1 .TH SMB.CONF 5 11/10/94 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.
20 The file consists of sections and parameters. A section begins with the
21 name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
22 section begins. Sections contain parameters of the form 'name = value'.
24 The file is line-based - that is, each newline-terminated line represents
25 either a comment, a section name or a parameter.
27 Section and parameter names are not case sensitive.
29 Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before
30 or after the first equals sign is discarded. Leading, trailing and internal
31 whitespace in section and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading and
32 trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal whitespace
33 within a parameter value is retained verbatim.
35 Any line beginning with a semicolon is ignored, as are lines containing
38 Any line ending in a \\ is "continued" on the next line in the
39 customary unix fashion.
41 The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a string
42 (no quotes needed) or a boolean, which may be given as yes/no, 0/1 or
43 true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, but is preserved
44 in string values. Some items such as create modes are numeric.
45 .SH SERVICE DESCRIPTIONS
46 Each section in the configuration file describes a service. The section name
47 is the service name and the parameters within the section define the service's
50 There are three special sections, [global], [homes] and [printers], which are
51 described under 'special sections'. The following notes apply to ordinary
54 A service consists of a directory to which access is being given plus a
55 description of the access rights which are granted to the user of the
56 service. Some housekeeping options are also specifiable.
58 Services are either filespace services (used by the client as an extension of
59 their native file systems) or printable services (used by the client to access
60 print services on the host running the server).
62 Services may be guest services, in which case no password is required to
63 access them. A specified guest account is used to define access privileges
66 Services other than guest services will require a password to access
67 them. The client provides the username. As many clients only provide
68 passwords and not usernames, you may specify a list of usernames to
69 check against the password using the "user=" option in the service
72 Note that the access rights granted by the server are masked by the access
73 rights granted to the specified or guest user by the host system. The
74 server does not grant more access than the host system grants.
76 The following sample section defines a file space service. The user has write
77 access to the path /home/bar. The service is accessed via the service name
84 The following sample section defines a printable service. The service is
85 readonly, but printable. That is, the only write access permitted is via
86 calls to open, write to and close a spool file. The 'guest ok' parameter
87 means access will be permitted as the default guest user (specified elsewhere):
90 path = /usr/spool/public
97 .SS The [global] section
99 Parameters in this section apply to the server as a whole, or are defaults
100 for services which do not specifically define certain items. See the notes
101 under 'Parameters' for more information.
104 .SS The [homes] section
106 If a section called 'homes' is included in the configuration file, services
107 connecting clients to their home directories can be created on the fly by the
110 When the connection request is made, the existing services are scanned. If a
111 match is found, it is used. If no match is found, the requested service name is
112 treated as a user name and looked up in the local passwords file. If the
113 name exists and the correct password has been given, a service is created
114 by cloning the [homes] section.
116 Some modifications are then made to the newly created section:
119 The service name is changed from 'homes' to the located username
121 If no path was given, the path is set to the user's home directory.
124 If you decide to use a path= line in your [homes] section then you may
125 find it useful to use the %S macro. For example path=/data/pchome/%S
126 would be useful if you have different home directories for your PCs
127 than for unix access.
129 This is a fast and simple way to give a large number of clients access to
130 their home directories with a minimum of fuss.
132 A similar process occurs if the requested service name is "homes", except that
133 the service name is not changed to that of the requesting user. This method
134 of using the [homes] section works well if different users share a client PC.
136 The [homes] section can specify all the parameters a normal service section
137 can specify, though some make more sense than others. The following is a
138 typical and suitable [homes] section:
146 If guest access is specified in the [homes] section, all home directories will
147 be accessible to all clients
148 .B without a password.
149 In the very unlikely event
150 that this is actually desirable, it would be wise to also specify read only
155 Note that the browseable flag for auto home directories will be
156 inherited from the global browseable flag, not the [homes] browseable
157 flag. This is useful as it means setting browseable=no in the [homes]
158 section will hide the [homes] service but make any auto home
161 .SS The [printers] section
163 This section works like [homes], but for printers.
165 If a [printers] section occurs in the configuration file, users are able
166 to connect to any printer specified in the local host's printcap file.
168 When a connection request is made, the existing services are scanned. If a
169 match is found, it is used. If no match is found, but a [homes] section
170 exists, it is used as described above. Otherwise, the requested service name is
171 treated as a printer name and the appropriate printcap file is scanned to
172 see if the requested service name is a valid printer name. If a match is
173 found, a new service is created by cloning the [printers] section.
175 A few modifications are then made to the newly created section:
178 The service name is set to the located printer name
180 If no printer name was given, the printer name is set to the located printer
183 If the service does not permit guest access and no username was given, the
184 username is set to the located printer name.
187 Note that the [printers] service MUST be printable - if you specify otherwise,
188 the server will refuse to load the configuration file.
190 Typically the path specified would be that of a world-writable spool directory
191 with the sticky bit set on it. A typical [printers] entry would look like this:
194 path = /usr/spool/public
199 All aliases given for a printer in the printcap file are legitimate printer
200 names as far as the server is concerned. If your printing subsystem doesn't
201 work like that, you will have to set up a pseudo-printcap. This is a file
202 consisting of one or more lines like this:
204 alias|alias|alias|alias...
206 Each alias should be an acceptable printer name for your printing
207 subsystem. In the [global] section, specify the new file as your printcap.
208 The server will then only recognise names found in your pseudo-printcap,
209 which of course can contain whatever aliases you like. The same technique
210 could be used simply to limit access to a subset of your local printers.
212 An alias, by the way, is defined as any component of the first entry of a
213 printcap record. Records are separated by newlines, components (if there are
214 more than one) are separated by vertical bar symbols ("|").
216 Parameters define the specific attributes of services.
218 Some parameters are specific to the [global] section (eg., security).
219 Some parameters are usable in all sections (eg., create mode). All others are
220 permissible only in normal sections. For the purposes of the following
221 descriptions the [homes] and [printers] sections will be considered normal.
222 The letter 'G' in parentheses indicates that a parameter is specific to the
223 [global] section. The letter 'S' indicates that a parameter can be
224 specified in a secvice specific section. Note that all S parameters
225 can also be specified in the [global] section - in which case they
226 will define the default behaviour for all services.
228 Parameters are arranged here in alphabetical order - this may not create
229 best bedfellows, but at least you can find them! Where there are synonyms,
230 the preferred synonym is described, others refer to the preferred synonym.
232 .SS VARIABLE SUBSTITUTIONS
234 Many of the strings that are settable in the config file can take
235 substitutions. For example the option "path = /tmp/%u" would be
236 interpreted as "path = /tmp/john" if the user connected with the
239 These substitutions are mostly noted in the descriptions below, but
240 there are some general substitions which apply whenever they might be
243 %S = the name of the current service, if any
245 %P = the root directory of the current service, if any
247 %u = user name of the current service, if any
249 %g = primary group name of %u
251 %U = session user name (the user name that the client wanted, not
252 necessarily the same as the one they got)
254 %G = primary group name of %U
256 %H = the home directory of the user given by %u
258 %v = the Samba version
260 %h = the hostname that Samba is running on
262 %m = the netbios name of the client machine (very useful)
264 %L = the netbios name of the server. This allows you to change your
265 config based on what the client calls you. Your server can have a "dual
268 %M = the internet name of the client machine
270 %d = The process id of the current server process
272 %a = the architecture of the remote machine. Only some are recognised,
273 and those may not be 100% reliable. It currently recognises Samba,
274 WfWg, WinNT and Win95. Anything else will be known as "UNKNOWN". If it
275 gets it wrong then sending me a level 3 log should allow me to fix it.
