1 .TH SMB.CONF 5 smb.conf smb.conf
3 smb.conf \- configuration file for smbd
9 file is a configuration file for the Samba suite.
12 contains runtime configuration information for the
16 program provides LanManager-like services to clients
17 using the SMB protocol.
19 The file consists of sections and parameters. A section begins with the
20 name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
21 section begins. Sections contain parameters of the form 'name = value'.
23 The file is line-based - that is, each newline-terminated line represents
24 either a comment, a section name or a parameter.
26 Section and parameter names are not case sensitive.
28 Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before
29 or after the first equals sign is discarded. Leading, trailing and internal
30 whitespace in section and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading and
31 trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal whitespace
32 within a parameter value is retained verbatim.
34 Any line beginning with a semicolon is ignored, as are lines containing
37 Any line ending in a \e is "continued" on the next line in the
38 customary UNIX fashion.
40 The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a string
41 (no quotes needed) or a boolean, which may be given as yes/no, 0/1 or
42 true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, but is preserved
43 in string values. Some items such as create modes are numeric.
44 .SH SERVICE DESCRIPTIONS
45 Each section in the configuration file describes a service. The section name
46 is the service name and the parameters within the section define the service's
49 There are three special sections, [global], [homes] and [printers], which are
50 described under 'special sections'. The following notes apply to ordinary
53 A service consists of a directory to which access is being given plus a
54 description of the access rights which are granted to the user of the
55 service. Some housekeeping options are also specifiable.
57 Services are either filespace services (used by the client as an extension of
58 their native file systems) or printable services (used by the client to access
59 print services on the host running the server).
61 Services may be guest services, in which case no password is required to
62 access them. A specified guest account is used to define access privileges
65 Services other than guest services will require a password to access
66 them. The client provides the username. As many clients only provide
67 passwords and not usernames, you may specify a list of usernames to
68 check against the password using the "user=" option in the service
71 Note that the access rights granted by the server are masked by the access
72 rights granted to the specified or guest user by the host system. The
73 server does not grant more access than the host system grants.
75 The following sample section defines a file space service. The user has write
76 access to the path /home/bar. The service is accessed via the service name
83 The following sample section defines a printable service. The service is
84 readonly, but printable. That is, the only write access permitted is via
85 calls to open, write to and close a spool file. The 'guest ok' parameter
86 means access will be permitted as the default guest user (specified elsewhere):
89 path = /usr/spool/public
95 .SS The [global] section
97 Parameters in this section apply to the server as a whole, or are defaults
98 for services which do not specifically define certain items. See the notes
99 under 'Parameters' for more information.
102 .SS The [homes] section
104 If a section called 'homes' is included in the configuration file, services
105 connecting clients to their home directories can be created on the fly by the
108 When the connection request is made, the existing services are scanned. If a
109 match is found, it is used. If no match is found, the requested service name is
110 treated as a user name and looked up in the local passwords file. If the
111 name exists and the correct password has been given, a service is created
112 by cloning the [homes] section.
114 Some modifications are then made to the newly created section:
117 The service name is changed from 'homes' to the located username
119 If no path was given, the path is set to the user's home directory.
122 If you decide to use a path= line in your [homes] section then you may
123 find it useful to use the %S macro. For example path=/data/pchome/%S
124 would be useful if you have different home directories for your PCs
125 than for UNIX access.
127 This is a fast and simple way to give a large number of clients access to
128 their home directories with a minimum of fuss.
130 A similar process occurs if the requested service name is "homes", except that
131 the service name is not changed to that of the requesting user. This method
132 of using the [homes] section works well if different users share a client PC.
134 The [homes] section can specify all the parameters a normal service section
135 can specify, though some make more sense than others. The following is a
136 typical and suitable [homes] section:
144 If guest access is specified in the [homes] section, all home directories will
145 be accessible to all clients
146 .B without a password.
147 In the very unlikely event
148 that this is actually desirable, it would be wise to also specify read only
153 Note that the browseable flag for auto home directories will be
154 inherited from the global browseable flag, not the [homes] browseable
155 flag. This is useful as it means setting browseable=no in the [homes]
156 section will hide the [homes] service but make any auto home
159 .SS The [printers] section
161 This section works like [homes], but for printers.
163 If a [printers] section occurs in the configuration file, users are able
164 to connect to any printer specified in the local host's printcap file.
166 When a connection request is made, the existing services are scanned. If a
167 match is found, it is used. If no match is found, but a [homes] section
168 exists, it is used as described above. Otherwise, the requested service name is
169 treated as a printer name and the appropriate printcap file is scanned to
170 see if the requested service name is a valid printer name. If a match is
171 found, a new service is created by cloning the [printers] section.
173 A few modifications are then made to the newly created section:
176 The service name is set to the located printer name
178 If no printer name was given, the printer name is set to the located printer
181 If the service does not permit guest access and no username was given, the
182 username is set to the located printer name.
185 Note that the [printers] service MUST be printable - if you specify otherwise,
186 the server will refuse to load the configuration file.
188 Typically the path specified would be that of a world-writable spool directory
189 with the sticky bit set on it. A typical [printers] entry would look like this:
192 path = /usr/spool/public
197 All aliases given for a printer in the printcap file are legitimate printer
198 names as far as the server is concerned. If your printing subsystem doesn't
199 work like that, you will have to set up a pseudo-printcap. This is a file
200 consisting of one or more lines like this:
202 alias|alias|alias|alias...
204 Each alias should be an acceptable printer name for your printing
205 subsystem. In the [global] section, specify the new file as your printcap.
206 The server will then only recognise names found in your pseudo-printcap,
207 which of course can contain whatever aliases you like. The same technique
208 could be used simply to limit access to a subset of your local printers.
210 An alias, by the way, is defined as any component of the first entry of a
211 printcap record. Records are separated by newlines, components (if there are
212 more than one) are separated by vertical bar symbols ("|").
215 Parameters define the specific attributes of services.
217 Some parameters are specific to the [global] section (eg., security).
218 Some parameters are usable in all sections (eg., create mode). All others are
219 permissible only in normal sections. For the purposes of the following
220 descriptions the [homes] and [printers] sections will be considered normal.
221 The letter 'G' in parentheses indicates that a parameter is specific to the
222 [global] section. The letter 'S' indicates that a parameter can be
223 specified in a service specific section. Note that all S parameters
224 can also be specified in the [global] section - in which case they
225 will define the default behaviour for all services.
227 Parameters are arranged here in alphabetical order - this may not create
228 best bedfellows, but at least you can find them! Where there are synonyms,
229 the preferred synonym is described, others refer to the preferred synonym.
231 .SS VARIABLE SUBSTITUTIONS
233 Many of the strings that are settable in the config file can take
234 substitutions. For example the option "path = /tmp/%u" would be
235 interpreted as "path = /tmp/john" if the user connected with the
238 These substitutions are mostly noted in the descriptions below, but
239 there are some general substitutions which apply whenever they might be
242 %S = the name of the current service, if any
244 %P = the root directory of the current service, if any
246 %u = user name of the current service, if any
248 %g = primary group name of %u
250 %U = session user name (the user name that the client wanted, not
251 necessarily the same as the one they got)
253 %G = primary group name of %U
255 %H = the home directory of the user given by %u
257 %v = the Samba version
259 %h = the hostname that Samba is running on
261 %m = the netbios name of the client machine (very useful)
263 %L = the netbios name of the server. This allows you to change your
264 config based on what the client calls you. Your server can have a "dual
267 %M = the internet name of the client machine
269 %N = the name of your NIS home directory server. This is obtained from
270 your NIS auto.map entry. If you have not compiled Samba with -DAUTOMOUNT
271 then this value will be the same as %L.
273 %d = The process id of the current server process
275 %a = the architecture of the remote machine. Only some are recognised,
276 and those may not be 100% reliable. It currently recognises Samba,
277 WfWg, WinNT and Win95. Anything else will be known as "UNKNOWN". If it
278 gets it wrong then sending me a level 3 log should allow me to fix it.
280 %I = The IP address of the client machine
282 %T = the current date and time
284 There are some quite creative things that can be done with these
285 substitutions and other smb.conf options.
289 Samba supports "name mangling" so that DOS and Windows clients can use
290 files that don't conform to the 8.3 format. It can also be set to adjust
291 the case of 8.3 format filenames.
293 There are several options that control the way mangling is performed,
294 and they are grouped here rather than listed separately. For the
295 defaults look at the output of the testparm program.
297 All of these options can be set separately for each service (or
298 globally, of course).
302 "mangle case = yes/no" controls if names that have characters that
303 aren't of the "default" case are mangled. For example, if this is yes
304 then a name like "Mail" would be mangled. Default no.
306 "case sensitive = yes/no" controls whether filenames are case
307 sensitive. If they aren't then Samba must do a filename search and
308 match on passed names. Default no.
310 "default case = upper/lower" controls what the default case is for new
311 filenames. Default lower.
313 "preserve case = yes/no" controls if new files are created with the
314 case that the client passes, or if they are forced to be the "default"
317 "short preserve case = yes/no" controls if new files which conform to 8.3
318 syntax, that is all in upper case and of suitable length, are created
319 upper case, or if they are forced to be the "default" case. This option can
320 be use with "preserve case = yes" to permit long filenames to retain their
321 case, while short names are lowered. Default no.
323 .SS COMPLETE LIST OF GLOBAL PARAMETERS
325 Here is a list of all global parameters. See the section of each
326 parameter for details. Note that some are synonyms.
506 .SS COMPLETE LIST OF SERVICE PARAMETERS
508 Here is a list of all service parameters. See the section of each
509 parameter for details. Note that some are synonyms.
515 alternate permissions
677 .SS EXPLANATION OF EACH PARAMETER
682 This is a list of users who will be granted administrative privileges
683 on the share. This means that they will do all file operations as the
686 You should use this option very carefully, as any user in this list
687 will be able to do anything they like on the share, irrespective of
698 This specifies what type of server nmbd will announce itself as in
699 browse lists. By default this is set to Windows NT. The valid options
700 are "NT", "Win95" or "WfW" meaining Windows NT, Windows 95 and
701 Windows for Workgroups respectively. Do not change this parameter
702 unless you have a specific need to stop Samba appearing as an NT
703 server as this may prevent Samba servers from participating as
704 browser servers correctly.
712 .SS announce version (G)
714 This specifies the major and minor version numbers that nmbd
715 will use when announcing itself as a server. The default is 4.2.
716 Do not change this parameter unless you have a specific need to
717 set a Samba server to be a downlevel server.
720 announce version = 4.2
723 announce version = 2.0
725 .SS auto services (G)
726 This is a list of services that you want to be automatically added to
727 the browse lists. This is most useful for homes and printers services
728 that would otherwise not be visible.
730 Note that if you just want all printers in your printcap file loaded
731 then the "load printers" option is easier.
737 auto services = fred lp colorlp
740 A synonym for this parameter is 'hosts allow'.
742 This parameter is a comma delimited set of hosts which are permitted to access
745 If specified in the [global] section then it will apply to all
746 services, regardless of whether the individual service has a different
749 You can specify the hosts by name or IP number. For example, you could
750 restrict access to only the hosts on a Class C subnet with something like
751 "allow hosts = 150.203.5.". The full syntax of the list is described in
753 .BR hosts_access (5).
