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 http://www.ubiqx.org/cifs/. Samba also implements the NetBIOS protocol in nmbd.
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 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.
profiles is a command-line
utility that can be used to replace all occurrences 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,smbumount 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 http://devel.samba.org for information on how to file a bug report or submit a patch.
If you require help, visit the Samba webpage at http://www.samba.org/ and explore the many option available to you.
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 comp.protocol.smb and the Samba mailing list. Details on how to join the mailing list are given in the README file that comes with Samba.
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 http://lists.samba.org.
If you wish to contribute to the Samba project, then I suggest you join the Samba mailing list at http://lists.samba.org.
If you have patches to submit, visit
http://devel.samba.org/
for information on how to do it properly. We prefer patches
in diff -u format.
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
http://cvs.samba.org/
for the contributors to Samba post-CVS. CVS is the Open Source
source code control system used by the Samba Team to develop
Samba. The project would have been unmanageable without it.
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 ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/) and updated for the Samba 2.0 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to DocBook for Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter. The conversion to DocBook XML 4.2 for Samba 3.0 was done by Alexander Bokovoy.