Samba

version 1.9.17

What is the Samba?

Samba is a suite of programs which work
together to allow clients to access to a
server's filespace and printers via the SMB
(Server Message Block) and CIFS
(Common Internet Filesystem) protocols.

WHAT IS SMB?
The very short answer is that it is the protocol by
which a lot of PC-related machines share files
and printers and other informatiuon 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

WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO

USE SMB ?
Many people want to integrate their Microsoft or
IBM style desktop machines with their Unix or
VMS (etc) servers.
Others want to integrate their Microsoft (etc)
servers with Unix or VMS (etc) servers. This is a
different problem to integrating desktop clients.
Others want to replace protocols like NFS, DecNet
and Novell NCP, especially when used with PCs.

Samba
Initially written for Unix, Samba now also
runs on Netware, OS/2, VMS, StratOS and
Amigas. Samba gives the capability for
these operating systems to behave much
like a LAN Server, Windows NT Server or
Pathworks machine, only with added
functionality and flexibility designed to
make life easier for administrators.

Samba
With Samba you can share a server's disks and
printers to many sorts of network clients,
including Lan Manager, Windows for
Workgroups, Windows NT, Linux, OS/2, and
AIX. There is also a generic client program
supplied as part of the Samba suite which gives
a user on the server an ftp-like interface to
access filespace and printers on any other
SMB/CIFS servers.

Samba
SMB has been implemented over many
protocols, including XNS, NBT, IPX,
NetBEUI and TCP/IP. Samba only uses
TCP/IP.
Many users report that compared to other
SMB implementations Samba is more
stable, faster, and compatible with more
clients

WHAT CAN SAMBA DO?

For many networks this can be simply
summarised by "Samba provides a complete
replacement for Windows NT, Warp, NFS
or Netware servers."

What Samba includes

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 NetBIOS (rfc1001/1002) nameserver,
which amongst other things gives browsing
support. Samba can be the master browser on
your LAN if you wish

What samba includes

a ftp-like SMB client so you can access PC
resources (disks and printers) from unix,
Netware and other operating systems
a tar extension to the client for backing up PCs
limited command-line tool that supports some
of the NT administrative functionality, which
can be used on Samba, NT workstation and NT
server.

Whats are the Components of

Samba?
The Samba suite is made up of several
components.

Smbd
smbclient
smbstatus
make_smbcodepage

nmbd
testparm
testprns
nmblookup
smbpasswd

smbd
smbd is the server daemon that provides
filesharing and printing services to Windows
clients. The server provides filespace and printer
services to clients using the SMB (or CIFS)
protocol. This is compatible with the
LanManager protocol, and can service
LanManager clients. These include MSCLIENT
3.0 for DOS, Windows for Workgroups, Windows
95, Windows NT, OS/2, DAVE for Macintosh,
and smbfs for Linux.

nmbd
nmbd is a server that understands and
can reply to NetBIOS over IP name
service requests, like those produced by
SMBD/CIFS clients such as Windows
95/98, Windows NT and LanManager
clients. It also participates in the
browsing protocols which make up the
Windows Network Neighborhood view.

nmbd
nmbd can also be used as a WINS (Windows
Internet Name Server) server. What this
basically means is that it will act as a WINS
database server, creating a database from name
registration requests that it receives and replying
to queries from clients for these names. In
addition, nmbd can act as a WINS proxy,
relaying broadcast queries from clients that do
not understand how to talk the WINS protocol to
a WIN server.

smbclient
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.

testparm
testparm is a very simple test program to check
an smbd configuration file for internal
correctness. If this program reports no problems,
you can use the configuration file with
confidence that smbd will successfully load the
configuration file. If testparm finds an error in
the smb.conf file it returns an exit code of 1 to
the calling program, else it returns an exit code
of 0. This allows shell scripts to test the output
from testparm

testprns
testprns is a very simple test program to
determine whether a given printer name is
valid for use in a service to be provided by
smbd

smbstatus
smbstatus is a very simple program to
list the current Samba connections

nmblookup
nmblookup is used to query NetBIOS
names and map them to IP addresses
in a network using NetBIOS over
TCP/IP queries. The options allow the
name queries to be directed at a
particular IP broadcast area or to a
particular machine. All queries are done
over UDP

make_smbcodepage
make_smbcodepage compiles or decompiles codepage files for use with the
internationalization features of Samba 2.0

smbpasswd
The smbpasswd utility allows you to
change SMB encrypted passwords on
Samba and Windows NT servers.

Where can I get it?

The Samba suite is available via anonymous ftp from
samba.org and many mirror sites. The latest and greatest
versions of the suite are in the directory: /pub/samba/
Development (read "alpha") versions, which are NOT
necessarily stable and which do NOT necessarily have
accurate documentation, are available in the directory:
/pub/samba/alpha
Note that binaries are NOT included in any of the above.
Samba is distributed ONLY in source form.