755 You can also specify hosts by network/netmask pairs and by netgroup
756 names if your system supports netgroups. The EXCEPT keyword can also
757 be used to limit a wildcard list. The following examples may provide
760 Example 1: allow all IPs in 150.203.*.* except one
762 hosts allow = 150.203. EXCEPT 150.203.6.66
764 Example 2: allow hosts that match the given network/netmask
766 hosts allow = 150.203.15.0/255.255.255.0
768 Example 3: allow a couple of hosts
770 hosts allow = lapland, arvidsjaur
772 Example 4: allow only hosts in netgroup "foonet" or localhost, but
773 deny access from one particular host
775 hosts allow = @foonet, localhost
778 Note that access still requires suitable user-level passwords.
782 for a way of testing your host access to see if it
783 does what you expect.
786 none (i.e., all hosts permitted access)
789 allow hosts = 150.203.5. myhost.mynet.edu.au
791 .SS alternate permissions (S)
793 This option affects the way the "read only" DOS attribute is produced
794 for UNIX files. If this is false then the read only bit is set for
795 files on writeable shares which the user cannot write to.
797 If this is true then it is set for files whos user write bit is not set.
799 The latter behaviour is useful for when users copy files from each
800 others directories, and use a file manager that preserves
801 permissions. Without this option they may get annoyed as all copied
802 files will have the "read only" bit set.
805 alternate permissions = no
808 alternate permissions = yes
811 This parameter lets you 'turn off' a service. If 'available = no', then
812 ALL attempts to connect to the service will fail. Such failures are logged.
820 This controls whether this share is seen in the list of available
821 shares in a net view and in the browse list.
829 This controls whether the smbd will serve a browse list to a client
830 doing a NetServerEnum call. Normally set to true. You should never
836 .SS case sensitive (G)
837 See the discussion on NAME MANGLING.
839 .SS case sig names (G)
842 .SS character set (G)
843 This allows a smbd to map incoming characters from a DOS 850 Code page
844 to either a Western European (ISO8859-1) or Easter European (ISO8859-2)
845 code page. Normally not set, meaning no filename translation is done.
853 character set = iso8859-1
855 .SS client code page (G)
856 Currently (Samba 1.9.17 and above) this may be set to one of two
857 values, 850 or 437. It specifies the base DOS code page that the
858 clients accessing Samba are using. To determine this, open a DOS
859 command prompt and type the command "chcp". This will output the
860 code page. The default for USA MS-DOS, Windows 95, and Windows NT
861 releases is code page 437. The default for western european
862 releases of the above operating systems is code page 850.
864 This parameter co-operates with the "valid chars" parameter in
865 determining what characters are valid in filenames and how
866 capitalization is done. It has been added as a convenience for
867 clients whose code page is either 437 or 850 so a convoluted
868 "valid chars" string does not have to be determined. If you
869 set both this parameter and the "valid chars" parameter the
870 "client code page" parameter MUST be set before the "valid chars"
871 in the smb.conf file. The "valid chars" string will then augment
872 the character settings in the "client code page" parameter.
874 If "client code page" is set to a value other than 850 or 437
875 it will default to 850.
877 See also : "valid chars".
881 client code page = 850
885 client code page = 437
888 This is a text field that is seen next to a share when a client does a
889 net view to list what shares are available.
891 If you want to set the string that is displayed next to the machine
892 name then see the server string command.
898 comment = Fred's Files
902 This allows you to override the config file to use, instead of the
903 default (usually smb.conf). There is a chicken and egg problem here as
904 this option is set in the config file!
906 For this reason, if the name of the config file has changed when the
907 parameters are loaded then it will reload them from the new config
910 This option takes the usual substitutions, which can be very useful.
912 If the config file doesn't exist then it won't be loaded (allowing
913 you to special case the config files of just a few clients).
916 config file = /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf.%m
919 This parameter allows you to 'clone' service entries. The specified
920 service is simply duplicated under the current service's name. Any
921 parameters specified in the current section will override those in the
922 section being copied.
924 This feature lets you set up a 'template' service and create similar
925 services easily. Note that the service being copied must occur earlier
926 in the configuration file than the service doing the copying.
934 A synonym for this parameter is 'create mode'.
936 When a file is created, the neccessary permissions are calculated
937 according to the mapping from DOS modes to UNIX permissions, and
938 the resulting UNIX mode is then bit-wise 'AND'ed with this parameter.
939 This parameter may be thought of as a bit-wise MASK for the UNIX
940 modes of a file. Any bit *not* set here will be removed from the
941 modes set on a file when it is created.
943 The default value of this parameter removes the 'group' and 'other'
944 write and execute bits from the UNIX modes.
946 Following this Samba will bit-wise 'OR' the UNIX mode created from
947 this parameter with the value of the "force create mode" parameter
948 which is set to 000 by default.
950 For Samba 1.9.17 and above this parameter no longer affects directory
951 modes. See the parameter 'directory mode' for details.
953 See also the "force create mode" parameter for forcing particular
954 mode bits to be set on created files.
955 See also the "directory mode" parameter for masking mode bits on created
968 The value of the parameter (a decimal integer) represents the number of
969 minutes of inactivity before a connection is considered dead, and it
970 is disconnected. The deadtime only takes effect if the number of open files
973 This is useful to stop a server's resources being exhausted by a large
974 number of inactive connections.
976 Most clients have an auto-reconnect feature when a connection is broken so
977 in most cases this parameter should be transparent to users.
979 Using this parameter with a timeout of a few minutes is recommended
982 A deadtime of zero indicates that no auto-disconnection should be performed.
990 The value of the parameter (an integer) allows the debug level
991 (logging level) to be specified in the
993 file. This is to give
994 greater flexibility in the configuration of the system.
996 The default will be the debug level specified on the command line.
1003 .SS default case (S)
1005 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" Also note the addition of "short
1008 .SS default service (G)
1009 A synonym for this parameter is 'default'.
1011 This parameter specifies the name of a service which will be connected to
1012 if the service actually requested cannot be found. Note that the square
1013 brackets are NOT given in the parameter value (see example below).
1015 There is no default value for this parameter. If this parameter is not given,
1016 attempting to connect to a nonexistent service results in an error.
1018 Typically the default service would be a public, read-only service.
1020 Also note that as of 1.9.14 the apparent service name will be changed to
1021 equal that of the requested service, this is very useful as it allows
1022 you to use macros like %S to make a wildcard service.
1024 Note also that any _ characters in the name of the service used in the
1025 default service will get mapped to a /. This allows for interesting
1030 default service = pub
1036 .SS delete readonly (S)
1037 This parameter allows readonly files to be deleted. This is not normal DOS
1038 semantics, but is allowed by UNIX.
1040 This option may be useful for running applications such as rcs, where UNIX
1041 file ownership prevents changing file permissions, and DOS semantics prevent
1042 deletion of a read only file.
1045 delete readonly = No
1048 delete readonly = Yes
1050 A synonym for this parameter is 'hosts deny'.
1052 The opposite of 'allow hosts' - hosts listed here are NOT permitted
1053 access to services unless the specific services have their own lists to
1054 override this one. Where the lists conflict, the 'allow' list takes precedence.
1057 none (i.e., no hosts specifically excluded)
1060 deny hosts = 150.203.4. badhost.mynet.edu.au
1062 .SS delete veto files (S)
1064 This option is used when Samba is attempting to delete a directory
1065 that contains one or more vetoed directories (see the 'veto files' option).
1066 If this option is set to False (the default) then if a vetoed directory
1067 contains any non-vetoed files or directories then the directory delete
1068 will fail. This is usually what you want.
1070 If this option is set to True, then Samba will attempt
1071 to recursively delete any files and directories within the vetoed
1072 directory. This can be useful for integration with file serving
1073 systems such as Netatalk, which create meta-files within directories
1074 you might normally veto DOS/Windows users from seeing (eg. .AppleDouble)
1076 Setting 'delete veto files = True' allows these directories to be
1077 transparently deleted when the parent directory is deleted (so long
1078 as the user has permissions to do so).
1081 delete veto files = False
1084 delete veto files = True
1089 .SS dfree command (G)
1090 The dfree command setting should only be used on systems where a
1091 problem occurs with the internal disk space calculations. This has
1092 been known to happen with Ultrix, but may occur with other operating
1093 systems. The symptom that was seen was an error of "Abort Retry
1094 Ignore" at the end of each directory listing.
1096 This setting allows the replacement of the internal routines to
1097 calculate the total disk space and amount available with an external
1098 routine. The example below gives a possible script that might fulfill
1101 The external program will be passed a single parameter indicating a
1102 directory in the filesystem being queried. This will typically consist
1103 of the string "./". The script should return two integers in ascii. The
1104 first should be the total disk space in blocks, and the second should
1105 be the number of available blocks. An optional third return value
1106 can give the block size in bytes. The default blocksize is 1024 bytes.
1108 Note: Your script should NOT be setuid or setgid and should be owned by
1109 (and writable only by) root!
1112 By default internal routines for determining the disk capacity
1113 and remaining space will be used.
1116 dfree command = /usr/local/samba/bin/dfree
1118 Where the script dfree (which must be made executable) could be
1122 df $1 | tail -1 | awk '{print $2" "$4}'
1125 or perhaps (on Sys V)
1129 /usr/bin/df -k $1 | tail -1 | awk '{print $3" "$5}'
1132 Note that you may have to replace the command names with full
1133 path names on some systems.
1138 .SS directory mask (S)
1139 A synonym for this parameter is 'directory mode'.
1141 This parameter is the octal modes which are used when converting DOS modes
1142 to UNIX modes when creating UNIX directories.
1144 When a directory is created, the neccessary permissions are calculated
1145 according to the mapping from DOS modes to UNIX permissions, and
1146 the resulting UNIX mode is then bit-wise 'AND'ed with this parameter.
1147 This parameter may be thought of as a bit-wise MASK for the UNIX
1148 modes of a directory. Any bit *not* set here will be removed from the
1149 modes set on a directory when it is created.
1151 The default value of this parameter removes the 'group' and 'other'
1152 write bits from the UNIX mode, allowing only the user who owns the
1153 directory to modify it.
1155 Following this Samba will bit-wise 'OR' the UNIX mode created from
1156 this parameter with the value of the "force directory mode" parameter.
1157 This parameter is set to 000 by default (ie. no extra mode bits are added).
1159 See the "force directory mode" parameter to cause particular mode
1160 bits to always be set on created directories.
1162 See also the "create mode" parameter for masking mode bits on created
1166 directory mask = 0755
1169 directory mask = 0775
1171 .SS directory mode (S)
1177 Specifies that nmbd should (as a WINS server), on finding that a NetBIOS
1178 name has not been registered, treat the NetBIOS name word-for-word as
1181 Note that the maximum length for a NetBIOS name is 15
1182 characters, so the DNS name (or DNS alias) can likewise only be 15
1183 characters, maximum.
1185 Note also that nmbd will block completely until the DNS name is resolved.
1186 This will result in temporary loss of browsing and WINS services.
1187 Enable this option only if you are certain that DNS resolution is fast,
1188 or you can live with the consequences of periodic pauses in nmbd service.
1193 .SS domain controller (G)
1195 Specifies the DNS name or IP address of the machine to refer domain
1196 logons from Win95 machines to. You should never need to set this parameter.