277 %I = The IP address of the client machine
279 %T = the current date and time
281 There are some quite creative things that can be done with these
282 substitutions and other smb.conf options.
286 Samba supports "name mangling" so that Dos and Windows clients can use
287 files that don't conform to the 8.3 format. It can also be set to adjust
288 the case of 8.3 format filenames.
290 There are several options that control the way mangling is performed,
291 and they are grouped here rather than listed separately. For the
292 defaults look at the output of the testparm program.
294 All of these options can be set separately for each service (or
295 globally, of course).
299 "mangle case = yes/no" controls if names that have characters that
300 aren't of the "default" case are mangled. For example, if this is yes
301 then a name like "Mail" would be mangled. Default no.
303 "case sensitive = yes/no" controls whether filenames are case
304 sensitive. If they aren't then Samba must do a filename search and
305 match on passed names. Default no.
307 "default case = upper/lower" controls what the default case is for new
308 filenames. Default lower.
310 "preserve case = yes/no" controls if new files are created with the
311 case that the client passes, or if they are forced to be the "default"
314 "short preserve case = yes/no" controls if new files which conform to 8.3
315 syntax, that is all in upper case and of suitable length, are created
316 upper case, or if they are forced to be the "default" case. This option can
317 be use with "preserve case = yes" to permit long filenames to retain their
318 case, while short names are lowered. Default no.
320 .SS COMPLETE LIST OF GLOBAL PARAMETER
322 Here is a list of all global parameters. See the section of each
323 parameter for details. Note that some are synonyms.
433 .SS COMPLETE LIST OF SERVICE PARAMETER
435 Here is a list of all service parameters. See the section of each
436 parameter for details. Note that some are synonyms.
442 alternate permissions
582 .SS EXPLANATION OF EACH PARAMETER
587 This is a list of users who will be granted administrative privilages
588 on the share. This means that they will do all file operations as the
591 You should use this option very carefully, as any user in this list
592 will be able to do anything they like on the share, irrespective of
601 .SS auto services (G)
602 This is a list of services that you want to be automatically added to
603 the browse lists. This is most useful for homes and printers services
604 that would otherwise not be visible.
606 Note that if you just want all printers in your printcap file loaded
607 then the "load printers" option is easier.
613 auto services = fred lp colorlp
617 A synonym for this parameter is 'hosts allow'.
619 This parameter is a comma delimited set of hosts which are permitted to access
620 a services. If specified in the [global] section, matching hosts will be
621 allowed access to any service that does not specifically exclude them from
622 access. Specific services my have their own list, which override those
623 specified in the [global] section.
625 You can specify the hosts by name or IP number. For example, you could
626 restrict access to only the hosts on a Class C subnet with something like
627 "allow hosts = 150.203.5.". The full syntax of the list is described in
631 You can also specify hosts by network/netmask pairs and by netgroup
632 names if your system supports netgroups. The EXCEPT keyword can also
633 be used to limit a wildcard list. The following examples may provide
636 Example 1: allow all IPs in 150.203.*.* except one
638 hosts allow = 150.203. EXCEPT 150.203.6.66
640 Example 2: allow hosts that match the given network/netmask
642 hosts allow = 150.203.15.0/255.255.255.0
644 Example 3: allow a couple of hosts
646 hosts allow = lapland, arvidsjaur
648 Example 4: allow only hosts in netgroup "foonet" or localhost, but
649 deny access from one particular host
651 hosts allow = @foonet, localhost
654 Note that access still requires suitable user-level passwords.
656 See testparm(1) for a way of testing your host access to see if it
657 does what you expect.
660 none (ie., all hosts permitted access)
663 allow hosts = 150.203.5. myhost.mynet.edu.au
665 .SS alternate permissions (S)
667 This option affects the way the "read only" DOS attribute is produced
668 for unix files. If this is false then the read only bit is set for
669 files on writeable shares which the user cannot write to.
671 If this is true then it is set for files whos user write bit is not set.
673 The latter behaviour of useful for when users copy files from each
674 others directories, and use a file manager that preserves
675 permissions. Without this option they may get annoyed as all copied
676 files will have the "read only" bit set.
679 alternate permissions = no
682 alternate permissions = yes
685 This parameter lets you 'turn off' a service. If 'available = no', then
686 ALL attempts to connect to the service will fail. Such failures are logged.
694 This controls whether this share is seen in the list of available
695 shares in a net view and in the browse list.
703 .SS case sig names (G)
707 This is a text field that is seen when a client does a net view to
708 list what shares are available. It will also be used when browsing is
715 comment = Fred's Files
719 This allows you to override the config file to use, instead of the
720 default (usually smb.conf). There is a chicken and egg problem here as
721 this option is set in the config file!
723 For this reason, if the name of the config file has changed when the
724 parameters are loaded then it will reload them from the new config
727 This option takes the usual substitutions, which can be very useful.
729 If thew config file doesn't exist then it won't be loaded (allowing
730 you to special case the config files of just a few clients).
733 config file = /usr/local/samba/smb.conf.%m
736 This parameter allows you to 'clone' service entries. The specified
737 service is simply duplicated under the current service's name. Any
738 parameters specified in the current section will override those in the
739 section being copied.
741 This feature lets you set up a 'template' service and create similar
742 services easily. Note that the service being copied must occur earlier
743 in the configuration file than the service doing the copying.
751 A synonym for this parameter is 'create mode'.
753 This parameter is the octal modes which are used when converting DOS modes
756 Note that Samba will or this value with 0700 as you must have at least
757 user read, write and execute for Samba to work properly.
768 The value of the parameter (a decimal integer) represents the number of
769 minutes of inactivity before a connection is considered dead, and it
770 is disconnected. The deadtime only takes effect if the number of open files
773 This is useful to stop a server's resources being exhausted by a large
774 number of inactive connections.
776 Most clients have an auto-reconnect feature when a connection is broken so
777 in most cases this parameter should be transparent to users.
779 Using this parameter with a timeout of a few minutes is recommended
782 A deadtime of zero indicates that no auto-disconnection should be performed.
790 The value of the parameter (an integer) allows the debug level
791 (logging level) to be specified in the smb.conf file. This is to give
792 greater flexibility in the configuration of the system.
794 The default will be the debug level specified on the command line.
803 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" Also note the addition of "short
806 .SS default service (G)
807 A synonym for this parameter is 'default'.
809 This parameter specifies the name of a service which will be connected to
810 if the service actually requested cannot be found. Note that the square
811 brackets are NOT given in the parameter value (see example below).
813 There is no default value for this parameter. If this parameter is not given,
814 attempting to connect to a nonexistent service results in an error.
816 Typically the default service would be a public, read-only service.
818 Also not that s of 1.9.14 the apparent service name will be changed to
819 equal that of the requested service, this is very useful as it allows
820 you to use macros like %S to make a wildcard service.
822 Note also that any _ characters in the name of the service used in the
823 default service will get mapped to a /. This allows for interesting
828 default service = pub
835 A synonym for this parameter is 'hosts deny'.
837 The opposite of 'allow hosts' - hosts listed here are NOT permitted
838 access to services unless the specific services have their own lists to
839 override this one. Where the lists conflict, the 'allow' list takes precedence.
842 none (ie., no hosts specifically excluded)
845 deny hosts = 150.203.4. badhost.mynet.edu.au
846 .SS dfree command (G)
847 The dfree command setting should only be used on systems where a
848 problem occurs with the internal disk space calculations. This has
849 been known to happen with Ultrix, but may occur with other operating
850 systems. The symptom that was seen was an error of "Abort Retry
851 Ignore" at the end of each directory listing.
853 This setting allows the replacement of the internal routines to
854 calculate the total disk space and amount available with an external
855 routine. The example below gives a possible script that might fulfill
858 The external program will be passed a single parameter indicating a
859 directory in the filesystem being queried. This will typically consist
860 of the string "./". The script should return two integers in ascii. The
861 first should be the total disk space in blocks, and the second should
862 be the number of available blocks. An optional third return value
863 can give the block size in bytes. The default blocksize is 1024 bytes.
865 Note: Your script should NOT be setuid or setgid and should be owned by
866 (and writable only by) root!
869 By default internal routines for determining the disk capacity
870 and remaining space will be used.
873 dfree command = /usr/local/smb/dfree
875 Where the script dfree (which must be made executable) could be
878 df $1 | tail -1 | awk '{print $2" "$4}'
880 or perhaps (on Sys V)
883 /usr/bin/df -k $1 | tail -1 | awk '{print $3" "$5}'
886 Note that you may have to replace the command names with full
887 path names on some systems.
892 There are certain directories on some systems (eg., the /proc tree under
893 Linux) that are either not of interest to clients or are infinitely deep
894 (recursive). This parameter allows you to specify a comma-delimited list
895 of directories that the server should always show as empty.
897 Note that Samba can be very fussy about the exact format of the "dont
898 descend" entries. For example you ma need "./proc" instead of just
899 "/proc". Experimentation is the best policy :-)
902 none (ie., all directories are OK to descend)
905 dont descend = /proc,/dev
907 .SS encrypt passwords (G)
909 This boolean controls whether encrypted passwords will be negotiated
910 with the cient. Note that this option has no effect if you haven't
911 compiled in the necessary des libraries and encryption code. It
916 This is an alias for preexec
920 This specifies a group name that all connections to this service
921 should be made as. This may be useful for sharing files.
930 This specifies a user name that all connections to this service
931 should be made as. This may be useful for sharing files. You should
932 also use it carefully as using it incorrectly can cause security
935 This user name only gets used once a connection is established. Thus
936 clients still need to connect as a valid user and supply a valid
937 password. Once connected, all file operations will be performed as the
938 "forced user", not matter what username the client connected as.
946 .SS guest account (S)
947 This is a username which will be used for access to services which are
948 specified as 'guest ok' (see below). Whatever privileges this user has
949 will be available to any client connecting to the guest
950 service. Typically this user will exist in the password file, but will
951 not have a valid login. If a username is specified in a given service,
952 the specified username overrides this one.
954 One some systems the account "nobody" may not be able to print. Use
955 another account in this case. You should test this by trying to log in
956 as your guest user (perhaps by using the "su -" command) and trying to
959 Note that as of version 1.9 of Samba this option may be set
960 differently for each service.
963 specified at compile time
966 guest account = nobody
968 This is a tuning option. When this is enabled a cacheing algorithm will
969 be used to reduce the time taken for getwd() calls. This can have a
970 significant impact on performance, especially when widelinks is False.
981 If this parameter is 'yes' for a service, then only guest connections to the
982 service are permitted. This parameter will have no affect if "guest ok" or
983 "public" is not set for the service.
985 See the section below on user/password validation for more information about
993 .SS hide dot files (S)
994 This is a boolean parameter that controls whether files starting with
995 a dot appear as hidden files.
1010 This is an alias for "force group" and is only kept for compatability
1011 with old versions of Samba. It may be removed in future versions.
1014 If this global parameter is a non-null string, it specifies the name of
1015 a file to read for the names of hosts and users who will be allowed access
1016 without specifying a password.
1018 This is not be confused with
1020 which is about hosts access to services and is more useful for guest services.
1022 may be useful for NT clients which will not supply passwords to samba.
1024 NOTE: The use of hosts.equiv can be a major security hole. This is
1025 because you are trusting the PC to supply the correct username. It is
1026 very easy to get a PC to supply a false username. I recommend that the
1027 hosts.equiv option be only used if you really know what you are doing,
1028 or perhaps on a home network where you trust your wife and kids :-)
1031 No host equivalences
1034 hosts equiv = /etc/hosts.equiv
1036 .SS invalid users (S)
1037 This is a list of users that should not be allowed to login to this
1038 service. This is really a "paranoid" check to absolutely ensure an
1039 improper setting does not breach your security.
1041 A name starting with @ is interpreted as a unix group.
1043 The current servicename is substituted for %S. This is useful in the
1046 See also "valid users"
1052 invalid users = root fred admin @wheel
1056 This allows you to inlcude one config file inside another. the file is
1057 included literally, as though typed in place.
1059 It takes the standard substitutions, except %u, %P and %S
1062 The value of the parameter (an integer) represents the number of seconds
1063 between 'keepalive' packets. If this parameter is zero, no keepalive packets
1064 will be sent. Keepalive packets, if sent, allow the server to tell whether a
1065 client is still present and responding.
1067 Keepalives should, in general, not be needed if the socket being used
1068 has the SO_KEEPALIVE attribute set on it (see "socket
1069 options"). Basically you should only use this option if you strike
1077 .SS load printers (G)
1078 A boolean variable that controls whether all printers in the printcap
1079 will be loaded for browsing by default.
1087 .SS lock directory (G)
1088 This options specifies the directory where lock files will be placed.
1089 The lock files are used to implement the "max connections" option.
1092 lock directory = /tmp/samba
1095 lock directory = /usr/local/samba/locks
1097 This controls whether or not locking will be performed by the server in
1098 response to lock requests from the client.
1100 If "locking = no", all lock and unlock requests will appear to succeed and
1101 all lock queries will indicate that the queried lock is clear.
1103 If "locking = yes", real locking will be performed by the server.
1105 This option may be particularly useful for read-only filesystems which
1106 do not need locking (such as cdrom drives).
1108 Be careful about disabling locking either globally or in a specific
1109 service, as lack of locking may result in data corruption.
1119 This options allows you to override the name of the Samba log file
1120 (also known as the debug file).
1122 This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you to have
1123 separate log files for each user or machine.
1126 log file = /usr/local/samba/log.%m
1131 .SS lppause command (S)
1132 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1133 order to stop printing or spooling a specific print job.
1135 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name and
1136 job number to pause the print job. Currently I don't know of any print
1137 spooler system that can do this with a simple option, except for the PPR
1138 system from Trinity College (ppr\-dist.trincoll.edu/pub/ppr). One way
1139 of implementing this is by using job priorities, where jobs having a too
1140 low priority wont be sent to the printer. See also the lppause command.
1142 If a %p is given then the printername is put in it's place. A %j is
1143 replaced with the job number (an integer).
1144 On HPUX (see printing=hpux), if the -p%p option is added to the lpq
1145 command, the job will show up with the correct status, i.e. if the job
1146 priority is lower than the set fence priority it will have the PAUSED
1147 status, whereas if the priority is equal or higher it will have the
1148 SPOOLED or PRINTING status.
1150 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lppause
1151 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1154 Currently no default value is given to this string
1156 .B Example for HPUX:
1157 lppause command = /usr/bin/lpalt %p-%j -p0
1159 .SS lpq cache time (G)
1161 This controls how long lpq info will be cached for to prevent the lpq
1162 command being called too often. A separate cache is kept for each
1163 variation of the lpq command used by the system, so if you use
1164 different lpq commands for different users then they won't share cache
1167 The cache files are stored in /tmp/lpq.xxxx where xxxx is a hash
1168 of the lpq command in use.
