1 .\" This manpage has been automatically generated by docbook2man-spec
2 .\" from a DocBook document. docbook2man-spec can be found at:
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4 .\" Please send any bug reports, improvements, comments, patches,
5 .\" etc. to Steve Cheng <steve@ggi-project.org>.
6 .TH "NMBD" "8" "28 January 2002" "" ""
8 nmbd \- NetBIOS name server to provide NetBIOS over IP naming services to clients
11 \fBnmbd\fR [ \fB-D\fR ] [ \fB-a\fR ] [ \fB-i\fR ] [ \fB-o\fR ] [ \fB-P\fR ] [ \fB-h\fR ] [ \fB-V\fR ] [ \fB-d <debug level>\fR ] [ \fB-H <lmhosts file>\fR ] [ \fB-l <log directory>\fR ] [ \fB-n <primary netbios name>\fR ] [ \fB-p <port number>\fR ] [ \fB-s <configuration file>\fR ]
14 This program is part of the Samba suite.
16 \fBnmbd\fR is a server that understands
17 and can reply to NetBIOS over IP name service requests, like
18 those produced by SMB/CIFS clients such as Windows 95/98/ME,
19 Windows NT, Windows 2000, and LanManager clients. It also
20 participates in the browsing protocols which make up the
21 Windows "Network Neighborhood" view.
23 SMB/CIFS clients, when they start up, may wish to
24 locate an SMB/CIFS server. That is, they wish to know what
25 IP number a specified host is using.
27 Amongst other services, \fBnmbd\fR will
28 listen for such requests, and if its own NetBIOS name is
29 specified it will respond with the IP number of the host it
30 is running on. Its "own NetBIOS name" is by
31 default the primary DNS name of the host it is running on,
32 but this can be overridden with the \fB-n\fR
33 option (see OPTIONS below). Thus \fBnmbd\fR will
34 reply to broadcast queries for its own name(s). Additional
35 names for \fBnmbd\fR to respond on can be set
36 via parameters in the \fI smb.conf(5)\fRconfiguration file.
38 \fBnmbd\fR can also be used as a WINS
39 (Windows Internet Name Server) server. What this basically means
40 is that it will act as a WINS database server, creating a
41 database from name registration requests that it receives and
42 replying to queries from clients for these names.
44 In addition, \fBnmbd\fR can act as a WINS
45 proxy, relaying broadcast queries from clients that do
46 not understand how to talk the WINS protocol to a WIN
51 If specified, this parameter causes
52 \fBnmbd\fR to operate as a daemon. That is,
53 it detaches itself and runs in the background, fielding
54 requests on the appropriate port. By default, \fBnmbd\fR
55 will operate as a daemon if launched from a command shell.
56 nmbd can also be operated from the \fBinetd\fR
57 meta-daemon, although this is not recommended.
60 If this parameter is specified, each new
61 connection will append log messages to the log file.
65 If this parameter is specified it causes the
66 server to run "interactively", not as a daemon, even if the
67 server is executed on the command line of a shell. Setting this
68 parameter negates the implicit deamon mode when run from the
72 If this parameter is specified, the
73 log files will be overwritten when opened. By default,
74 \fBsmbd\fR will append entries to the log
78 Prints the help information (usage)
82 NetBIOS lmhosts file. The lmhosts
83 file is a list of NetBIOS names to IP addresses that
84 is loaded by the nmbd server and used via the name
85 resolution mechanism name resolve order
86 to resolve any NetBIOS name queries needed by the server. Note
87 that the contents of this file are \fBNOT\fR
88 used by \fBnmbd\fR to answer any name queries.
89 Adding a line to this file affects name NetBIOS resolution
90 from this host \fBONLY\fR.
92 The default path to this file is compiled into
93 Samba as part of the build process. Common defaults
94 are \fI/usr/local/samba/lib/lmhosts\fR,
95 \fI/usr/samba/lib/lmhosts\fR or
96 \fI/etc/lmhosts\fR. See the \fIlmhosts(5)\fRman page for details on the
97 contents of this file.
100 Prints the version number for
103 \fB-d <debug level>\fR
104 debuglevel is an integer
105 from 0 to 10. The default value if this parameter is
106 not specified is zero.
108 The higher this value, the more detail will
109 be logged to the log files about the activities of the
110 server. At level 0, only critical errors and serious
111 warnings will be logged. Level 1 is a reasonable level for
112 day to day running - it generates a small amount of
113 information about operations carried out.
115 Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts
116 of log data, and should only be used when investigating
117 a problem. Levels above 3 are designed for use only by developers
118 and generate HUGE amounts of log data, most of which is extremely
121 Note that specifying this parameter here will override
123 parameter in the \fI smb.conf\fRfile.