1199 domain controller = no
1201 .SS domain groups (G)
1203 Specifies the NT Domain groups that the user belongs to, and the attributes
1204 associated with that group. This parameter is a white-space separated list
1205 of group ids (in decimal), followed by an option attribute (in decimal) which
1206 defaults to a value of 7 if not specified. A group id and the user attributes
1207 associated with it are separated by "/".
1210 It is known that attributes are ignored by NT 4.0 Workstation, but not by
1211 NT 3.51 Workstation. Furthermore, no information on the exact meaning of
1212 NT Domain groups is presently known.
1215 domain groups = 776/7
1218 domain groups = 776 1024/7 777
1222 Specifies the SID when using Samba as a Logon Server for NT Workstations.
1223 The format of SIDs supported by samba at present is S-1-N-nnn-nnn-nnn-nnn-nnn.
1224 The number N indicates the number of sub-authorities (nnn).
1230 domain sid = S-1-5-21-123-456-789-123
1232 .SS domain logons (G)
1234 If set to true, the Samba server will serve Windows 95 domain logons
1235 for the workgroup it is in. For more details on setting up this feature
1236 see the file DOMAINS.txt in the Samba source documentation directory.
1241 .SS domain master (G)
1243 Enable WAN-wide browse list collation. Local master browsers on
1244 broadcast-isolated subnets will give samba their local browse lists, and
1245 ask for a complete copy of the browse list for the whole wide area network.
1246 Browser clients will then contact their local master browser, and will
1247 receive the domain-wide browse list, instead of just the list for their
1248 broadcast-isolated subnet.
1253 .SS dont descend (S)
1254 There are certain directories on some systems (eg., the /proc tree under
1255 Linux) that are either not of interest to clients or are infinitely deep
1256 (recursive). This parameter allows you to specify a comma-delimited list
1257 of directories that the server should always show as empty.
1259 Note that Samba can be very fussy about the exact format of the "dont
1260 descend" entries. For example you may need "./proc" instead of just
1261 "/proc". Experimentation is the best policy :-)
1264 none (i.e., all directories are OK to descend)
1267 dont descend = /proc,/dev
1269 .SS dos filetimes (S)
1270 Under DOS and Windows, if a user can write to a file they can change
1271 the timestamp on it. Under POSIX semantics, only the owner of the file
1272 or root may change the timestamp. By default, Samba runs with POSIX
1273 semantics and refuses to change the timestamp on a file if the user
1274 smbd is acting on behalf of is not the file owner. Setting this option
1275 to True allows DOS semantics and smbd will change the file timstamp as
1276 DOS requires. This is a correct implementation of a previous compile-time
1277 options (UTIME_WORKAROUND) which was broken and is now removed.
1280 dos filetimes = False
1283 dos filetimes = True
1285 .SS encrypt passwords (G)
1287 This boolean controls whether encrypted passwords will be negotiated
1288 with the client. Note that this option has no effect if you haven't
1289 compiled in the necessary des libraries and encryption code. It
1294 This is an alias for preexec
1296 .SS fake oplocks (S)
1298 Oplocks are the way that SMB clients get permission from a server to
1299 locally cache file operations. If a server grants an oplock
1300 (opportunistic lock) then the client is free to assume that it is the
1301 only one accessing the file and it will aggressively cache file
1302 data. With some oplock types the client may even cache file open/close
1303 operations. This can give enormous performance benefits.
1305 When you set "fake oplocks = yes" Samba will always grant oplock
1306 requests no matter how many clients are using the file.
1308 By enabling this option on all read-only shares or shares that you know
1309 will only be accessed from one client at a time you will see a big
1310 performance improvement on many operations. If you enable this option
1311 on shares where multiple clients may be accessing the files read-write
1312 at the same time you can get data corruption. Use this option
1315 It is generally much better to use the real oplock support except for
1316 physically read-only media such as CDROMs.
1318 This option is disabled by default.
1320 .SS follow symlinks (S)
1322 This parameter allows the Samba administrator to stop smbd from
1323 following symbolic links in a particular share. Setting this
1324 parameter to "No" prevents any file or directory that is a
1325 symbolic link from being followed (the user will get an error).
1326 This option is very useful to stop users from adding a symbolic
1327 link to /etc/pasword in their home directory for instance.
1328 However it will slow filename lookups down slightly.
1330 This option is enabled (ie. smbd will follow symbolic links)
1333 .SS force create mode (S)
1334 This parameter specifies a set of UNIX mode bit permissions that
1335 will *always* be set on a file created by Samba. This is done
1336 by bitwise 'OR'ing these bits onto the mode bits of a file that
1337 is being created. The default for this parameter is (in octel)
1338 000. The modes in this parameter are bitwise 'OR'ed onto the
1339 file mode after the mask set in the "create mask" parameter
1342 See also the parameter "create mask" for details on masking mode
1343 bits on created files.
1346 force create mode = 000
1349 force create mode = 0755
1351 would force all created files to have read and execute permissions
1352 set for 'group' and 'other' as well as the read/write/execute bits
1355 .SS force directory mode (S)
1356 This parameter specifies a set of UNIX mode bit permissions that
1357 will *always* be set on a directory created by Samba. This is done
1358 by bitwise 'OR'ing these bits onto the mode bits of a directory that
1359 is being created. The default for this parameter is (in octel)
1360 0000 which will not add any extra permission bits to a created
1361 directory. This operation is done after the mode mask in the parameter
1362 "directory mask" is applied.
1364 See also the parameter "directory mask" for details on masking mode
1365 bits on created directories.
1368 force directory mode = 000
1371 force directory mode = 0755
1373 would force all created directories to have read and execute permissions
1374 set for 'group' and 'other' as well as the read/write/execute bits
1378 This specifies a group name that all connections to this service
1379 should be made as. This may be useful for sharing files.
1385 force group = agroup
1388 This specifies a user name that all connections to this service
1389 should be made as. This may be useful for sharing files. You should
1390 also use it carefully as using it incorrectly can cause security
1393 This user name only gets used once a connection is established. Thus
1394 clients still need to connect as a valid user and supply a valid
1395 password. Once connected, all file operations will be performed as the
1396 "forced user", not matter what username the client connected as.
1405 This is a tuning option. When this is enabled a cacheing algorithm will
1406 be used to reduce the time taken for getwd() calls. This can have a
1407 significant impact on performance, especially when widelinks is False.
1416 This is an alias for "force group" and is only kept for compatibility
1417 with old versions of Samba. It may be removed in future versions.
1419 .SS guest account (S)
1420 This is a username which will be used for access to services which are
1421 specified as 'guest ok' (see below). Whatever privileges this user has
1422 will be available to any client connecting to the guest
1423 service. Typically this user will exist in the password file, but will
1424 not have a valid login. If a username is specified in a given service,
1425 the specified username overrides this one.
1427 One some systems the account "nobody" may not be able to print. Use
1428 another account in this case. You should test this by trying to log in
1429 as your guest user (perhaps by using the "su \-" command) and trying to
1433 Note that as of version 1.9 of Samba this option may be set
1434 differently for each service.
1437 specified at compile time
1440 guest account = nobody
1445 If this parameter is 'yes' for a service, then only guest connections to the
1446 service are permitted. This parameter will have no affect if "guest ok" or
1447 "public" is not set for the service.
1449 See the section below on user/password validation for more information about
1457 .SS hide dot files (S)
1458 This is a boolean parameter that controls whether files starting with
1459 a dot appear as hidden files.
1462 hide dot files = yes
1469 This is a list of files or directories that are not visible but are
1470 accessible. The DOS 'hidden' attribute is applied to any files or
1471 directories that match.
1473 Each entry in the list must be separated by a "/", which allows spaces
1474 to be included in the entry. '*' and '?' can be used to specify multiple
1475 files or directories as in DOS wildcards.
1477 Each entry must be a unix path, not a DOS path and must not include the
1478 unix directory separator "/".
1480 Note that the case sensitivity option is applicable in hiding files.
1482 Setting this parameter will affect the performance of Samba, as
1483 it will be forced to check all files and directories for a match
1484 as they are scanned.
1486 See also "hide dot files", "veto files" and "case sensitive"
1489 No files or directories are hidden by this option (dot files are
1490 hidden by default because of the "hide dot files" option).
1493 hide files = /.*/DesktopFolderDB/TrashFor%m/resource.frk/
1495 The above example is based on files that the Macintosh client (DAVE)
1496 creates for internal use, and also still hides all files beginning with
1500 If "nis homedir" is true, this parameter specifies the NIS (or YP) map
1501 from which the server for the user's home directory should be extracted.
1502 At present, only the Sun auto.home map format is understood. The form of
1505 username server:/some/file/system
1507 and the program will extract the servername from before the first ':'.
1508 There should probably be a better parsing system that copes with different
1509 map formats and also Amd (another automounter) maps.
1511 NB: The -DNETGROUP option is required in the Makefile for option to work
1512 and on some architectures the line -lrpcsvc needs to be added to the
1513 LIBSM variable. This is required for Solaris 2, FreeBSD and HPUX.
1515 See also "nis homedir"
1518 homedir map = auto.home
1521 homedir map = amd.homedir
1530 If this global parameter is a non-null string, it specifies the name of
1531 a file to read for the names of hosts and users who will be allowed access
1532 without specifying a password.
1534 This is not be confused with
1536 which is about hosts access to services and is more useful for guest services.
1538 may be useful for NT clients which will not supply passwords to samba.
1540 NOTE: The use of hosts.equiv can be a major security hole. This is
1541 because you are trusting the PC to supply the correct username. It is
1542 very easy to get a PC to supply a false username. I recommend that the
1543 hosts.equiv option be only used if you really know what you are doing,
1544 or perhaps on a home network where you trust your wife and kids :-)
1547 No host equivalences
1550 hosts equiv = /etc/hosts.equiv
1554 This allows you to include one config file inside another. The file is
1555 included literally, as though typed in place.
1557 It takes the standard substitutions, except %u, %P and %S
1561 This option allows you to setup multiple network interfaces, so that
1562 Samba can properly handle browsing on all interfaces.
1564 The option takes a list of ip/netmask pairs. The netmask may either be
1565 a bitmask, or a bitlength.
1567 For example, the following line:
1569 interfaces = 192.168.2.10/24 192.168.3.10/24
1571 would configure two network interfaces with IP addresses 192.168.2.10
1572 and 192.168.3.10. The netmasks of both interfaces would be set to
1575 You could produce an equivalent result by using:
1577 interfaces = 192.168.2.10/255.255.255.0 192.168.3.10/255.255.255.0
1579 if you prefer that format.
1581 If this option is not set then Samba will attempt to find a primary
1582 interface, but won't attempt to configure more than one interface.
1584 .SS invalid users (S)
1585 This is a list of users that should not be allowed to login to this
1586 service. This is really a "paranoid" check to absolutely ensure an
1587 improper setting does not breach your security.
1589 A name starting with @ is interpreted as a UNIX group.
1591 The current servicename is substituted for %S. This is useful in the
1594 See also "valid users"
1600 invalid users = root fred admin @wheel
1603 The value of the parameter (an integer) represents the number of seconds
1604 between 'keepalive' packets. If this parameter is zero, no keepalive packets
1605 will be sent. Keepalive packets, if sent, allow the server to tell whether a
1606 client is still present and responding.