1170 The default is 10 seconds, meaning that the cached results of a
1171 previous identical lpq command will be used if the cached data is less
1172 than 10 seconds old. A large value may be advisable if your lpq
1173 command is very slow.
1175 A value of 0 will disable cacheing completely.
1184 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1185 order to obtain "lpq"-style printer status information.
1187 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name
1188 as its only parameter and outputs printer status information.
1190 Currently four styles of printer status information are supported;
1191 BSD, SYSV, AIX and HPUX. This covers most unix systems. You control
1192 which type is expected using the "printing =" option.
1194 Some clients (notably Windows for Workgroups) may not correctly send the
1195 connection number for the printer they are requesting status information
1196 about. To get around this, the server reports on the first printer service
1197 connected to by the client. This only happens if the connection number sent
1200 If a %p is given then the printername is put in it's place. Otherwise
1201 it is placed at the end of the command.
1203 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lpq
1204 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1207 depends on the setting of "printing ="
1210 lpq command = /usr/bin/lpq %p
1212 .SS lpresume command (S)
1213 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1214 order to restart or continue printing or spooling a specific print job.
1216 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name and
1217 job number to resume the print job. See also the lppause command.
1219 If a %p is given then the printername is put in it's place. A %j is
1220 replaced with the job number (an integer).
1222 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lpresume
1223 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1226 Currently no default value is given to this string
1228 .B Example for HPUX:
1229 lpresume command = /usr/bin/lpalt %p-%j -p2
1231 .SS lprm command (S)
1232 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1233 order to delete a print job.
1235 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name
1236 and job number, and deletes the print job.
1238 Currently four styles of printer control are supported; BSD, SYSV, AIX
1239 and HPUX. This covers most unix systems. You control which type is
1240 expected using the "printing =" option.
1242 If a %p is given then the printername is put in it's place. A %j is
1243 replaced with the job number (an integer).
1245 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lprm
1246 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1249 depends on the setting of "printing ="
1252 lprm command = /usr/bin/lprm -P%p %j
1255 lprm command = /usr/bin/cancel %p-%j
1257 .SS magic output (S)
1258 This parameter specifies the name of a file which will contain output
1259 created by a magic script (see
1263 Warning: If two clients use the same magic script in the same directory the
1264 output file content is undefined.
1266 magic output = <magic script name>.out
1269 magic output = myfile.txt
1270 .SS magic script (S)
1271 This parameter specifies the name of a file which, if opened, will be
1272 executed by the server when the file is closed. This allows a Unix script
1273 to be sent to the Samba host and executed on behalf of the connected user.
1275 Scripts executed in this way will be deleted upon completion, permissions
1278 If the script generates output, output will be sent to the file specified by
1281 parameter (see above).
1283 Note that some shells are unable to interpret scripts containing
1284 carriage-return-linefeed instead of linefeed as the end-of-line
1285 marker. Magic scripts must be executable "as is" on the host, which
1286 for some hosts and some shells will require filtering at the DOS end.
1288 Magic scripts are EXPERIMENTAL and should NOT be relied upon.
1290 None. Magic scripts disabled.
1293 magic script = user.csh
1295 This is for those who want to directly map UNIX file names which are
1296 not representable on DOS. The mangling of names is not always what is
1297 needed. In particular you may have documents with file extensiosn
1298 that differ between dos and unix. For example, under unix it is common
1299 to use .html for HTML files, whereas under dos .htm is more commonly
1302 So to map 'html' to 'htm' you put:
1304 mangled map = (*.html *.htm)
1306 One very useful case is to remove the annoying ;1 off the ends of
1307 filenames on some CDROMS (only visible under some unixes). To do this
1308 use a map of (*;1 *)
1314 mangled map = (*;1 *)
1318 See the section on "NAME MANGLING"
1320 .SS mangled names (S)
1321 This controls whether non-DOS names under Unix should be mapped to
1322 DOS-compatible names ("mangled") and made visible, or whether non-DOS names
1323 should simply be ignored.
1325 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for details on how to control the
1328 If mangling is used then the mangling algorithm is as follows:
1330 - the first (up to) five alphanumeric characters before the rightmost dot of
1331 the filename are preserved, forced to upper case, and appear as the first (up
1332 to) five characters of the mangled name.
1334 - a tilde ("~") is appended to the first part of the mangled name, followed
1335 by a two-character unique sequence, based on the origonal root name
1336 (i.e., the original filename minus its final extension). The final
1337 extension is included in the hash calculation only if it contains any upper
1338 case characters or is longer than three characters.
1340 Note that the character to use may be specified using the "mangling
1341 char" option, if you don't like ~.
1343 - the first three alphanumeric characters of the final extension are preserved,
1344 forced to upper case and appear as the extension of the mangled name. The
1345 final extension is defined as that part of the original filename after the
1346 rightmost dot. If there are no dots in the filename, the mangled name will
1347 have no extension (except in the case of hidden files - see below).
1349 - files whose Unix name begins with a dot will be presented as DOS hidden
1350 files. The mangled name will be created as for other filenames, but with the
1351 leading dot removed and "___" as its extension regardless of actual original
1352 extension (that's three underscores).
1355 The two-digit hash value consists of upper case alphanumeric characters.
1357 This algorithm can cause name collisions only if files in a directory share
1358 the same first five alphanumeric characters. The probability of such a clash
1361 The name mangling (if enabled) allows a file to be copied between Unix
1362 directories from DOS while retaining the long Unix filename. Unix files can
1363 be renamed to a new extension from DOS and will retain the same basename.
1364 Mangled names do not change between sessions.
1371 .SS mangling char (S)
1372 This controls what character is used as the "magic" character in name
1373 mangling. The default is a ~ but this may interfere with some
1374 software. Use this option to set it to whatever you prefer.
1382 .SS max log size (G)
1384 This option (an integer in kilobytes) specifies the max size the log
1385 file should grow to. Samba periodically checks the size and if it is
1386 exceeded it will rename the file, adding a .old extension.
1388 A size of 0 means no limit.
1398 This option controls the maximum packet size that will be negotiated
1399 by Samba. The default is 65535, which is the maximum. In some cases
1400 you may find you get better performance with a smaller value. A value
1401 below 2048 is likely to cause problems.
1409 .SS mangled stack (G)
1410 This parameter controls the number of mangled names that should be cached in
1413 This stack is a list of recently mangled base names (extensions are only
1414 maintained if they are longer than 3 characters or contains upper case
1417 The larger this value, the more likely it is that mangled names can be
1418 successfully converted to correct long Unix names. However, large stack
1419 sizes will slow most directory access. Smaller stacks save memory in the
1420 server (each stack element costs 256 bytes).
1422 It is not possible to absolutely guarantee correct long file names, so
1423 be prepared for some surprises!
1432 This controls whether the DOS archive attribute should be mapped to Unix
1433 execute bits. The DOS archive bit is set when a file has been modified
1434 since its last backup. One motivation for this option it to keep Samba/your
1435 PC from making any file it touches from becoming executable under UNIX.
1436 This can be quite annoying for shared source code, documents, etc...
1445 This controls whether DOS style hidden files should be mapped to Unix
1454 This controls whether DOS style system files should be mapped to Unix
1462 .SS max connections (S)
1463 This option allows the number of simultaneous connections to a
1464 service to be limited. If "max connections" is greater than 0 then
1465 connections will be refused if this number of connections to the
1466 service are already open. A value of zero mean an unlimited number of
1467 connections may be made.