125 \fB-l <log directory>\fR
126 The -l parameter specifies a directory
127 into which the "log.nmbd" log file will be created
128 for operational data from the running
131 The default log directory is compiled into Samba
132 as part of the build process. Common defaults are \fI /usr/local/samba/var/log.nmb\fR, \fI /usr/samba/var/log.nmb\fR or
133 \fI/var/log/log.nmb\fR.
135 \fB-n <primary NetBIOS name>\fR
136 This option allows you to override
137 the NetBIOS name that Samba uses for itself. This is identical
138 to setting the NetBIOS nameparameter in the
139 \fIsmb.conf\fRfile. However, a command
140 line setting will take precedence over settings in
143 \fB-p <UDP port number>\fR
144 UDP port number is a positive integer value.
145 This option changes the default UDP port number (normally 137)
146 that \fBnmbd\fR responds to name queries on. Don't
147 use this option unless you are an expert, in which case you
150 \fB-s <configuration file>\fR
151 The default configuration file name
152 is set at build time, typically as \fI /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf\fR, but
153 this may be changed when Samba is autoconfigured.
155 The file specified contains the configuration details
156 required by the server. See
157 \fIsmb.conf(5)\fRfor more information.
160 \fB\fI/etc/inetd.conf\fB\fR
161 If the server is to be run by the
162 \fBinetd\fR meta-daemon, this file
163 must contain suitable startup information for the
164 meta-daemon. See the UNIX_INSTALL.htmldocument
168 or whatever initialization script your
171 If running the server as a daemon at startup,
172 this file will need to contain an appropriate startup
173 sequence for the server. See the UNIX_INSTALL.htmldocument
176 \fB\fI/etc/services\fB\fR
177 If running the server via the
178 meta-daemon \fBinetd\fR, this file
179 must contain a mapping of service name (e.g., netbios-ssn)
180 to service port (e.g., 139) and protocol type (e.g., tcp).
181 See the UNIX_INSTALL.html
182 document for details.
184 \fB\fI/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf\fB\fR
185 This is the default location of the
187 server configuration file. Other common places that systems
188 install this file are \fI/usr/samba/lib/smb.conf\fR
189 and \fI/etc/smb.conf\fR.
191 When run as a WINS server (see the
193 parameter in the \fIsmb.conf(5)\fR man page),
195 will store the WINS database in the file \fIwins.dat\fR
196 in the \fIvar/locks\fR directory configured under
197 wherever Samba was configured to install itself.
199 If \fBnmbd\fR is acting as a \fB browse master\fR (see the local master
200 parameter in the \fIsmb.conf(5)\fR man page,
202 will store the browsing database in the file \fIbrowse.dat
203 \fRin the \fIvar/locks\fR directory
204 configured under wherever Samba was configured to install itself.
207 To shut down an \fBnmbd\fR process it is recommended
208 that SIGKILL (-9) \fBNOT\fR be used, except as a last
209 resort, as this may leave the name database in an inconsistent state.
210 The correct way to terminate \fBnmbd\fR is to send it
211 a SIGTERM (-15) signal and wait for it to die on its own.
213 \fBnmbd\fR will accept SIGHUP, which will cause
214 it to dump out its namelists into the file \fInamelist.debug
215 \fRin the \fI/usr/local/samba/var/locks\fR
216 directory (or the \fIvar/locks\fR directory configured
217 under wherever Samba was configured to install itself). This will also
218 cause \fBnmbd\fR to dump out its server database in
219 the \fIlog.nmb\fR file.
221 The debug log level of nmbd may be raised or lowered using
223 (SIGUSR[1|2] signals are no longer used in Samba 2.2). This is
224 to allow transient problems to be diagnosed, whilst still running
225 at a normally low log level.
228 This man page is correct for version 2.2 of
232 \fBinetd(8)\fR, \fBsmbd(8)\fR,
235 \fR, and the Internet RFC's
236 \fIrfc1001.txt\fR, \fIrfc1002.txt\fR.
237 In addition the CIFS (formerly SMB) specification is available
238 as a link from the Web page
239 http://samba.org/cifs/ <URL:http://samba.org/cifs/>.
242 The original Samba software and related utilities
243 were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed
244 by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar
245 to the way the Linux kernel is developed.
247 The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer.
248 The man page sources were converted to YODL format (another
249 excellent piece of Open Source software, available at
250 ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/ <URL:ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/>) and updated for the Samba 2.0
251 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to DocBook for
252 Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter