path: root/docs/manpages/smbclient.1

.TH SMBCLIENT 1 "17 Sep 1998" "smbclient 2.0.0-alpha5"
.SH NAME
smbclient \- ftp-like Lan Manager client program
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B smbclient
.B servicename
[
.B password
] [
.B \-A
] [
.B \-E
] [
.B \-L
.I host
] [
.B \-M
.I host
] [
.B \-I
.I IP number
] [
.B \-R
.I name resolve order
] [
.B \-N
] [
.B \-P
] [
.B \-U
.I username
] [
.B \-d
.I debuglevel
] [
.B \-l
.I log basename
] [
.B \-n
.I netbios name
] [
.B \-W
.I workgroup
] [
.B \-O
.I socket options
] [
.B \-p
.I port number
] [
.B \-c
.I command string
] [
.B \-T
.I tar options
] [
.B \-D
.I initial directory
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
This program is part of the Samba suite.

.B smbclient
is a client that can 'talk' to a Lan Manager server. It offers
an interface similar to that of the 
.B ftp
program (see
.BR 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.
.SH OPTIONS
.B servicename
.RS 3
.B servicename
is the name of the service you want to use on the server. A service
name takes the form
.B "\e\eserver\eservice"
where
.B server
is the netbios name of the Lan Manager server offering the desired service and
.B service
is the name of the service offered. Thus to connect to the service "printer" 
on the Lan Manager server "lanman", you would use the servicename

.RS 10
.B "\e\elanman\eprinter"
.RE

Note that the server name required is NOT necessarily the host name of the
server! The name required is a Lan Manager server name, which may or may not
be the same as the hostname of the machine running the server.

With Samba 1.9.18p4 the server name is looked up according to 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.
.RE

.B password
.RS 3
.B
password
is the password required to access the specified service on the
specified server. If supplied, the
.B \-N
option (suppress password prompt) is assumed.

There is no default password. If no password is supplied on the command line
(either here or using the 
.B \-U
option (see below)) and 
.B \-N
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.
.RE

.B \-R name resolve order

.RS 3
This parameter will override the default name resolution order of the
server listed in the "name resolve order" parameter in smb.conf. This
is useful to force name resolution to take place by a particular method.
This command line parameter only exists in Samba 1.9.18p4 and above.
.RE

.B \-A

.RS 3
This parameter, if specified, causes the maximum debug level to be selected.
Be warned that this generates prodigious amounts of debug data. There is also
a security issue involved, as at the maximum debug level cleartext passwords
may be written to some log files.
.RE

.B \-L

.RS 3
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
.B \-I
option may be useful if your netbios names don't match your 
tcp/ip host names or if you are trying to reach a host on another
network. For example:

smbclient -L ftp -I ftp.microsoft.com

will list the shares available on Microsoft's public server.
.RE

.B \-M

.RS 3
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
.BR 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
.B \-U
and
.B \-I
options useful, as they allow you to
control the FROM and TO parts of the message. 

See the message command section of
.BR 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.
.RE

.B \-E

.RS 3
This parameter, if specified, 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.
.RE

.B \-I
.I IP number

.RS 3
.I IP number
represents the IP number of the server to connect to. It should
be specified in standard "a.b.c.d" notation.

Normally the client will attempt to locate the specified Lan Manager server
by looking it up - that is, broadcasting a request for the given server to
identify itself. Using this parameter will force the client to assume that
the server is on the machine with the specified IP number.

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

.B \-N

.RS 3
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.
.RE

.B \-O
.I socket options

.RS 3
See the socket options section of
.BR smb.conf (5)
for details.
.RE

.B \-P

.RS 3
If specified, the service requested will be connected to as a printer service
rather than as a normal filespace service. Operations such as put and get
will not be applicable for such a connection.

By default, services will be connected to as NON-printer services.
.RE

.B \-U
.I username

.RS 3
.I username
is the user name that will be used by the client to make a connection,
assuming your server is running a protocol that allows for usernames.

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

If no 
.I username
is supplied, it will default to an uppercase version of the 
environment variable 
.B USER
or
.B LOGNAME
in that order.
If no 
.I username
is supplied and neither environment variable exists the user name will
be empty.

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
.B 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
.B \-U
option, by appending a percent symbol ("%") then the password to 
.I username.
For example, to attach to a service as user "fred" with password "secret", you
would specify
.B \-U
.I fred%secret
on the command line. Note that there are no spaces around the percent symbol.

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

If you specify the password as a parameter AND as part of
.I username
then the password as part of
.I 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.