1469 Record lock files are used to implement this feature. The lock files
1470 will be stored in the directory specified by the "lock directory" option.
1476 max connections = 10
1478 This is a boolean option that controls whether connections with
1479 usernames not in the user= list will be allowed. By default this
1480 option is disabled so a client can supply a username to be used by
1483 Note that this also means Samba won't try to deduce usernames from the
1484 service name. This can be annoying for the [homes] section. To get
1485 around this you could use "user = %S" which means your "user" list
1486 will be just the service name, which for home directories is the name
1495 .SS message command (G)
1497 This specifies what command to run when the server receives a WinPopup
1500 This would normally be a command that would deliver the message
1501 somehow. How this is to be done is up to your imagination.
1505 message command = csh -c 'xedit %s;rm %s' &
1507 This delivers the message using xedit, then removes it
1508 afterwards. NOTE THAT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THIS COMMAND RETURN
1509 IMMEDIATELY. That's why I have the & on the end. If it doesn't return
1510 immediately then your PCs may freeze when sending messages (they
1511 should recover after 30secs, hopefully).
1513 All messages are delivered as the global guest user. The command takes
1514 the standard substitutions, although %u won't work (%U may be better
1517 Apart from the standard substitutions, some additional ones apply. In
1520 %s = the filename containing the message
1522 %t = the destination that the message was sent to (probably the server
1525 %f = who the message is from
1527 You could make this command send mail, or whatever else takes your
1528 fancy. Please let me know of any really interesting ideas you have.
1530 Here's a way of sending the messages as mail to root:
1532 message command = /bin/mail -s 'message from %f on %m' root < %s; rm %s
1534 If you don't have a message command then the message won't be
1535 delivered and Samba will tell the sender there was an
1536 error. Unfortunately WfWg totally ignores the error code and carries
1537 on regardless, saying that the message was delivered.
1539 If you want to silently delete it then try "message command = rm %s".
1541 For the really adventurous, try something like this:
1543 message command = csh -c 'csh < %s |& /usr/local/samba/smbclient \\
1546 this would execute the command as a script on the server, then give
1547 them the result in a WinPopup message. Note that this could cause a
1548 loop if you send a message from the server using smbclient! You better
1549 wrap the above in a script that checks for this :-)
1555 message command = csh -c 'xedit %s;rm %s' &
1557 .SS min print space (S)
1559 This sets the minimum amount of free disk space that must be available
1560 before a user will be able to spool a print job. It is specified in
1561 kilobytes. The default is 0, which means no limit.
1567 min print space = 2000
1569 .SS null passwords (G)
1570 Allow or disallow access to accounts that have null passwords.
1576 null passwords = yes
1579 This integer value controls what level Samba advertises itself as for
1580 browse elections. See BROWSING.txt for details.
1583 The maximum transmit packet size during a raw read. This option is no
1584 longer implemented as of version 1.7.00, and is kept only so old
1585 configuration files do not become invalid.
1588 This string coontrols the "chat" conversation that takes places
1589 between smbd and the local password changing program to change the
1590 users password. The string describes a sequence of response-receive
1591 pairs that smbd uses to determine what to send to the passwd program
1592 and what to expect back. If the expected output is not received then
1593 the password is not changed.
1595 This chat sequence is often quite site specific, deppending on what
1596 local methods are used for password control (such as NIS+ etc).
1598 The string can contain the macros %o and %n which are substituted for
1599 the old and new passwords respectively. It can aso contain the
1600 standard macros \\n \\r \\t and \\s to give line-feed, carriage-return,
1603 The string can also contain a * which matches any sequence of
1606 Double quotes can be used to collect strings with spaces in them into
1609 If the send string in any part of the chat sequence is a fullstop "."
1610 then no string is sent. Similarly, is the expect string is a fullstop
1611 then no string is expected.
1614 passwd chat = "*Enter OLD password*" %o\\n "*Enter NEW password*" %n\\n \\
1615 "*Reenter NEW password*" %n\\n "*Password changed*"
1618 passwd chat = *old*password* %o\\n *new*password* %n\\n *new*password* %n\\n *changed*
1620 .SS passwd program (G)
1621 The name of a program that can be used to set user passwords.
1623 This is only necessary if you have enabled remote password changing at
1624 compile time. Any occurances of %u will be replaced with the user
1627 Also note that many passwd programs insist in "reasonable" passwords,
1628 such as a minimum length, or the inclusion of mixed case chars and
1629 digits. This can pose a problem as some clients (such as Windows for
1630 Workgroups) uppercase the password before sending it.
1633 passwd program = /bin/passwd
1636 passwd program = /sbin/passwd %u
1638 .SS password level (G)
1639 Some client/server conbinations have difficulty with mixed-case passwords.
1640 One offending client is Windows for Workgroups, which for some reason forces
1641 passwords to upper case when using the LANMAN1 protocol, but leaves them alone
1642 when using COREPLUS!
1644 This parameter defines the maximum number of characters that may be upper case
1647 For example, say the password given was "FRED". If
1649 is set to 1 (one), the following combinations would be tried if "FRED" failed:
1650 "Fred", "fred", "fRed", "frEd", "freD". If
1651 .B password level was set to 2 (two), the following combinations would also be
1652 tried: "FRed", "FrEd", "FreD", "fREd", "fReD", "frED". And so on.
1654 The higher value this parameter is set to the more likely it is that a mixed
1655 case password will be matched against a single case password. However, you
1656 should be aware that use of this parameter reduces security and increases the
1657 time taken to process a new connection.
1659 A value of zero will cause only two attempts to be made - the password as is
1660 and the password in all-lower case.
1662 If you find the connections are taking too long with this option then
1663 you probably have a slow crypt() routine. Samba now comes with a fast
1664 "ufc crypt" that you can select in the Makefile. You should also make
1665 sure the PASSWORD_LENGTH option is correct for your system in local.h
1666 and includes.h. On most systems only the first 8 chars of a password
1667 are significant so PASSWORD_LENGTH should be 8, but on some longer
1668 passwords are significant. The inlcudes.h file tries to select the
1669 right length for your system.
1677 .SS password server (G)
1679 By specifying the name of another SMB server (such as a WinNT box)
1680 with this option, and using "security = server" you can get Samba to
1681 do all it's username/password validation via a remote server.
1683 This options sets the name of the password server to use. It must be a
1684 netbios name, so if the machines netbios name is different from it's
1685 internet name then you may have to add it's netbios name to
1688 The password server much be a machine capable of using the "LM1.2X002"
1689 or the "LM NT 0.12" protocol, and it must be in user level security
1692 NOTE: Using a password server means your unix box (running Samba) is
1693 only as secure as your password server. DO NOT CHOOSE A PASSWORD
1694 SERVER THAT YOU DON'T COMPLETELY TRUST.
1696 Never point a Samba server at itself for password serving. This will
1697 cause a loop and could lock up your Samba server!
1699 The name of the password server takes the standard substitutions, but
1700 probably the only useful one is %m, which means the Samba server will
1701 use the incoming client as the password server. If you use this then
1702 you better trust your clients, and you better restrict them with hosts
1705 If you list several hosts in the "password server" option then smbd
1706 will try each in turn till it finds one that responds. This is useful
1707 in case your primary server goes down.