1608 Keepalives should, in general, not be needed if the socket being used
1609 has the SO_KEEPALIVE attribute set on it (see "socket
1610 options"). Basically you should only use this option if you strike
1618 .SS load printers (G)
1619 A boolean variable that controls whether all printers in the printcap
1620 will be loaded for browsing by default.
1628 .SS local master (G)
1629 This option allows the nmbd to become a local master browser on a
1630 subnet. If set to False then nmbd will not attempt to become a local
1631 master browser on a subnet and will also lose in all browsing elections.
1632 By default this value is set to true. Setting this value to true doesn't
1633 mean that Samba will become the local master browser on a subnet, just
1634 that the nmbd will participate in elections for local master browser.
1639 .SS lock directory (G)
1640 This option specifies the directory where lock files will be placed.
1641 The lock files are used to implement the "max connections" option.
1644 lock directory = /tmp/samba
1647 lock directory = /usr/local/samba/var/locks
1650 This controls whether or not locking will be performed by the server in
1651 response to lock requests from the client.
1653 If "locking = no", all lock and unlock requests will appear to succeed and
1654 all lock queries will indicate that the queried lock is clear.
1656 If "locking = yes", real locking will be performed by the server.
1658 This option may be particularly useful for read-only filesystems which
1659 do not need locking (such as cdrom drives).
1661 Be careful about disabling locking either globally or in a specific
1662 service, as lack of locking may result in data corruption.
1672 This options allows you to override the name of the Samba log file
1673 (also known as the debug file).
1675 This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you to have
1676 separate log files for each user or machine.
1679 log file = /usr/local/samba/var/log.%m
1686 This parameter specifies the local path to which the home directory
1687 will be connected (see "logon home") and is only used by NT Workstations.
1694 This parameter specifies the home directory location when a Win95 or
1695 NT Workstation logs into a Samba PDC. It allows you to do "NET USE
1696 H: /HOME" from a command prompt, for example.
1699 This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you to have
1700 separate logon scripts for each user or machine.
1703 logon home = "\\\\remote_smb_server\\%U"
1706 logon home = "\\\\%N\\%U"
1710 This parameter specifies the home directory where roaming profiles
1711 (USER.DAT / USER.MAN files for Windows 95) are stored.
1713 This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you to have
1714 separate logon scripts for each user or machine. It also specifies
1715 the directory from which the "desktop", "start menu", "nethood" and
1716 "programs" folders, and their contents, are loaded and displayed
1717 on your Windows 95 client.
1719 The share and the path must be readable by the user for the preferences
1720 and directories to be loaded onto the Windows 95 client. The share
1721 must be writeable when the logs in for the first time, in order that
1722 the Windows 95 client can create the user.dat and other directories.
1724 Thereafter, the directories and any of contents can, if required,
1725 be made read-only. It is not adviseable that the USER.DAT file be made
1726 read-only - rename it to USER.MAN to achieve the desired effect
1727 (a MANdatory profile).
1729 Windows clients can sometimes maintain a connection to the [homes]
1730 share, even though there is no user logged in. Therefore, it is
1731 vital that the logon path does not include a reference to the
1732 homes share (i.e \\\\%N\\HOMES\profile_path will cause problems).
1735 This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you to have
1736 separate logon scripts for each user or machine.
1739 logon path = \\\\%N\\%U\\profile
1742 logon path = \\\\PROFILESERVER\\HOME_DIR\\%U\\PROFILE
1744 .SS logon script (G)
1746 This parameter specifies the batch file (.bat) or NT command file (.cmd)
1747 to be downloaded and run on a machine when a user successfully logs in.
1748 The file must contain the DOS style cr/lf line endings. Using a DOS-style
1749 editor to create the file is recommended.
1751 The script must be a relative path to the [netlogon] service. If the
1752 [netlogon] service specifies a path of /usr/local/samba/netlogon, and
1753 logon script = STARTUP.BAT, then file that will be downloaded is:
1755 .B /usr/local/samba/netlogon/STARTUP.BAT
1757 The contents of the batch file is entirely your choice. A suggested
1758 command would be to add NET TIME \\\\SERVER /SET /YES, to force every
1759 machine to synchronise clocks with the same time server. Another use
1760 would be to add NET USE U: \\\\SERVER\\UTILS for commonly used utilities,
1761 or NET USE Q: \\\\SERVER\\ISO9001_QA.
1763 Note that it is particularly important not to allow write access to
1764 the [netlogon] share, or to grant users write permission on the
1765 batch files in a secure environment, as this would allow the batch
1766 files to be arbitrarily modified.
1769 This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you to have
1770 separate logon scripts for each user or machine.
1773 logon script = scripts/%U.bat
1775 .SS lppause command (S)
1776 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1777 order to stop printing or spooling a specific print job.
1779 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name and
1780 job number to pause the print job. Currently I don't know of any print
1781 spooler system that can do this with a simple option, except for the PPR
1782 system from Trinity College (ppr\-dist.trincoll.edu/pub/ppr). One way
1783 of implementing this is by using job priorities, where jobs having a too
1784 low priority won't be sent to the printer. See also the
1788 If a %p is given then the printername is put in its place. A %j is
1789 replaced with the job number (an integer).
1790 On HPUX (see printing=hpux), if the -p%p option is added to the lpq
1791 command, the job will show up with the correct status, i.e. if the job
1792 priority is lower than the set fence priority it will have the PAUSED
1793 status, whereas if the priority is equal or higher it will have the
1794 SPOOLED or PRINTING status.
1796 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lppause
1797 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1800 Currently no default value is given to this string
1802 .B Example for HPUX:
1803 lppause command = /usr/bin/lpalt %p-%j -p0
1805 .SS lpq cache time (G)
1807 This controls how long lpq info will be cached for to prevent the lpq
1808 command being called too often. A separate cache is kept for each
1809 variation of the lpq command used by the system, so if you use
1810 different lpq commands for different users then they won't share cache
1813 The cache files are stored in /tmp/lpq.xxxx where xxxx is a hash
1814 of the lpq command in use.
1816 The default is 10 seconds, meaning that the cached results of a
1817 previous identical lpq command will be used if the cached data is less
1818 than 10 seconds old. A large value may be advisable if your lpq
1819 command is very slow.
1821 A value of 0 will disable cacheing completely.
1830 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1831 order to obtain "lpq"-style printer status information.
1833 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name
1834 as its only parameter and outputs printer status information.
1836 Currently six styles of printer status information are supported; BSD,
1837 SYSV, AIX, HPUX, QNX, LPRNG and PLP. This covers most UNIX systems. You
1838 control which type is expected using the "printing =" option.
1840 Some clients (notably Windows for Workgroups) may not correctly send the
1841 connection number for the printer they are requesting status information
1842 about. To get around this, the server reports on the first printer service
1843 connected to by the client. This only happens if the connection number sent
1846 If a %p is given then the printername is put in its place. Otherwise
1847 it is placed at the end of the command.
1849 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lpq
1850 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1853 depends on the setting of "printing ="
1856 lpq command = /usr/bin/lpq %p
1858 .SS lpresume command (S)
1859 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1860 order to restart or continue printing or spooling a specific print job.
1862 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name and
1863 job number to resume the print job. See also the lppause command.
1865 If a %p is given then the printername is put in its place. A %j is
1866 replaced with the job number (an integer).
1868 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lpresume
1869 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1872 Currently no default value is given to this string
1874 .B Example for HPUX:
1875 lpresume command = /usr/bin/lpalt %p-%j -p2
1877 .SS lprm command (S)
1878 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1879 order to delete a print job.
1881 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name
1882 and job number, and deletes the print job.
1884 Currently seven styles of printer control are supported; BSD, SYSV, AIX
1885 HPUX, QNX, LPRNG and PLP. This covers most UNIX systems. You control
1886 which type is expected using the "printing =" option.
1888 If a %p is given then the printername is put in its place. A %j is
1889 replaced with the job number (an integer).
1891 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lprm
1892 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1895 depends on the setting of "printing ="
1898 lprm command = /usr/bin/lprm -P%p %j
1901 lprm command = /usr/bin/cancel %p-%j
1903 .SS magic output (S)
1904 This parameter specifies the name of a file which will contain output
1905 created by a magic script (see
1909 Warning: If two clients use the same magic script in the same directory the
1910 output file content is undefined.
1912 magic output = <magic script name>.out
1915 magic output = myfile.txt
1916 .SS magic script (S)
1917 This parameter specifies the name of a file which, if opened, will be
1918 executed by the server when the file is closed. This allows a UNIX script
1919 to be sent to the Samba host and executed on behalf of the connected user.
1921 Scripts executed in this way will be deleted upon completion, permissions
1924 If the script generates output, output will be sent to the file specified by
1927 parameter (see above).
1929 Note that some shells are unable to interpret scripts containing
1930 carriage-return-linefeed instead of linefeed as the end-of-line
1931 marker. Magic scripts must be executable "as is" on the host, which
1932 for some hosts and some shells will require filtering at the DOS end.
1934 Magic scripts are EXPERIMENTAL and should NOT be relied upon.
1937 None. Magic scripts disabled.
1940 magic script = user.csh
1944 See the section on "NAME MANGLING"
1947 This is for those who want to directly map UNIX file names which are
1948 not representable on DOS. The mangling of names is not always what is
1949 needed. In particular you may have documents with file extensions
1950 that differ between DOS and UNIX. For example, under UNIX it is common
1951 to use .html for HTML files, whereas under DOS .htm is more commonly
1954 So to map 'html' to 'htm' you put:
1956 mangled map = (*.html *.htm)
1958 One very useful case is to remove the annoying ;1 off the ends of
1959 filenames on some CDROMS (only visible under some UNIXes). To do this
1960 use a map of (*;1 *)
1966 mangled map = (*;1 *)
1968 .SS mangled names (S)
1969 This controls whether non-DOS names under UNIX should be mapped to
1970 DOS-compatible names ("mangled") and made visible, or whether non-DOS names
1971 should simply be ignored.
1973 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for details on how to control the
1976 If mangling is used then the mangling algorithm is as follows:
1978 - the first (up to) five alphanumeric characters before the rightmost dot of
1979 the filename are preserved, forced to upper case, and appear as the first (up
1980 to) five characters of the mangled name.
1982 - a tilde ("~") is appended to the first part of the mangled name, followed
1983 by a two-character unique sequence, based on the original root name
1984 (i.e., the original filename minus its final extension). The final
1985 extension is included in the hash calculation only if it contains any upper
1986 case characters or is longer than three characters.
1988 Note that the character to use may be specified using the "mangling
1989 char" option, if you don't like ~.
1991 - the first three alphanumeric characters of the final extension are preserved,
1992 forced to upper case and appear as the extension of the mangled name. The
1993 final extension is defined as that part of the original filename after the
1994 rightmost dot. If there are no dots in the filename, the mangled name will
1995 have no extension (except in the case of hidden files - see below).
1997 - files whose UNIX name begins with a dot will be presented as DOS hidden
1998 files. The mangled name will be created as for other filenames, but with the
1999 leading dot removed and "___" as its extension regardless of actual original
2000 extension (that's three underscores).
