually exclusive with the c flag. Restored files have theuir creation times (mtime) set to the date saved in the tar file. Directories currently do not get their creation dates restored properly.

    
    

  • I Include files and directories. Is the default behaviour when filenames are specified above. Causes tar files to be included in an extract or create (and therefore everything else to be excluded). See example below. Filename globbing does not work for included files for extractions (yet).

    
    

  • X Exclude files and directories. Causes tar files to be excluded from an extract or create. See example below. Filename globbing does not work for excluded files (yet).

    
    

  • b Blocksize. Must be followed by a valid (greater than zero) blocksize. Causes tar file to be written out in blocksize*TBLOCK (usually 512 byte) blocks.

    
    

  • g Incremental. Only back up files that have the archive bit set. Useful only with the c flag.

    
    

  • q Quiet. Keeps tar from printing diagnostics as it works. This is the same as tarmode quiet.

    
    

  • N Newer than. Must be followed by the name of a file whose date is compared against files found on the share during a create. Only files newer than the file specified are backed up to the tar file. Useful only with the c flag.

    
    

  • a Set archive bit. Causes the archive bit to be reset when a file is backed up. Useful with the g and c flags.

    
    

  
  Tar Long File Names

  
  smbclient's tar option now supports long file names both on backup and restore. However, the full path name of the file must be less than 1024 bytes. Also, when a tar archive is created, smbclient's tar option places all files in the archive with relative names, not absolute names.

  
  Tar Filenames

  
  All file names can be given as DOS path names (with \ as the component separator) or as UNIX path names (with / as the component separator).

  
  Examples

  
  

  
  

  • Restore from tar file backup.tar into myshare on mypc (no password on share).

    
    smbclient //mypc/myshare "" -N -Tx backup.tar

    
    

  • Restore everything except users/docs

    
    smbclient //mypc/myshare "" -N -TXx backup.tar users/docs

    
    

  • Create a tar file of the files beneath users/docs.

    
    smbclient //mypc/myshare "" -N -Tc backup.tar users/docs

    
    

  • Create the same tar file as above, but now use a DOS path name.

    
    smbclient //mypc/myshare "" -N -tc backup.tar users\edocs

    
    

  • Create a tar file of all the files and directories in the share.

    
    smbclient //mypc/myshare "" -N -Tc backup.tar *

    
    

  
  

• -D initial directory Change to initial directory before starting. Probably only of any use with the tar -T option.

  
  

• -c command string command string is a semicolon separated list of commands to be executed instead of prompting from stdin. -N is implied by -c.

  
  This is particularly useful in scripts and for printing stdin to the server, e.g. -c 'print -'.

  
  

OPERATIONS

Once the client is running, the user is presented with a prompt :

smb:\>

The backslash ("\") indicates the current working directory on the server, and will change if the current working directory is changed.

The prompt indicates that the client is ready and waiting to carry out a user command. Each command is a single word, optionally followed by parameters specific to that command. Command and parameters are space-delimited unless these notes specifically state otherwise. All commands are case-insensitive. Parameters to commands may or may not be case sensitive, depending on the command.

You can specify file names which have spaces in them by quoting the name with double quotes, for example "a long file name".

Parameters shown in square brackets (eg., "[parameter]") are optional. If not given, the command will use suitable defaults. Parameters shown in angle brackets (eg., "<parameter>") are required.

Note that all commands operating on the server are actually performed by issuing a request to the server. Thus the behaviour may vary from server to server, depending on how the server was implemented.

The commands available are given here in alphabetical order.

• ? [command] If "command" is specified, the ? command will display a brief informative message about the specified command. If no command is specified, a list of available commands will be displayed.

  
  

• ! [shell command] If "shell command" is specified, the ! command will execute a shell locally and run the specified shell command. If no command is specified, a local shell will be run.

  
  

• cd [directory name] If "directory name" is specified, the current working directory on the server will be changed to the directory specified. This operation will fail if for any reason the specified directory is inaccessible.

  
  If no directory name is specified, the current working directory on the server will be reported.

  
  

• del <mask> The client will request that the server attempt to delete all files matching "mask" from the current working directory on the server.

  
  

• dir <mask> A list of the files matching "mask" in the current working directory on the server will be retrieved from the server and displayed.

  
  

• exit Terminate the connection with the server and exit from the program.

  
  

• get <remote file name> [local file name] Copy the file called "remote file name" from the server to the machine running the client. If specified, name the local copy "local file name". Note that all transfers in smbclient are binary. See also the lowercase command.

  
  

• help [command] See the ? command above.

  
  

• lcd [directory name] If "directory name" is specified, the current working directory on the local machine will be changed to the directory specified. This operation will fail if for any reason the specified directory is inaccessible.

  
  If no directory name is specified, the name of the current working directory on the local machine will be reported.

  
  

• lowercase Toggle lowercasing of filenames for the get and mget commands.

  
  When lowercasing is toggled ON, local filenames are converted to lowercase when using the get and mget commands. This is often useful when copying (say) MSDOS files from a server, because lowercase filenames are the norm on UNIX systems.

  
  

• ls <mask> See the dir command above.

  
  

• mask <mask> This command allows the user to set up a mask which will be used during recursive operation of the mget and mput commands.

  
  The masks specified to the mget and mput commands act as filters for directories rather than files when recursion is toggled ON.