1710 A synonym for this parameter is 'directory'.
1712 This parameter specifies a directory to which the user of the service is to
1713 be given access. In the case of printable services, this is where print data
1714 will spool prior to being submitted to the host for printing.
1716 For a printable service offering guest access, the service should be readonly
1717 and the path should be world-writable and have the sticky bit set. This is not
1718 mandatory of course, but you probably won't get the results you expect if you
1721 Any occurances of %u in the path will be replaced with the username
1722 that the client is connecting as. Any occurances of %m will be
1723 replaced by the name of the machine they are connecting from. These
1724 replacements are very useful for setting up pseudo home directories
1727 Note that this path will be based on 'root dir' if one was specified.
1736 This option specifies a command to be run whenever the service is
1737 disconnected. It takes the usual substitutions. The command may be run
1738 as the root on some systems.
1740 An interesting example may be do unmount server resources:
1742 postexec = /etc/umount /cdrom
1747 none (no command executed)
1750 postexec = echo \"%u disconnected from %S from %m (%I)\" >> /tmp/log
1753 This parameter forces a printer to interpret the print files as
1754 postscript. This is done by adding a %! to the start of print output.
1756 This is most useful when you have lots of PCs that persist in putting
1757 a control-D at the start of print jobs, which then confuses your
1768 This option specifies a command to be run whenever the service is
1769 connected to. It takes the usual substitutions.
1771 An interesting example is to send the users a welcome message every
1772 time they log in. Maybe a message of the day? Here is an example:
1774 preexec = csh -c 'echo \"Welcome to %S!\" | \
1775 /usr/local/samba/smbclient -M %m -I %I' &
1777 Of course, this could get annoying after a while :-)
1782 none (no command executed)
1785 preexec = echo \"%u connected to %S from %m (%I)\" >> /tmp/log
1787 .SS preferred master (G)
1788 This boolean parameter controls if Samba is a preferred master browser
1789 for its workgroup. Setting this gives it a slight edge in elections
1790 and also means it will automatically start an election when it starts
1793 It is on by default.
1796 This is an alias for "auto services"
1798 .SS preserve case (S)
1800 This controls if new filenames are created with the case that the
1801 client passes, or if they are forced to be the "default" case.
1806 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for a fuller discussion.
1808 .SS print command (S)
1809 After a print job has finished spooling to a service, this command will be
1810 used via a system() call to process the spool file. Typically the command
1811 specified will submit the spool file to the host's printing subsystem, but
1812 there is no requirement that this be the case. The server will not remove the
1813 spool file, so whatever command you specify should remove the spool file when
1814 it has been processed, otherwise you will need to manually remove old spool
1817 The print command is simply a text string. It will be used verbatim,
1818 with two exceptions: All occurrences of "%s" will be replaced by the
1819 appropriate spool file name, and all occurrences of "%p" will be
1820 replaced by the appropriate printer name. The spool file name is
1821 generated automatically by the server, the printer name is discussed
1824 The full path name will be used for the filename if %s is not preceded
1825 by a /. If you don't like this (it can stuff up some lpq output) then
1826 use %f instead. Any occurances of %f get replaced by the spool
1827 filename without the full path at the front.
1829 The print command MUST contain at least one occurrence of "%s" or %f -
1830 the "%p" is optional. At the time a job is submitted, if no printer
1831 name is supplied the "%p" will be silently removed from the printer
1834 If specified in the [global] section, the print command given will be used
1835 for any printable service that does not have its own print command specified.
1837 If there is neither a specified print command for a printable service nor a
1838 global print command, spool files will be created but not processed and (most
1839 importantly) not removed.
1841 Note that printing may fail on some unixes from the "nobody"
1842 account. If this happens then create an alternative guest account that
1843 can print and set the "guest account" in the [global] section.
1845 You can form quite complex print commands by realising that they are
1846 just passed to a shell. For example the following will log a print
1847 job, print the file, then remove it. Note that ; is the usual
1848 separator for command in shell scripts.
1850 print command = echo Printing %s >> /tmp/print.log; lpr -P %p %s; rm %s
1852 You may have to vary this command considerably depending on how you
1853 normally print files on your system.
1856 print command = lpr -r -P %p %s
1859 print command = /usr/local/samba/myprintscript %p %s
1864 A synonym for this parameter is 'print ok'.
1866 If this parameter is 'yes', then clients may open, write to and submit spool
1867 files on the directory specified for the service.
1869 Note that a printable service will ALWAYS allow writing to the service path
1870 (user privileges permitting) via the spooling of print data. The 'read only'
1871 parameter controls only non-printing access to the resource.
1880 This parameters controls how printer status information is interpreted
1881 on your system, and also affects the default values for the "print
1882 command", "lpq command" and "lprm command".
1884 Currently three printing styles are supported. They are "printing =
1885 bsd", "printing = sysv", "printing = hpux" and "printing = aix".
1887 To see what the defaults are for the other print commands when using
1888 these three options use the "testparm" program.
1891 .SS printcap name (G)
1892 This parameter may be used to override the compiled-in default printcap
1893 name used by the server (usually /etc/printcap). See the discussion of the
1894 [printers] section above for reasons why you might want to do this.
1896 For those of you without a printcap (say on SysV) you can just create a
1897 minimal file that looks like a printcap and set "printcap name =" in
1898 [global] to point at it.
1900 A minimal printcap file would look something like this:
1908 where the | separates aliases of a printer. The fact that the second
1909 alias has a space in it gives a hint to Samba that it's a comment.
1911 NOTE: Under AIX the default printcap name is "/etc/qconfig". Samba
1912 will assume the file is in AIX "qconfig" format if the string
1913 "/qconfig" appears in the printcap filename.
1916 printcap name = /etc/printcap
1919 printcap name = /etc/myprintcap
1921 A synonym for this parameter is 'printer name'.
1923 This parameter specifies the name of the printer to which print jobs spooled
1924 through a printable service will be sent.
1926 If specified in the [global] section, the printer name given will be used
1927 for any printable service that does not have its own printer name specified.
1930 none (but may be 'lp' on many systems)
1933 printer name = laserwriter
1934 .SS printer name (S)
1938 The value of the parameter (a string) is the highest protocol level that will
1939 be supported by the server.
1941 Possible values are CORE, COREPLUS, LANMAN1, LANMAN2 and NT1. The relative
1942 merits of each are discussed in the README file.
1950 A synonym for this parameter is 'guest ok'.
1952 If this parameter is 'yes' for a service, then no password is required
1953 to connect to the service. Privileges will be those of the guest
1956 See the section below on user/password validation for more information about
1965 This is a list of users that are given read-only access to a
1966 service. If the connecting user is in this list then they will
1967 not be given write access, no matter what the "read only" option
1968 is set to. The list can include group names using the @group syntax.
1970 See also the "write list" option
1976 read list = mary, @students
1983 Note that this is an inverted synonym for writable and write ok.
1984 .SS read prediction (G)
1985 This options enables or disables the read prediction code used to
1986 speed up reads from the server. When enabled the server will try to
1987 pre-read data from the last accessed file that was opened read-only
1988 while waiting for packets.
1991 read prediction = False
1994 read prediction = True
1996 This parameter controls whether or not the server will support raw reads when
1997 transferring data to clients.
1999 If enabled, raw reads allow reads of 65535 bytes in one packet. This
2000 typically provides a major performance benefit.
2002 However, some clients either negotiate the allowable block size incorrectly
2003 or are incapable of supporting larger block sizes, and for these clients you
2004 may need to disable raw reads.