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.
.RE

.B \-d
.I debuglevel

.RS 3
debuglevel is an integer from 0 to 5.

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.
.RE

.B \-l
.I log basename

.RS 3
If specified,
.I log basename
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 following files would be used for log data:

.RS 3
log.client.debug (containing debugging information)

log.client.in (containing inbound transaction data)

log.client.out (containing outbound transaction data)
.RE

The log files generated are never removed by the client.
.RE

.B \-n
.I netbios name

.RS 3
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.
.RE

.B \-W
.I workgroup

.RS 3
Override what workgroup is used for the connection. This may be needed
to connect to some servers.
.RE

.B \-p
.I port number

.RS 3
port number is a positive integer value.

The default value if this parameter is not specified is 139.

This number is the port number that will be used when making connections to
the server. The standard (well-known) port number for the server is 139, 
hence the default.

This parameter is not normally specified.
.RE

.B \-T
.I tar options

.RS 3 
where
.I tar options
consists of one or more of
.BR c ,
.BR x ,
.BR I ,
.BR X ,
.BR b ,
.BR g ,
.BR N
or
.BR a ;
used as:
.LP
smbclient 
.B "\e\eserver\eshare"
\-TcxIXbgNa
[
.IR blocksize
]
[
.IR newer-file
]
.IR tarfile
[
.IR filenames ...
]

.RS 3
.B c
Create a tar file on UNIX. Must be followed by the name of a tar file,
tape device or "\-" for standard output. (May be useful to set debugging
low
.RB ( -d0 ))
to avoid corrupting your tar file if using "\-"). Mutually
exclusive with the
.B x
flag.

.B x
Extract (restore) a local tar file back to a share. Unless the
.B \-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
.B 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.

.B I
Include files and directories. Is the default behaviour when
.IR 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).

.B 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 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.

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

.B 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
.B c
flag.

.B a
Set archive bit. Causes the archive bit to be reset when a file is backed
up. Useful with the
.B g
(and
.BR c )
flags.
.LP

.B 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.

.B Filenames ...

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

.B Examples

smbclient \e\emypc\emyshare "" -N -Tx backup.tar

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

smbclient \e\emypc\emyshare "" -N -TXx backup.tar users/docs

Restore everything except users/docs

smbclient \e\emypc\emyshare "" -N -Tc backup.tar users/docs

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

smbclient \e\emypc\emyshare "" -N -tc backup.tar users\edocs

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

smbclient \e\emypc\emyshare "" -N -Tc backup.tar \e*

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

.B \-D
.I initial directory

.RS 3 
Change to initial directory before starting. Probably only of any use
with the tar
.RB ( \-T )
option.
.RE

.B \-c
.I command string

.RS 3
command string is a semicolon separated list of commands to be
executed instead of prompting from stdin.
.B \-N
is implied by
.BR \-c .

This is particularly useful in scripts and for printing stdin to
the server, e.g. \-c 'print \-'.
.RE
.SH OPERATIONS
Once the client is running, the user is presented with a prompt, "smb: \e>".
The backslash ("\e") 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.

.B ?
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I [command]

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
If
.I command
is specified, the
.B ?
command will display a brief informative message about the specified command.

If no command is specified, a list of available commands will be displayed.
.RE
.RE

.B !
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I [shell command]

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
If
.I shell command
is specified, the
.B !
command will execute a shell locally and run the specified shell command. If
no command is specified, a shell will be run.
.RE
.RE

.B cd
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I [directory name]

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
If
.I directory name
is specified, the current working directory
.B 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
.B on the server
will be reported.
.RE
.RE

.B del
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <mask>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
The client will request that the server attempt to delete all files matching
.I mask
from the current working directory
.B on the server.
.RE
.RE

.B dir
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <mask>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
A list of the files matching
.I mask
in the current working directory
.B on the server
will be retrieved from the server and displayed.
.RE
.RE

.B exit
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
None.

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Terminate the connection with the server and exit from the program.
.RE
.RE

.B get
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <remote file name> [local file name]

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Copy the file called
.I remote file name
from the server to the machine running the client. If specified, name the
local copy
.I local file name.
Note that all transfers in
.B smbclient
are binary. See also the
.B lowercase
command.
.RE
.RE

.B help
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I [command]

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
See the
.B ?
command above.
.RE
.RE

.B lcd
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I [directory name]

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
If
.I directory name
is specified, the current working directory
.B 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
.B on the local machine
will be reported.
.RE
.RE

.B lowercase
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
None.

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Toggle lowercasing of filenames for the
.B get
and
.B mget
commands.