  
  The mask specified with the .B mask command is necessary to filter files within those directories. For example, if the mask specified in an mget command is "source*" and the mask specified with the mask command is "*.c" and recursion is toggled ON, the mget command will retrieve all files matching "*.c" in all directories below and including all directories matching "source*" in the current working directory.

  
  Note that the value for mask defaults to blank (equivalent to "*") and remains so until the mask command is used to change it. It retains the most recently specified value indefinitely. To avoid unexpected results it would be wise to change the value of .I mask back to "*" after using the mget or mput commands.

  
  

• md <directory name> See the mkdir command.

  
  

• mget <mask> Copy all files matching mask from the server to the machine running the client.

  
  Note that mask is interpreted differently during recursive operation and non-recursive operation - refer to the recurse and mask commands for more information. Note that all transfers in .B smbclient are binary. See also the lowercase command.

  
  

• mkdir <directory name> Create a new directory on the server (user access privileges permitting) with the specified name.

  
  

• mput <mask> Copy all files matching mask in the current working directory on the local machine to the current working directory on the server.

  
  Note that mask is interpreted differently during recursive operation and non-recursive operation - refer to the recurse and mask commands for more information. Note that all transfers in .B smbclient are binary.

  
  

• print <file name> Print the specified file from the local machine through a printable service on the server.

  
  See also the printmode command.

  
  

• printmode <graphics or text> Set the print mode to suit either binary data (such as graphical information) or text. Subsequent print commands will use the currently set print mode.

  
  dir(prompt) Toggle prompting for filenames during operation of the mget and mput commands.

  
  When toggled ON, the user will be prompted to confirm the transfer of each file during these commands. When toggled OFF, all specified files will be transferred without prompting.

  
  

• put <local file name> [remote file name] Copy the file called "local file name" from the machine running the client to the server. If specified, name the remote copy "remote file name". Note that all transfers in smbclient are binary. See also the lowercase command.

  
  dir(queue) Displays the print queue, showing the job id, name, size and current status.

  
  

• quit See the exit command.

  
  dir(rd <directory name>) See the rmdir command.

  
  dir(recurse) Toggle directory recursion for the commands mget and mput.

  
  When toggled ON, these commands will process all directories in the source directory (i.e., the directory they are copying .IR from ) and will recurse into any that match the mask specified to the command. Only files that match the mask specified using the mask command will be retrieved. See also the mask command.

  
  When recursion is toggled OFF, only files from the current working directory on the source machine that match the mask specified to the mget or mput commands will be copied, and any mask specified using the mask command will be ignored.

  
  dir(rm <mask>) Remove all files matching mask from the current working directory on the server.

  
  

• rmdir <directory name> Remove the specified directory (user access privileges permitting) from the server.

  
  

• tar <c|x>[IXbgNa] Performs a tar operation - see the -T command line option above. Behaviour may be affected by the tarmode command (see below). Using g (incremental) and N (newer) will affect tarmode settings. Note that using the "-" option with tar x may not work - use the command line option instead.

  
  

• blocksize <blocksize> Blocksize. Must be followed by a valid (greater than zero) blocksize. Causes tar file to be written out in blocksize*TBLOCK (usually 512 byte) blocks.

  
  dir(tarmode <full|inc|reset|noreset>) Changes tar's behaviour with regard to archive bits. In full mode, tar will back up everything regardless of the archive bit setting (this is the default mode). In incremental mode, tar will only back up files with the archive bit set. In reset mode, tar will reset the archive bit on all files it backs up (implies read/write share).

  
  

• setmode <filename> <perm=[+|\-]rsha> A version of the DOS attrib command to set file permissions. For example:

  
  setmode myfile +r

  
  would make myfile read only.

  
  

NOTES

Some servers are fussy about the case of supplied usernames, passwords, share names (aka service names) and machine names. If you fail to connect try giving all parameters in uppercase.

It is often necessary to use the -n option when connecting to some types of servers. For example OS/2 LanManager insists on a valid NetBIOS name being used, so you need to supply a valid name that would be known to the server.

smbclient supports long file names where the server supports the LANMAN2 protocol or above.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The variable USER may contain the username of the person using the client. This information is used only if the protocol level is high enough to support session-level passwords.

The variable PASSWORD may contain the password of the person using the client. This information is used only if the protocol level is high enough to support session-level passwords.

INSTALLATION

The location of the client program is a matter for individual system administrators. The following are thus suggestions only.

It is recommended that the smbclient software be installed in the /usr/local/samba/bin or /usr/samba/bin directory, this directory readable by all, writeable only by root. The client program itself should be executable by all. The client should NOT be setuid or setgid!

The client log files should be put in a directory readable and writable only by the user.

To test the client, you will need to know the name of a running SMB/CIFS server. It is possible to run smbd (8) an ordinary user - running that server as a daemon on a user-accessible port (typically any port number over 1024) would provide a suitable test server.

DIAGNOSTICS

Most diagnostics issued by the client are logged in a specified log file. The log file name is specified at compile time, but may be overridden on the command line.

The number and nature of diagnostics available depends on the debug level used by the client. If you have problems, set the debug level to 3 and peruse the log files.

VERSION

This man page is correct for version 2.0 of the Samba suite.

AUTHOR

The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew Tridgell samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au. 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 ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/) and updated for the Samba2.0 release by Jeremy Allison. samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au.

See samba (7) to find out how to get a full list of contributors and details on how to submit bug reports, comments etc.