2006 In general this parameter should be viewed as a system tuning tool and left
2007 severely alone. See also
2017 The option "read size" affects the overlap of disk reads/writes with
2018 network reads/writes. If the amount of data being transferred in
2019 several of the SMB commands (currently SMBwrite, SMBwriteX and
2020 SMBreadbraw) is larger than this value then the server begins writing
2021 the data before it has received the whole packet from the network, or
2022 in the case of SMBreadbraw, it begins writing to the network before
2023 all the data has been read from disk.
2025 This overlapping works best when the speeds of disk and network access
2026 are similar, having very little effect when the speed of one is much
2027 greater than the other.
2029 The default value is 2048, but very little experimentation has been
2030 done yet to determine the optimal value, and it is likely that the best
2031 value will vary greatly between systems anyway. A value over 65536 is
2032 pointless and will cause you to allocate memory unnecessarily.
2042 This options controls whether Samba will allow a previously validated
2043 username/password pair to be used to attach to a share. Thus if you
2044 connect to \\\\server\\share1 then to \\\\server\\share2 it won't
2045 automatically allow the client to request connection to the second
2046 share as the same username as the first without a password.
2048 If "revalidate" is True then the client will be denied automatic
2049 access as the same username.
2063 .SS root directory (G)
2064 Synonyms for this parameter are 'root dir' and 'root'.
2066 The server will chroot() to this directory on startup. This is not
2067 strictly necessary for secure operation. Even without it the server
2068 will deny access to files not in one of the service entries. It may
2069 also check for, and deny access to, soft links to other parts of the
2070 filesystem, or attempts to use .. in file names to access other
2071 directories (depending on the setting of the "wide links" parameter).
2073 Adding a "root dir" entry other than "/" adds an extra level of security,
2074 but at a price. It absolutely ensures that no access is given to files not
2075 in the sub-tree specified in the "root dir" option, *including* some files
2076 needed for complete operation of the server. To maintain full operability
2077 of the server you will need to mirror some system files into the "root dir"
2078 tree. In particular you will need to mirror /etc/passwd (or a subset of it),
2079 and any binaries or configuration files needed for printing (if required).
2080 The set of files that must be mirrored is operating system dependent.
2086 root directory = /homes/smb
2088 This option does affects how clients respond to Samba.
2090 The option sets the "security mode bit" in replies to protocol negotiations
2091 to turn share level security on or off. Clients decide based on this bit
2092 whether (and how) to transfer user and password information to the server.
2094 The default is "security=SHARE", mainly because that was the only
2095 option at one stage.
2097 The alternatives are "security = user" or "security = server".
2099 If your PCs use usernames that are the same as their usernames on the
2100 unix machine then you will want to use "security = user". If you
2101 mostly use usernames that don't exist on the unix box then use
2104 There is a bug in WfWg that may affect your decision. When in user
2105 level security a WfWg client will totally ignore the password you type
2106 in the "connect drive" dialog box. This makes it very difficult (if
2107 not impossible) to connect to a Samba service as anyone except the
2108 user that you are logged into WfWg as.
2110 If you use "security = server" then Samba will try to validate the
2111 username/password by passing it to another SMB server, such as an NT
2112 box. If this fails it will revert to "security = USER".
2114 See the "password server" option for more details.
2121 .SS server string (G)
2122 This controls what string will show up in the printer comment box in
2123 print manager and next to the IPC connection in "net view". It can be
2124 any string that you wish to show to your users.
2126 Note that it DOES NOT affect the string that appears in browse
2127 lists. That is controlled by a nmbd command line option instead.
2129 A %v will be replaced with the Samba version number.
2131 A %h will be replaced with the hostname.
2134 server string = Samba %v
2137 server string = University of GNUs Samba Server
2140 This sets the full path to the smbrun binary. This defaults to the
2141 value in the Makefile.
2143 You must get this path right for many services to work correctly.
2145 .B Default: taken from Makefile
2148 smbrun = /usr/local/samba/bin/smbrun
2150 .SS short preserve case (S)
2152 This controls if new short filenames are created with the case that
2153 the client passes, or if they are forced to be the "default" case.
2156 short preserve case = no
2158 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for a fuller discussion.
2160 .SS root preexec (S)
2162 This is the same as preexec except that the command is run as
2163 root. This is useful for mounting filesystems (such as cdroms) before
2164 a connection is finalised.
2166 .SS root postexec (S)
2168 This is the same as postexec except that the command is run as
2169 root. This is useful for unmounting filesystems (such as cdroms) after
2170 a connection is closed.
2172 .SS set directory (S)
2173 If 'set directory = no', then users of the service may not use the setdir
2174 command to change directory.
2176 The setdir comand is only implemented in the Digital Pathworks client. See the
2177 Pathworks documentation for details.
2186 This enables or disables the honouring of the "share modes" during a
2187 file open. These modes are used by clients to gain exclusive read or
2188 write access to a file.
2190 These open modes are not directly supported by unix, so they are
2191 simulated using lock files in the "lock directory". The "lock
2192 directory" specified in smb.conf must be readable by all users.
2194 The share modes that are enabled by this option are DENY_DOS,
2195 DENY_ALL, DENY_READ, DENY_WRITE, DENY_NONE and DENY_FCB.
2197 Enabling this option gives full share compatability but may cost a bit
2198 of processing time on the unix server. They are enabled by default.
2206 .SS socket options (G)
2207 This option (which can also be invoked with the -O command line
2208 option) allows you to set socket options to be used when talking with
2211 Socket options are controls on the networking layer of the operating
2212 systems which allow the connection to be tuned.
2214 This option will typically be used to tune your Samba server for
2215 optimal performance for your local network. There is no way that Samba
2216 can know what the optimal parameters are for your net, so you must
2217 experiment and choose them yourself. I strongly suggest you read the
2218 appropriate documentation for your operating system first (perhaps
2219 "man setsockopt" will help).
2221 You may find that on some systems Samba will say "Unknown socket
2222 option" when you supply an option. This means you either mis-typed it
2223 or you need to add an include file to includes.h for your OS. If the
2224 latter is the case please send the patch to me
2225 (samba-bugs@anu.edu.au).
2227 Any of the supported socket options may be combined in any way you
2228 like, as long as your OS allows it.
2230 This is the list of socket options currently settable using this
2253 Those marked with a * take an integer argument. The others can
2254 optionally take a 1 or 0 argument to enable or disable the option, by
2255 default they will be enabled if you don't specify 1 or 0.
2257 To specify an argument use the syntax SOME_OPTION=VALUE for example
2258 SO_SNDBUF=8192. Note that you must not have any spaces before or after
2261 If you are on a local network then a sensible option might be
2263 socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY
2265 If you have an almost unloaded local network and you don't mind a lot
2266 of extra CPU usage in the server then you could try
2268 socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY
2270 If you are on a wide area network then perhaps try setting
2273 Note that several of the options may cause your Samba server to fail
2274 completely. Use these options with caution!
2280 socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY
2286 This enables or disables logging of connections to a status file that
2289 With this disabled smbstatus won't be able to tell you what
2290 connections are active.
2299 This is a boolean that controls whether to strup trailing dots off
2300 filenames. This helps with some CDROMs that have filenames ending in a
2303 NOTE: This option is now obsolete, and may be removed in future. You
2304 should use the "mangled map" option instead as it is much more
2307 .SS strict locking (S)
2308 This is a boolean that controls the handling of file locking in the
2309 server. When this is set to yes the server will check every read and
2310 write access for file locks, and deny access if locks exist. This can
2311 be slow on some systems.