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

.B ls
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <mask>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
See the
.B dir
command above.
.RE
.RE

.B mask
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <mask>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
This command allows the user to set up a mask which will be used during
recursive operation of the
.B mget
and
.B mput
commands.

The masks specified to the
.B mget
and
.B 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
.B mget
command is "source*"
.I and
the mask specified with the
.B mask
command is "*.c"
.I and
recursion is toggled ON, the
.B 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
.I mask
defaults to blank (equivalent to "*") and remains so until the
.B 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
.B mget
or
.B mput
commands.
.RE
.RE

.B md
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <directory name>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
See the
.B mkdir
command.
.RE
.RE

.B mget
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <mask>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Copy all files matching
.I mask
from the server to the machine running the client.

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

.B mkdir
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <directory name>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Create a new directory 
.B on the server
(user access privileges permitting) with the specified name.
.RE
.RE

.B mput
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <mask>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Copy all files matching
.I mask
in the current working directory
.B on the local machine
to the current working directory on the server.

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

.B print
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <file name>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Print the specified file
.B from the local machine
through a printable service on the server.

See also the
.B printmode
command.
.RE
.RE

.B printmode
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <graphics or text>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Set the print mode to suit either binary data (such as graphical information)
or text. Subsequent
.B print
commands will use the currently set print mode.
.RE
.RE

.B prompt
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
None.

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Toggle prompting for filenames during operation of the
.B mget
and
.B 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.
.RE
.RE

.B put
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <local file name> [remote file name]

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Copy the file called
.I local file name
from the machine running the client to the server. If specified, name the
remote copy
.I remote file name.
Note that all transfers in
.B smbclient
are binary. See also the
.B lowercase
command.
.RE
.RE

.B queue
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
None.

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Displays the print queue, showing the job id, name, size and current status.
.RE
.RE

.B quit
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
None.

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
See the
.B exit
command.
.RE
.RE

.B rd
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <directory name>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
See the
.B rmdir
command.
.RE
.RE

.B recurse
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
None.

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Toggle directory recursion for the commands
.B mget
and
.BR 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
.B mask
command will be retrieved. See also the
.B 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
.B mget
or
.B mput
commands will be copied, and any mask specified using the
.B mask
command will be ignored.
.RE
.RE

.B rm
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <mask>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Remove all files matching
.I mask
from the current working directory
.B on the server.
.RE
.RE

.B rmdir
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <directory name>

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Remove the specified directory (user access privileges permitting)
.B from the server.
.RE
.RE

.B tar
.RS 3
.B Parameters:
.RS 3
.I <c|x>[IXbgNa]

.RE
.B Description:
.RS 3
Performs a tar operation - see the
.B \-T
command line option above. Behaviour
may be affected by the
.B 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.
.RE
.RE

.B blocksize
.RS 3
.B Parameters
.RS 3
.I <blocksize>

.RE
.B Description
.RS 3
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.
.RE
.RE

.B tarmode
.RS 3
.B Parameters
.RS 3
.I <full|inc|reset|noreset>

.RE
.B Description
.RS 3
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).
.RE
.RE

.B setmode
.RS 3
.B Parameters
.RS 3
.I <filename> <perm=[+|\-]rsha>

.RE
.B Description
.RS 3
A version of the DOS attrib command to set file permissions. For example,

setmode myfile +r

would make myfile read only.
.RE
.RE
.SH 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
.B \-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.

.B smbclient
supports long file names where the server supports the LANMAN2
protocol.
.SH FILES
Not applicable.
.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.B USER
.RS 3
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.
.RE
.SH 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 client software be installed under the
/usr/local/samba
hierarchy, in a 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 Lan manager
server. It is possible to run
.B smbd
(see
.BR smbd (8))
as 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.
.SH VERSION
This man page is (mostly) correct for version 1.9.00 of the Samba suite, plus some
of the recent patches to it. These notes will necessarily lag behind 
development of the client software, so it is possible that your version of 
the client has extensions or parameter semantics that differ from or are not 
covered by this man page. Please notify these to the address below for 
rectification.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR smbd (8)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
[This section under construction]

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.

Most messages are reasonably self-explanatory. Unfortunately, at time of
creation of this man page the source code is still too fluid to warrant
describing each and every diagnostic. At this stage your best bet is still
to grep the source code and inspect the conditions that gave rise to the 
diagnostics you are seeing.
.SH BUGS
None known.
.SH CREDITS
The original Samba software and related utilities were created by 
Andrew Tridgell (samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au). Andrew is also the Keeper
of the Source for this project.

See
.BR smb.conf (5)
for a full list of contributors and details on how to 
submit bug reports, comments etc.