2003 The two-digit hash value consists of upper case alphanumeric characters.
2005 This algorithm can cause name collisions only if files in a directory share
2006 the same first five alphanumeric characters. The probability of such a clash
2009 The name mangling (if enabled) allows a file to be copied between UNIX
2010 directories from DOS while retaining the long UNIX filename. UNIX files can
2011 be renamed to a new extension from DOS and will retain the same basename.
2012 Mangled names do not change between sessions.
2019 .SS mangling char (S)
2020 This controls what character is used as the "magic" character in name
2021 mangling. The default is a ~ but this may interfere with some
2022 software. Use this option to set it to whatever you prefer.
2030 .SS mangled stack (G)
2031 This parameter controls the number of mangled names that should be cached in
2034 This stack is a list of recently mangled base names (extensions are only
2035 maintained if they are longer than 3 characters or contains upper case
2038 The larger this value, the more likely it is that mangled names can be
2039 successfully converted to correct long UNIX names. However, large stack
2040 sizes will slow most directory access. Smaller stacks save memory in the
2041 server (each stack element costs 256 bytes).
2043 It is not possible to absolutely guarantee correct long file names, so
2044 be prepared for some surprises!
2053 This controls whether the DOS archive attribute should be mapped to the
2054 UNIX owner execute bit. The DOS archive bit is set when a file has been modified
2055 since its last backup. One motivation for this option it to keep Samba/your
2056 PC from making any file it touches from becoming executable under UNIX.
2057 This can be quite annoying for shared source code, documents, etc...
2059 Note that this requires the 'create mask' to be set such that owner
2060 execute bit is not masked out (ie. it must include 100). See the
2061 parameter "create mask" for details.
2070 This controls whether DOS style hidden files should be mapped to the
2071 UNIX world execute bit.
2073 Note that this requires the 'create mask' to be set such that the world
2074 execute bit is not masked out (ie. it must include 001).
2075 See the parameter "create mask" for details.
2083 This controls whether DOS style system files should be mapped to the
2084 UNIX group execute bit.
2086 Note that this requires the 'create mask' to be set such that the group
2087 execute bit is not masked out (ie. it must include 010). See the parameter
2088 "create mask" for details.
2095 .SS max connections (S)
2096 This option allows the number of simultaneous connections to a
2097 service to be limited. If "max connections" is greater than 0 then
2098 connections will be refused if this number of connections to the
2099 service are already open. A value of zero mean an unlimited number of
2100 connections may be made.
2102 Record lock files are used to implement this feature. The lock files
2103 will be stored in the directory specified by the "lock directory" option.
2109 max connections = 10
2111 .SS max disk size (G)
2112 This option allows you to put an upper limit on the apparent size of
2113 disks. If you set this option to 100 then all shares will appear to be
2114 not larger than 100 MB in size.
2116 Note that this option does not limit the amount of data you can put on
2117 the disk. In the above case you could still store much more than 100
2118 MB on the disk, but if a client ever asks for the amount of free disk
2119 space or the total disk size then the result will be bounded by the
2120 amount specified in "max disk size".
2122 This option is primarily useful to work around bugs in some pieces of
2123 software that can't handle very large disks, particularly disks over
2126 A "max disk size" of 0 means no limit.
2132 max disk size = 1000
2134 .SS max log size (G)
2136 This option (an integer in kilobytes) specifies the max size the log
2137 file should grow to. Samba periodically checks the size and if it is
2138 exceeded it will rename the file, adding a .old extension.
2140 A size of 0 means no limit.
2150 This option controls the maximum number of outstanding simultaneous SMB
2151 operations that samba tells the client it will allow. You should never need
2152 to set this parameter.
2159 A synonym for this parameter is 'packet size'.
2163 This option tells nmbd what the default 'time to live' of NetBIOS
2164 names should be (in seconds). You should never need to change this parameter.
2170 This option controls the maximum packet size that will be negotiated
2171 by Samba. The default is 65535, which is the maximum. In some cases
2172 you may find you get better performance with a smaller value. A value
2173 below 2048 is likely to cause problems.
2181 .SS message command (G)
2183 This specifies what command to run when the server receives a WinPopup
2186 This would normally be a command that would deliver the message
2187 somehow. How this is to be done is up to your imagination.
2191 message command = csh -c 'xedit %s;rm %s' &
2193 This delivers the message using xedit, then removes it
2194 afterwards. NOTE THAT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THIS COMMAND RETURN
2195 IMMEDIATELY. That's why I have the & on the end. If it doesn't return
2196 immediately then your PCs may freeze when sending messages (they
2197 should recover after 30secs, hopefully).
2199 All messages are delivered as the global guest user. The command takes
2200 the standard substitutions, although %u won't work (%U may be better
2203 Apart from the standard substitutions, some additional ones apply. In
2206 %s = the filename containing the message
2208 %t = the destination that the message was sent to (probably the server
2211 %f = who the message is from
2213 You could make this command send mail, or whatever else takes your
2214 fancy. Please let me know of any really interesting ideas you have.
2216 Here's a way of sending the messages as mail to root:
2218 message command = /bin/mail -s 'message from %f on %m' root < %s; rm %s
2220 If you don't have a message command then the message won't be
2221 delivered and Samba will tell the sender there was an
2222 error. Unfortunately WfWg totally ignores the error code and carries
2223 on regardless, saying that the message was delivered.
2225 If you want to silently delete it then try "message command = rm %s".
2227 For the really adventurous, try something like this:
2229 message command = csh -c 'csh < %s |& /usr/local/samba/bin/smbclient \e
2232 this would execute the command as a script on the server, then give
2233 them the result in a WinPopup message. Note that this could cause a
2234 loop if you send a message from the server using smbclient! You better
2235 wrap the above in a script that checks for this :-)
2241 message command = csh -c 'xedit %s;rm %s' &
2243 .SS min print space (S)
2245 This sets the minimum amount of free disk space that must be available
2246 before a user will be able to spool a print job. It is specified in
2247 kilobytes. The default is 0, which means no limit.
2253 min print space = 2000
2255 .SS netbios aliases (G)
2257 This is a list of names that nmbd will advertise as additional
2258 names by which the Samba server is known. This allows one machine
2259 to appear in browse lists under multiple names. If a machine is
2260 acting as a browse server or logon server none of these names
2261 will be advertised as either browse server or logon servers, only
2262 the primary name of the machine will be advertised with these
2265 See also 'netbios name'.
2268 netbios aliases = TEST TEST1 TEST2
2270 .SS netbios name (G)
2272 This sets the NetBIOS name by which a Samba server is known. By
2273 default it is the same as the first component of the host's DNS name.
2274 If a machine is a browse server or logon server this name (or the
2275 first component of the hosts DNS name) will be the name that these
2276 services are advertised under.
2278 See also 'netbios aliases'.
2281 netbios name = MYNAME
2284 Get the home share server from a NIS (or YP) map. For unix systems that
2285 use an automounter, the user's home directory will often be mounted on
2286 a workstation on demand from a remote server. When the Samba logon server
2287 is not the actual home directory server, two network hops are required
2288 to access the home directory and this can be very slow especially with
2289 writing via Samba to an NFS mounted directory. This option allows samba
2290 to return the home share as being on a different server to the logon
2291 server and as long as a samba daemon is running on the home directory
2292 server, it will be mounted on the Samba client directly from the directory
2293 server. When Samba is returning the home share to the client, it will
2294 consult the NIS (or YP) map specified in "homedir map" and return the
2295 server listed there.
2303 .SS null passwords (G)
2304 Allow or disallow access to accounts that have null passwords.
2310 null passwords = yes
2313 A synonym for this command is 'guest only'.
2316 This is a boolean option that controls whether connections with
2317 usernames not in the user= list will be allowed. By default this
2318 option is disabled so a client can supply a username to be used by
2321 Note that this also means Samba won't try to deduce usernames from the
2322 service name. This can be annoying for the [homes] section. To get
2323 around this you could use "user = %S" which means your "user" list
2324 will be just the service name, which for home directories is the name
2334 This boolean option tells smbd whether to issue oplocks (opportunistic
2335 locks) to file open requests on this share. The oplock code was introduced in
2336 Samba 1.9.18 and can dramatically (approx 30% or more) improve the speed
2337 of access to files on Samba servers. It allows the clients to agressively
2338 cache files locally and you may want to disable this option for unreliable
2339 network environments (it is turned on by default in Windows NT Servers).
2340 For more information see the file Speed.txt in the Samba docs/ directory.
2350 This integer value controls what level Samba advertises itself as for
2351 browse elections. See BROWSING.txt for details.
2354 The maximum transmit packet size during a raw read. This option is no
2355 longer implemented as of version 1.7.00, and is kept only so old
2356 configuration files do not become invalid.
2359 This string controls the "chat" conversation that takes places
2360 between smbd and the local password changing program to change the
2361 users password. The string describes a sequence of response-receive
2362 pairs that smbd uses to determine what to send to the passwd program
2363 and what to expect back. If the expected output is not received then
2364 the password is not changed.
2366 This chat sequence is often quite site specific, depending on what
2367 local methods are used for password control (such as NIS+ etc).
2369 The string can contain the macros %o and %n which are substituted for
2370 the old and new passwords respectively. It can also contain the
2371 standard macros \en \er \et and \es to give line-feed, carriage-return,
2374 The string can also contain a * which matches any sequence of
2377 Double quotes can be used to collect strings with spaces in them into
2380 If the send string in any part of the chat sequence is a fullstop "."
2381 then no string is sent. Similarly, is the expect string is a fullstop
2382 then no string is expected.
2385 passwd chat = "*Enter OLD password*" %o\en "*Enter NEW password*" %n\en \e
2386 "*Reenter NEW password*" %n\en "*Password changed*"
2390 passwd chat = *old*password* %o\en *new*password* %n\en *new*password* %n\en *changed*
2392 .SS passwd program (G)
2393 The name of a program that can be used to set user passwords.
2395 This is only necessary if you have enabled remote password changing at
2396 compile time. Any occurrences of %u will be replaced with the user
2399 Also note that many passwd programs insist in "reasonable" passwords,
2400 such as a minimum length, or the inclusion of mixed case chars and
2401 digits. This can pose a problem as some clients (such as Windows for
2402 Workgroups) uppercase the password before sending it.
2405 passwd program = /bin/passwd
2408 passwd program = /sbin/passwd %u
2410 .SS password level (G)
2411 Some client/server combinations have difficulty with mixed-case passwords.
2412 One offending client is Windows for Workgroups, which for some reason forces
2413 passwords to upper case when using the LANMAN1 protocol, but leaves them alone
2414 when using COREPLUS!
2416 This parameter defines the maximum number of characters that may be upper case
2419 For example, say the password given was "FRED". If
2421 is set to 1 (one), the following combinations would be tried if "FRED" failed:
2422 "Fred", "fred", "fRed", "frEd", "freD". If
2423 .B password level was set to 2 (two), the following combinations would also be
2424 tried: "FRed", "FrEd", "FreD", "fREd", "fReD", "frED". And so on.
2426 The higher value this parameter is set to the more likely it is that a mixed
2427 case password will be matched against a single case password. However, you
2428 should be aware that use of this parameter reduces security and increases the
2429 time taken to process a new connection.
2431 A value of zero will cause only two attempts to be made - the password as is
2432 and the password in all-lower case.
2434 If you find the connections are taking too long with this option then
2435 you probably have a slow crypt() routine. Samba now comes with a fast
2436 "ufc crypt" that you can select in the Makefile. You should also make
2437 sure the PASSWORD_LENGTH option is correct for your system in local.h
2438 and includes.h. On most systems only the first 8 chars of a password
2439 are significant so PASSWORD_LENGTH should be 8, but on some longer
2440 passwords are significant. The includes.h file tries to select the
2441 right length for your system.
2449 .SS password server (G)
2451 By specifying the name of another SMB server (such as a WinNT box)
2452 with this option, and using "security = server" you can get Samba to
2453 do all its username/password validation via a remote server.
2455 This options sets the name of the password server to use. It must be a
2456 netbios name, so if the machine's netbios name is different from its
2457 internet name then you may have to add its netbios name to
2460 The password server much be a machine capable of using the "LM1.2X002"
2461 or the "LM NT 0.12" protocol, and it must be in user level security
2464 NOTE: Using a password server means your UNIX box (running Samba) is
2465 only as secure as your password server. DO NOT CHOOSE A PASSWORD
2466 SERVER THAT YOU DON'T COMPLETELY TRUST.
2468 Never point a Samba server at itself for password serving. This will
2469 cause a loop and could lock up your Samba server!
2471 The name of the password server takes the standard substitutions, but
2472 probably the only useful one is %m, which means the Samba server will
2473 use the incoming client as the password server. If you use this then
2474 you better trust your clients, and you better restrict them with hosts
2477 If you list several hosts in the "password server" option then smbd
2478 will try each in turn till it finds one that responds. This is useful
2479 in case your primary server goes down.
2482 A synonym for this parameter is 'directory'.
2484 This parameter specifies a directory to which the user of the service is to
2485 be given access. In the case of printable services, this is where print data
2486 will spool prior to being submitted to the host for printing.
2488 For a printable service offering guest access, the service should be readonly
2489 and the path should be world-writable and have the sticky bit set. This is not
2490 mandatory of course, but you probably won't get the results you expect if you
2493 Any occurrences of %u in the path will be replaced with the username
2494 that the client is connecting as. Any occurrences of %m will be
2495 replaced by the name of the machine they are connecting from. These
2496 replacements are very useful for setting up pseudo home directories
2499 Note that this path will be based on 'root dir' if one was specified.
2508 This option specifies a command to be run whenever the service is
2509 disconnected. It takes the usual substitutions. The command may be run
2510 as the root on some systems.
2512 An interesting example may be do unmount server resources:
2514 postexec = /etc/umount /cdrom
2519 none (no command executed)
2522 postexec = echo \e"%u disconnected from %S from %m (%I)\e" >> /tmp/log
2525 This parameter forces a printer to interpret the print files as
2526 postscript. This is done by adding a %! to the start of print output.
2528 This is most useful when you have lots of PCs that persist in putting
2529 a control-D at the start of print jobs, which then confuses your
2540 This option specifies a command to be run whenever the service is
2541 connected to. It takes the usual substitutions.
2543 An interesting example is to send the users a welcome message every
2544 time they log in. Maybe a message of the day? Here is an example:
2546 preexec = csh -c 'echo \e"Welcome to %S!\e" | \e
2547 /usr/local/samba/bin/smbclient -M %m -I %I' &
2549 Of course, this could get annoying after a while :-)
2554 none (no command executed)
2557 preexec = echo \e"%u connected to %S from %m (%I)\e" >> /tmp/log
2559 .SS preferred master (G)
2560 This boolean parameter controls if Samba is a preferred master browser
2562 If this is set to true, on startup, samba will force an election,
2563 and it will have a slight advantage in winning the election.
2564 It is recommended that this parameter is used in conjunction
2565 with domain master = yes, so that samba can guarantee becoming
2568 Use this option with caution, because if there are several hosts
2569 (whether samba servers, Windows 95 or NT) that are preferred master
2570 browsers on the same subnet, they will each periodically and continuously
2571 attempt to become the local master browser. This will result in
2572 unnecessary broadcast traffic and reduced browsing capabilities.
2578 preferred master = no
2581 This is an alias for "auto services"
2583 .SS preserve case (S)
2585 This controls if new filenames are created with the case that the
2586 client passes, or if they are forced to be the "default" case.
2591 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for a fuller discussion.
2593 .SS print command (S)
2594 After a print job has finished spooling to a service, this command will be
2595 used via a system() call to process the spool file. Typically the command
2596 specified will submit the spool file to the host's printing subsystem, but
2597 there is no requirement that this be the case. The server will not remove the
2598 spool file, so whatever command you specify should remove the spool file when
2599 it has been processed, otherwise you will need to manually remove old spool
2602 The print command is simply a text string. It will be used verbatim,
2603 with two exceptions: All occurrences of "%s" will be replaced by the
2604 appropriate spool file name, and all occurrences of "%p" will be
2605 replaced by the appropriate printer name. The spool file name is
2606 generated automatically by the server, the printer name is discussed
2609 The full path name will be used for the filename if %s is not preceded
2610 by a /. If you don't like this (it can stuff up some lpq output) then
2611 use %f instead. Any occurrences of %f get replaced by the spool
2612 filename without the full path at the front.
2614 The print command MUST contain at least one occurrence of "%s" or %f -
2615 the "%p" is optional. At the time a job is submitted, if no printer
2616 name is supplied the "%p" will be silently removed from the printer
2619 If specified in the [global] section, the print command given will be used
2620 for any printable service that does not have its own print command specified.
2622 If there is neither a specified print command for a printable service nor a
2623 global print command, spool files will be created but not processed and (most
2624 importantly) not removed.
2626 Note that printing may fail on some UNIXes from the "nobody"
2627 account. If this happens then create an alternative guest account that
2628 can print and set the "guest account" in the [global] section.
2630 You can form quite complex print commands by realising that they are
2631 just passed to a shell. For example the following will log a print
2632 job, print the file, then remove it. Note that ; is the usual
2633 separator for command in shell scripts.
2635 print command = echo Printing %s >> /tmp/print.log; lpr -P %p %s; rm %s
2637 You may have to vary this command considerably depending on how you
2638 normally print files on your system.
2641 print command = lpr -r -P %p %s
2644 print command = /usr/local/samba/bin/myprintscript %p %s
2649 A synonym for this parameter is 'print ok'.
2651 If this parameter is 'yes', then clients may open, write to and submit spool
2652 files on the directory specified for the service.
2654 Note that a printable service will ALWAYS allow writing to the service path
2655 (user privileges permitting) via the spooling of print data. The 'read only'
2656 parameter controls only non-printing access to the resource.
2664 .SS printcap name (G)
2665 This parameter may be used to override the compiled-in default printcap
2666 name used by the server (usually /etc/printcap). See the discussion of the
2667 [printers] section above for reasons why you might want to do this.
2669 For those of you without a printcap (say on SysV) you can just create a
2670 minimal file that looks like a printcap and set "printcap name =" in
2671 [global] to point at it.
2673 A minimal printcap file would look something like this:
2685 where the | separates aliases of a printer. The fact that the second
2686 alias has a space in it gives a hint to Samba that it's a comment.
2688 NOTE: Under AIX the default printcap name is "/etc/qconfig". Samba
2689 will assume the file is in AIX "qconfig" format if the string
2690 "/qconfig" appears in the printcap filename.
2693 printcap name = /etc/printcap
2696 printcap name = /etc/myprintcap
2698 A synonym for this parameter is 'printer name'.
2700 This parameter specifies the name of the printer to which print jobs spooled
2701 through a printable service will be sent.
2703 If specified in the [global] section, the printer name given will be used
2704 for any printable service that does not have its own printer name specified.
2707 none (but may be 'lp' on many systems)
2710 printer name = laserwriter
2712 .SS printer driver (S)
2713 This option allows you to control the string that clients receive when
2714 they ask the server for the printer driver associated with a
2715 printer. If you are using Windows95 or WindowsNT then you can use this
2716 to automate the setup of printers on your system.
2718 You need to set this parameter to the exact string (case sensitive)
2719 that describes the appropriate printer driver for your system.
2720 If you don't know the exact string to use then you should first try
2721 with no "printer driver" option set and the client will give you a
2722 list of printer drivers. The appropriate strings are shown in a
2723 scrollbox after you have chosen the printer manufacturer.
2726 printer driver = HP LaserJet 4L
2728 .SS printer name (S)
2733 This parameters controls how printer status information is interpreted
2734 on your system, and also affects the default values for the "print
2735 command", "lpq command" and "lprm command".
2737 Currently six printing styles are supported. They are "printing =
2738 bsd", "printing = sysv", "printing = hpux", "printing = aix",
2739 "printing = qnx" and "printing = plp".
2741 To see what the defaults are for the other print commands when using
2742 these three options use the "testparm" program.
2746 The value of the parameter (a string) is the highest protocol level that will
2747 be supported by the server.
2749 Possible values are CORE, COREPLUS, LANMAN1, LANMAN2 and NT1. The relative
2750 merits of each are discussed in the README file.
2752 Normally this option should not be set as the automatic negotiation
2753 phase in the SMB protocol takes care of choosing the appropriate protocol.
2761 A synonym for this parameter is 'guest ok'.
2763 If this parameter is 'yes' for a service, then no password is required
2764 to connect to the service. Privileges will be those of the guest
2767 See the section below on user/password validation for more information about
2776 This is a list of users that are given read-only access to a
2777 service. If the connecting user is in this list then they will
2778 not be given write access, no matter what the "read only" option
2779 is set to. The list can include group names using the @group syntax.
2781 See also the "write list" option
2787 read list = mary, @students
2794 Note that this is an inverted synonym for writable and write ok.
2795 .SS read prediction (G)
2796 This options enables or disables the read prediction code used to
2797 speed up reads from the server. When enabled the server will try to
2798 pre-read data from the last accessed file that was opened read-only
2799 while waiting for packets.
2802 read prediction = False
2805 read prediction = True
2807 This parameter controls whether or not the server will support raw reads when
2808 transferring data to clients.
2810 If enabled, raw reads allow reads of 65535 bytes in one packet. This
2811 typically provides a major performance benefit.
2813 However, some clients either negotiate the allowable block size incorrectly
2814 or are incapable of supporting larger block sizes, and for these clients you
2815 may need to disable raw reads.
2817 In general this parameter should be viewed as a system tuning tool and left
2818 severely alone. See also
2828 The option "read size" affects the overlap of disk reads/writes with
2829 network reads/writes. If the amount of data being transferred in
2830 several of the SMB commands (currently SMBwrite, SMBwriteX and
2831 SMBreadbraw) is larger than this value then the server begins writing
2832 the data before it has received the whole packet from the network, or
2833 in the case of SMBreadbraw, it begins writing to the network before
2834 all the data has been read from disk.
2836 This overlapping works best when the speeds of disk and network access
2837 are similar, having very little effect when the speed of one is much
2838 greater than the other.
2840 The default value is 2048, but very little experimentation has been
2841 done yet to determine the optimal value, and it is likely that the best
2842 value will vary greatly between systems anyway. A value over 65536 is
2843 pointless and will cause you to allocate memory unnecessarily.
2851 .SS remote announce (G)
2853 This option allows you to setup nmbd to periodically announce itself
2854 to arbitrary IP addresses with an arbitrary workgroup name.
2856 This is useful if you want your Samba server to appear in a remote
2857 workgroup for which the normal browse propagation rules don't
2858 work. The remote workgroup can be anywhere that you can send IP
2863 remote announce = 192.168.2.255/SERVERS 192.168.4.255/STAFF
2865 the above line would cause nmbd to announce itself to the two given IP
2866 addresses using the given workgroup names. If you leave out the
2867 workgroup name then the one given in the "workgroup" option is used
2870 The IP addresses you choose would normally be the broadcast addresses
2871 of the remote networks, but can also be the IP addresses of known
2872 browse masters if your network config is that stable.
2874 This option replaces similar functionality from the nmbd lmhosts file.
2878 This options controls whether Samba will allow a previously validated
2879 username/password pair to be used to attach to a share. Thus if you
2880 connect to \e\eserver\eshare1 then to \e\eserver\eshare2 it won't
2881 automatically allow the client to request connection to the second
2882 share as the same username as the first without a password.
2884 If "revalidate" is True then the client will be denied automatic
2885 access as the same username.
2899 .SS root directory (G)
2900 Synonyms for this parameter are 'root dir' and 'root'.
2902 The server will chroot() to this directory on startup. This is not
2903 strictly necessary for secure operation. Even without it the server
2904 will deny access to files not in one of the service entries. It may
2905 also check for, and deny access to, soft links to other parts of the
2906 filesystem, or attempts to use .. in file names to access other
2907 directories (depending on the setting of the "wide links" parameter).
2909 Adding a "root dir" entry other than "/" adds an extra level of security,
2910 but at a price. It absolutely ensures that no access is given to files not
2911 in the sub-tree specified in the "root dir" option, *including* some files
2912 needed for complete operation of the server. To maintain full operability
2913 of the server you will need to mirror some system files into the "root dir"
2914 tree. In particular you will need to mirror /etc/passwd (or a subset of it),
2915 and any binaries or configuration files needed for printing (if required).
2916 The set of files that must be mirrored is operating system dependent.
2922 root directory = /homes/smb
2923 .SS root postexec (S)
2925 This is the same as postexec except that the command is run as
2926 root. This is useful for unmounting filesystems (such as cdroms) after
2927 a connection is closed.
2929 .SS root preexec (S)
2931 This is the same as preexec except that the command is run as
2932 root. This is useful for mounting filesystems (such as cdroms) before
2933 a connection is finalised.
2936 This option affects how clients respond to Samba.
2938 The option sets the "security mode bit" in replies to protocol negotiations
2939 to turn share level security on or off. Clients decide based on this bit
2940 whether (and how) to transfer user and password information to the server.
2942 The default is "security=SHARE", mainly because that was the only
2943 option at one stage.
2945 The alternatives are "security = user" or "security = server".
2947 If your PCs use usernames that are the same as their usernames on the
2948 UNIX machine then you will want to use "security = user". If you
2949 mostly use usernames that don't exist on the UNIX box then use
2952 There is a bug in WfWg that may affect your decision. When in user
2953 level security a WfWg client will totally ignore the password you type
2954 in the "connect drive" dialog box. This makes it very difficult (if
2955 not impossible) to connect to a Samba service as anyone except the
2956 user that you are logged into WfWg as.
2958 If you use "security = server" then Samba will try to validate the
2959 username/password by passing it to another SMB server, such as an NT
2960 box. If this fails it will revert to "security = USER".
2962 See the "password server" option for more details.
2969 .SS server string (G)
2970 This controls what string will show up in the printer comment box in
2971 print manager and next to the IPC connection in "net view". It can be
2972 any string that you wish to show to your users.
2974 It also sets what will appear in browse lists next to the machine name.
2976 A %v will be replaced with the Samba version number.
2978 A %h will be replaced with the hostname.
2981 server string = Samba %v
2984 server string = University of GNUs Samba Server
2986 .SS set directory (S)
2987 If 'set directory = no', then users of the service may not use the setdir
2988 command to change directory.
2990 The setdir command is only implemented in the Digital Pathworks client. See the
2991 Pathworks documentation for details.
2999 .SS shared file entries (G)
3000 This parameter is only useful when Samba has been compiled with FAST_SHARE_MODES.
3001 It specifies the number of hash bucket entries used for share file locking.
3002 You should never change this parameter unless you have studied the source
3003 and know what you are doing.
3006 shared file entries = 113
3008 .SS shared mem size (G)
3009 This parameter is only useful when Samba has been compiled with FAST_SHARE_MODES.
3010 It specifies the size of the shared memory (in bytes) to use between smbd
3011 processes. You should never change this parameter unless you have studied
3012 the source and know what you are doing.
3015 shared mem size = 102400
3017 .SS smb passwd file (G)
3018 This option sets the path to the encrypted smbpasswd file. This is a *VERY
3019 DANGEROUS OPTION* if the smb.conf is user writable. By default the path
3020 to the smbpasswd file is compiled into Samba.
3023 This sets the full path to the smbrun binary. This defaults to the
3024 value in the Makefile.
3026 You must get this path right for many services to work correctly.
3032 smbrun = /usr/local/samba/bin/smbrun
3036 This enables or disables the honouring of the "share modes" during a
3037 file open. These modes are used by clients to gain exclusive read or
3038 write access to a file.
3040 These open modes are not directly supported by UNIX, so they are
3041 simulated using lock files in the "lock directory". The "lock
3042 directory" specified in smb.conf must be readable by all users.
3044 The share modes that are enabled by this option are DENY_DOS,
3045 DENY_ALL, DENY_READ, DENY_WRITE, DENY_NONE and DENY_FCB.
3047 Enabling this option gives full share compatibility but may cost a bit
3048 of processing time on the UNIX server. They are enabled by default.
3056 .SS short preserve case (S)
3058 This controls if new short filenames are created with the case that
3059 the client passes, or if they are forced to be the "default" case.
3062 short preserve case = no
3064 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for a fuller discussion.
3066 .SS socket address (G)
3068 This option allows you to control what address Samba will listen for
3069 connections on. This is used to support multiple virtual interfaces on
3070 the one server, each with a different configuration.
3072 By default samba will accept connections on any address.
3075 socket address = 192.168.2.20
3077 .SS socket options (G)
3078 This option (which can also be invoked with the -O command line
3079 option) allows you to set socket options to be used when talking with
3082 Socket options are controls on the networking layer of the operating
3083 systems which allow the connection to be tuned.
3085 This option will typically be used to tune your Samba server for
3086 optimal performance for your local network. There is no way that Samba
3087 can know what the optimal parameters are for your net, so you must
3088 experiment and choose them yourself. I strongly suggest you read the
3089 appropriate documentation for your operating system first (perhaps
3090 "man setsockopt" will help).
3092 You may find that on some systems Samba will say "Unknown socket
3093 option" when you supply an option. This means you either mis-typed it
3094 or you need to add an include file to includes.h for your OS. If the
3095 latter is the case please send the patch to me
3096 (samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au).
3098 Any of the supported socket options may be combined in any way you
3099 like, as long as your OS allows it.
3101 This is the list of socket options currently settable using this
3124 Those marked with a * take an integer argument. The others can
3125 optionally take a 1 or 0 argument to enable or disable the option, by
3126 default they will be enabled if you don't specify 1 or 0.
3128 To specify an argument use the syntax SOME_OPTION=VALUE for example
3129 SO_SNDBUF=8192. Note that you must not have any spaces before or after
3132 If you are on a local network then a sensible option might be
3134 socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY
3136 If you have an almost unloaded local network and you don't mind a lot
3137 of extra CPU usage in the server then you could try
3139 socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY
3141 If you are on a wide area network then perhaps try setting
3144 Note that several of the options may cause your Samba server to fail
3145 completely. Use these options with caution!
3151 socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY
3157 This enables or disables logging of connections to a status file that
3163 won't be able to tell you what
3164 connections are active.
3172 .SS strict locking (S)
3173 This is a boolean that controls the handling of file locking in the
3174 server. When this is set to yes the server will check every read and
3175 write access for file locks, and deny access if locks exist. This can
3176 be slow on some systems.
3178 When strict locking is "no" the server does file lock checks only when
3179 the client explicitly asks for them.
3181 Well behaved clients always ask for lock checks when it is important,
3182 so in the vast majority of cases "strict locking = no" is preferable.
3188 strict locking = yes
3191 This is a boolean that controls whether to strip trailing dots off
3192 UNIX filenames. This helps with some CDROMs that have filenames ending in a
3202 This parameter maps how Samba debug messages are logged onto the
3203 system syslog logging levels. Samba debug level zero maps onto
3204 syslog LOG_ERR, debug level one maps onto LOG_WARNING, debug
3205 level two maps to LOG_NOTICE, debug level three maps onto LOG_INFO.
3206 The paramter sets the threshold for doing the mapping, all Samba
3207 debug messages above this threashold are mapped to syslog LOG_DEBUG
3215 If this parameter is set then Samba debug messages are logged into
3216 the system syslog only, and not to the debug log files.
3223 This is a boolean parameter that controls whether writes will always
3224 be written to stable storage before the write call returns. If this is
3225 false then the server will be guided by the client's request in each
3226 write call (clients can set a bit indicating that a particular write
3227 should be synchronous). If this is true then every write will be
3228 followed by a fsync() call to ensure the data is written to disk.
3237 This parameter is a setting in minutes to add to the normal GMT to
3238 local time conversion. This is useful if you are serving a lot of PCs
3239 that have incorrect daylight saving time handling.
3248 This parameter determines if nmbd advertises itself as a time server
3249 to Windows clients. The default is False.
3257 .SS unix realname (G)
3258 This boolean parameter when set causes samba to supply the real name field
3259 from the unix password file to the client. This is useful for setting up
3260 mail clients and WWW browsers on systems used by more than one person.
3272 A synonym for this parameter is 'user'.
3274 Multiple users may be specified in a comma-delimited list, in which case the
3275 supplied password will be tested against each username in turn (left to right).
3277 The username= line is needed only when the PC is unable to supply its own
3278 username. This is the case for the coreplus protocol or where your
3279 users have different WfWg usernames to UNIX usernames. In both these
3280 cases you may also be better using the \e\eserver\eshare%user syntax
3283 The username= line is not a great solution in many cases as it means Samba
3284 will try to validate the supplied password against each of the
3285 usernames in the username= line in turn. This is slow and a bad idea for
3286 lots of users in case of duplicate passwords. You may get timeouts or
3287 security breaches using this parameter unwisely.
3289 Samba relies on the underlying UNIX security. This parameter does not
3290 restrict who can login, it just offers hints to the Samba server as to
3291 what usernames might correspond to the supplied password. Users can
3292 login as whoever they please and they will be able to do no more
3293 damage than if they started a telnet session. The daemon runs as the
3294 user that they log in as, so they cannot do anything that user cannot
3297 To restrict a service to a particular set of users you can use the
3298 "valid users=" line.
3300 If any of the usernames begin with a @ then the name will be looked up
3301 in the groups file and will expand to a list of all users in the group
3302 of that name. Note that searching though a groups file can take quite
3303 some time, and some clients may time out during the search.
3305 See the section below on username/password validation for more information
3306 on how this parameter determines access to the services.
3309 The guest account if a guest service, else the name of the service.
3313 username = fred, mary, jack, jane, @users, @pcgroup
3315 .SS username level (G)
3317 This option helps Samba to try and 'guess' at the real UNIX username,
3318 as many DOS clients send an all-uppercase username. By default Samba
3319 tries all lowercase, followed by the username with the first letter
3320 capitalized, and fails if the username is not found on the UNIX machine.
3322 If this parameter is set to non-zero the behaviour changes. This
3323 parameter is a number that specifies the number of uppercase combinations
3324 to try whilst trying to determine the UNIX user name. The higher the number
3325 the more combinations will be tried, but the slower the discovery
3326 of usernames will be. Use this parameter when you have strange
3327 usernames on your UNIX machine, such as 'AstrangeUser'.
3335 .SS username map (G)
3337 This option allows you to to specify a file containing a mapping of
3338 usernames from the clients to the server. This can be used for several
3339 purposes. The most common is to map usernames that users use on DOS or
3340 Windows machines to those that the UNIX box uses. The other is to map
3341 multiple users to a single username so that they can more easily share
3344 The map file is parsed line by line. Each line should contain a single
3345 UNIX username on the left then a '=' followed by a list of usernames
3346 on the right. The list of usernames on the right may contain names of
3347 the form @group in which case they will match any UNIX username in
3348 that group. The special client name '*' is a wildcard and matches any
3351 The file is processed on each line by taking the supplied username and
3352 comparing it with each username on the right hand side of the '='
3353 signs. If the supplied name matches any of the names on the right
3354 hand side then it is replaced with the name on the left. Processing
3355 then continues with the next line.
3357 If any line begins with a '#' or a ';' then it is ignored
3359 For example to map from the name "admin" or "administrator" to the UNIX
3360 name "root" you would use
3362 root = admin administrator
3364 Or to map anyone in the UNIX group "system" to the UNIX name "sys" you
3369 You can have as many mappings as you like in a username map file.
3371 Note that the remapping is applied to all occurrences of
3372 usernames. Thus if you connect to "\e\eserver\efred" and "fred" is
3373 remapped to "mary" then you will actually be connecting to
3374 "\e\eserver\emary" and will need to supply a password suitable for
3375 "mary" not "fred". The only exception to this is the username passed
3376 to the "password server" (if you have one). The password server will
3377 receive whatever username the client supplies without modification.
3379 Also note that no reverse mapping is done. The main effect this has is
3380 with printing. Users who have been mapped may have trouble deleting
3381 print jobs as PrintManager under WfWg will think they don't own the
3388 username map = /usr/local/samba/lib/users.map
3392 The option allows you to specify additional characters that should be
3393 considered valid by the server in filenames. This is particularly
3394 useful for national character sets, such as adding u-umlaut or a-ring.
3396 The option takes a list of characters in either integer or character
3397 form with spaces between them. If you give two characters with a colon
3398 between them then it will be taken as an lowercase:uppercase pair.
3400 If you have an editor capable of entering the characters into the
3401 config file then it is probably easiest to use this method. Otherwise
3402 you can specify the characters in octal, decimal or hexadecimal form
3403 using the usual C notation.
3405 For example to add the single character 'Z' to the charset (which is a
3406 pointless thing to do as it's already there) you could do one of the
3411 valid chars = 0132:0172
3413 The last two examples above actually add two characters, and alter
3414 the uppercase and lowercase mappings appropriately.
3416 Note that you MUST specify this parameter after the "client code page"
3417 parameter if you have both set. If "client code page" is set after
3418 the "valid chars" parameter the "valid chars" settings will be
3421 See also the "client code page" parameter.
3425 Samba defaults to using a reasonable set of valid characters
3430 valid chars = 0345:0305 0366:0326 0344:0304
3432 The above example allows filenames to have the swedish characters in
3435 NOTE: It is actually quite difficult to correctly produce a "valid
3436 chars" line for a particular system. To automate the process
3437 tino@augsburg.net has written a package called "validchars" which will
3438 automatically produce a complete "valid chars" line for a given client
3439 system. Look in the examples subdirectory for this package.
3442 This is a list of users that should be allowed to login to this
3443 service. A name starting with @ is interpreted as a UNIX group.
3445 If this is empty (the default) then any user can login. If a username
3446 is in both this list and the "invalid users" list then access is
3447 denied for that user.
3449 The current servicename is substituted for %S. This is useful in the
3452 See also "invalid users"
3455 No valid users list. (anyone can login)
3458 valid users = greg, @pcusers
3462 This is a list of files and directories that are neither visible nor
3463 accessible. Each entry in the list must be separated by a "/", which
3464 allows spaces to be included in the entry. '*' and '?' can be used to
3465 specify multiple files or directories as in DOS wildcards.
3467 Each entry must be a unix path, not a DOS path and must not include the
3468 unix directory separator "/".
3470 Note that the case sensitivity option is applicable in vetoing files.
3472 One feature of the veto files parameter that it is important to be
3473 aware of, is that if a directory contains nothing but files that
3474 match the veto files parameter (which means that Windows/DOS clients
3475 cannot ever see them) is deleted, the veto files within that directory
3476 *are automatically deleted* along with it, if the user has UNIX permissions
3479 Setting this parameter will affect the performance of Samba, as
3480 it will be forced to check all files and directories for a match
3481 as they are scanned.
3483 See also "hide files" and "case sensitive"
3486 No files or directories are vetoed.
3490 Veto any files containing the word Security,
3491 any ending in .tmp, and any directory containing the
3494 veto files = /*Security*/*.tmp/*root*/
3497 Veto the Apple specific files that a NetAtalk server
3500 veto files = /.AppleDouble/.bin/.AppleDesktop/Network Trash Folder/
3503 This allows you to override the volume label returned for a
3504 share. Useful for CDROMs with installation programs that insist on a
3505 particular volume label.
3507 The default is the name of the share
3510 This parameter controls whether or not links in the UNIX file system may be
3511 followed by the server. Links that point to areas within the directory tree
3512 exported by the server are always allowed; this parameter controls access
3513 only to areas that are outside the directory tree being exported.
3523 This is a boolean that controls if nmbd will respond to broadcast name
3524 queries on behalf of other hosts. You may need to set this to no for
3531 This specifies the DNS name (or IP address) of the WINS server that Samba
3532 should register with. If you have a WINS server on your network then you
3533 should set this to the WINS servers name.
3535 You should point this at your WINS server if you have a multi-subnetted
3540 .SS wins support (G)
3542 This boolean controls if Samba will act as a WINS server. You should
3543 not set this to true unless you have a multi-subnetted network and
3544 you wish a particular nmbd to be your WINS server. Note that you
3545 should *NEVER* set this to true on more than one machine in your
3552 This controls what workgroup your server will appear to be in when
3562 A synonym for this parameter is 'write ok'. An inverted synonym is 'read only'.
3564 If this parameter is 'no', then users of a service may not create or modify
3565 files in the service's directory.
3567 Note that a printable service ('printable = yes') will ALWAYS allow
3568 writing to the directory (user privileges permitting), but only via
3569 spooling operations.
3579 This is a list of users that are given read-write access to a
3580 service. If the connecting user is in this list then they will be
3581 given write access, no matter what the "read only" option is set
3582 to. The list can include group names using the @group syntax.
3584 Note that if a user is in both the read list and the write list then
3585 they will be given write access.
3587 See also the "read list" option
3593 write list = admin, root, @staff
3601 This parameter controls whether or not the server will support raw writes when
3602 transferring data from clients.
3609 .SH NOTE ABOUT USERNAME/PASSWORD VALIDATION
3610 There are a number of ways in which a user can connect to a
3611 service. The server follows the following steps in determining if it
3612 will allow a connection to a specified service. If all the steps fail
3613 then the connection request is rejected. If one of the steps pass then
3614 the following steps are not checked.
3616 If the service is marked "guest only = yes" then steps 1 to 5 are skipped
3618 Step 1: If the client has passed a username/password pair and that
3619 username/password pair is validated by the UNIX system's password
3620 programs then the connection is made as that username. Note that this
3621 includes the \e\eserver\eservice%username method of passing a username.
3623 Step 2: If the client has previously registered a username with the
3624 system and now supplies a correct password for that username then the
3625 connection is allowed.
3627 Step 3: The client's netbios name and any previously used user names
3628 are checked against the supplied password, if they match then the
3629 connection is allowed as the corresponding user.
3631 Step 4: If the client has previously validated a username/password
3632 pair with the server and the client has passed the validation token
3633 then that username is used. This step is skipped if "revalidate = yes"
3636 Step 5: If a "user = " field is given in the smb.conf file for the
3637 service and the client has supplied a password, and that password
3638 matches (according to the UNIX system's password checking) with one of
3639 the usernames from the user= field then the connection is made as the
3640 username in the "user=" line. If one of the username in the user= list
3641 begins with a @ then that name expands to a list of names in the group
3644 Step 6: If the service is a guest service then a connection is made as
3645 the username given in the "guest account =" for the service,
3646 irrespective of the supplied password.
3648 Although the configuration file permits service names to contain spaces,
3649 your client software may not. Spaces will be ignored in comparisons anyway,
3650 so it shouldn't be a problem - but be aware of the possibility.
3652 On a similar note, many clients - especially DOS clients - limit service
3653 names to eight characters. Smbd has no such limitation, but attempts
3654 to connect from such clients will fail if they truncate the service names.
3655 For this reason you should probably keep your service names down to eight
3656 characters in length.
3658 Use of the [homes] and [printers] special sections make life for an
3659 administrator easy, but the various combinations of default attributes can be
3660 tricky. Take extreme care when designing these sections. In particular,
3661 ensure that the permissions on spool directories are correct.
3663 This man page is (mostly) correct for version 1.9.16 of the Samba suite, plus some
3664 of the recent patches to it. These notes will necessarily lag behind
3665 development of the software, so it is possible that your version of
3666 the server has extensions or parameter semantics that differ from or are not
3667 covered by this man page. Please notify these to the address below for
3670 Prior to version 1.5.21 of the Samba suite, the configuration file was
3671 radically different (more primitive). If you are using a version earlier than
3672 1.8.05, it is STRONGLY recommended that you upgrade.
3677 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
3686 .BR hosts_access (5)
3688 [This section under construction]
3690 Most diagnostics issued by the server are logged in a specified log file. The
3691 log file name is specified at compile time, but may be overridden on the
3692 smbd command line (see
3695 The number and nature of diagnostics available depends on the debug level used
3696 by the server. If you have problems, set the debug level to 3 and peruse the
3699 Most messages are reasonably self-explanatory. Unfortunately, at time of
3700 creation of this man page the source code is still too fluid to warrant
3701 describing each and every diagnostic. At this stage your best bet is still
3702 to grep the source code and inspect the conditions that gave rise to the
3703 diagnostics you are seeing.
3707 Please send bug reports, comments and so on to:
3710 .B samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au (Andrew Tridgell)
3713 or to the mailing list:
3716 .B samba@listproc.anu.edu.au
3719 You may also like to subscribe to the announcement channel:
3722 .B samba-announce@listproc.anu.edu.au
3725 To subscribe to these lists send a message to
3726 listproc@listproc.anu.edu.au with a body of "subscribe samba Your
3727 Name" or "subscribe samba-announce Your Name".
3729 Errors or suggestions for improvements to the Samba man pages should be
3733 .B samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au (Andrew Tridgell)