2313 When strict locking is "no" the server does file lock checks only when
2314 the client explicitly asks for them.
2316 Well behaved clients always ask for lock checks when it is important,
2317 so in the vast majority of cases "strict locking = no" is preferable.
2323 strict locking = yes
2327 This is a boolean parameter that controls whether writes will always
2328 be written to stable storage before the write call returns. If this is
2329 false then the server will be guided by the clients request in each
2330 write call (clients can set a bit indicating that a particular write
2331 should be synchronous). If this is true then every write will be
2332 followed by a fsync() call to ensure the data is written to disk.
2341 This parameter is a setting in minutes to add to the normal GMT to
2342 local time conversion. This is useful if you are serving a lot of PCs
2343 that have incorrect daylight saving time handling.
2355 A synonym for this parameter is 'user'.
2357 Multiple users may be specified in a comma-delimited list, in which case the
2358 supplied password will be tested against each username in turn (left to right).
2360 The username= line is needed only when the PC is unable to supply it's own
2361 username. This is the case for the coreplus protocol or where your
2362 users have different WfWg usernames to unix usernames. In both these
2363 cases you may also be better using the \\\\server\\share%user syntax
2366 The username= line is not a great solution in many cases as it means Samba
2367 will try to validate the supplied password against each of the
2368 usernames in the username= line in turn. This is slow and a bad idea for
2369 lots of users in case of duplicate passwords. You may get timeouts or
2370 security breaches using this parameter unwisely.
2372 Samba relies on the underlying unix security. This parameter does not
2373 restrict who can login, it just offers hints to the Samba server as to
2374 what usernames might correspond to the supplied password. Users can
2375 login as whoever they please and they will be able to do no more
2376 damage than if they started a telnet session. The daemon runs as the
2377 user that they log in as, so they cannot do anything that user cannot
2380 To restrict a service to a particular set of users you can use the
2381 "valid users=" line.
2383 If any of the usernames begin with a @ then the name will be looked up
2384 in the groups file and will expand to a list of all users in the group
2385 of that name. Note that searching though a groups file can take quite
2386 some time, and some clients may time out during the search.
2388 See the section below on username/password validation for more information
2389 on how this parameter determines access to the services.
2392 The guest account if a guest service, else the name of the service.
2396 username = fred, mary, jack, jane, @users, @pcgroup
2398 .SS username map (G)
2400 This option allows you to to specify a file containing a mapping of
2401 usernames from the clients to the server. This can be used for several
2402 purposes. The most common is to map usernames that users use on dos or
2403 windows machines to those that the unix box uses. The other is to map
2404 multiple users to a single username so that they can more easily share
2407 The map file is parsed line by line. Each line should contain a single
2408 unix username on the left then a '=' followed by a list of usernames
2409 on the right. The list of usernames on the right may contain names of
2410 the form @group in which case they will match any unix username in
2411 that group. The special client name '*' is a wildcard and matches any
2414 The file is processed on each line by taking the supplied username and
2415 comparing it with each username on the right hand side of the '='
2416 signs. If the supplied name matrches any of the names on the right
2417 hand side then it is replaced with the name on the left. Processing
2418 then continues with the next line.
2420 If any line begins with a '#' or a ';' then it is ignored
2422 For example to map from he name "admin" or "administrator" to the unix
2423 name "root" you would use
2425 root = admin administrator
2427 Or to map anyone in the unix group "system" to the unix name "sys" you
2432 You can have as many mappings as you like in a username map file.
2434 Note that the remapping is applied to all occurances of
2435 usernames. Thus if you connect to "\\\\server\\fred" and "fred" is
2436 remapped to "mary" then you will actually be connecting to
2437 "\\\\server\\mary" and will need to supply a password suitable for
2438 "mary" not "fred". The only exception to this is the username passwed
2439 to the "password server" (if you have one). The password server will
2440 receive whatever username the client supplies without modification.
2442 Also note that no reverse mapping is done. The main effect this has is
2443 with printing. Users who have been mapped may have trouble deleting
2444 print jobs as PrintManager under WfWg will think they don't own the
2451 username map = /usr/local/samba/lib/users.map
2455 The option allows you to specify additional characters that should be
2456 considered valid by the server in filenames. This is particularly
2457 useful for national character sets, such as adding u-umlaut or a-ring.
2459 The option takes a list of characters in either integer or character
2460 form with spaces between them. If you give two characters with a colon
2461 between them then it will be taken as an lowercase:uppercase pair.
2463 If you have an editor capable of entering the characters into the
2464 config file then it is probably easiest to use this method. Otherwise
2465 you can specify the characters in octal, decimal or hexidecimal form
2466 using the usual C notation.
2468 For example to add the single character 'Z' to the charset (which is a
2469 pointless thing to do as it's already there) you could do one of the
2474 valid chars = 0132:0172
2476 The last two examples above actually add two characters, and alters
2477 the uppercase and lowercase mappings appropriately.
2480 Samba defaults to using a reasonable set of valid characters
2484 valid chars = 0345:0305 0366:0326 0344:0304
2486 The above example allows filenames to have the swedish characters in
2490 This is a list of users that should be allowed to login to this
2491 service. A name starting with @ is interpreted as a unix group.
2493 If this is empty (the default) then any user can login. If a username
2494 is in both this list and the "invalid users" list then access is
2495 denied for that user.
2497 The current servicename is substituted for %S. This is useful in the
2500 See also "invalid users"
2503 No valid users list. (anyone can login)
2506 valid users = greg, @pcusers
2509 This allows you to override the volume label returned for a
2510 share. Useful for CDROMs whos installation programs insist on a
2511 particular volume label.
2513 The default is the name of the share
2516 This parameter controls whether or not links in the Unix file system may be
2517 followed by the server. Links that point to areas within the directory tree
2518 exported by the server are always allowed; this parameter controls access
2519 only to areas that are outside the directory tree being exported.
2529 This controls what workgroup your server will appear to be in when
2530 queried by clients. This can be different to the workgroup specified
2531 in the nmbd configuration, but it is probably best if you set them to
2546 A synonym for this parameter is 'write ok'. An inverted synonym is 'read only'.
2548 If this parameter is 'no', then users of a service may not create or modify
2549 files in the service's directory.
2551 Note that a printable service ('printable = yes') will ALWAYS allow
2552 writing to the directory (user privileges permitting), but only via
2553 spooling operations.
2563 This is a list of users that are given read-write access to a
2564 service. If the connecting user is in this list then they will be
2565 given write access, no matter what the "read only" option is set
2566 to. The list can include group names using the @group syntax.
2568 Note that if a user is in both the read list and the write list then
2569 they will be given write access.
2571 See also the "read list" option
2577 write list = admin, root, @staff
2580 This parameter controls whether or not the server will support raw writes when
2581 transferring data from clients.
2588 .SH NOTE ABOUT USERNAME/PASSWORD VALIDATION
2589 There are a number of ways in which a user can connect to a
2590 service. The server follows the following steps in determining if it
2591 will allow a connection to a specified service. If all the steps fail
2592 then the connection request is rejected. If one of the steps pass then
2593 the following steps are not checked.
2595 If the service is marked "guest only = yes" then steps 1 to 5 are skipped
2597 Step 1: If the client has passed a username/password pair and that
2598 username/password pair is validated by the unix systems password
2599 programs then the connection is made as that username. Note that this
2600 includes the \\\\server\\service%username method of passing a username.
2602 Step 2: If the client has previously registered a username with the
2603 system and now supplies a correct password for that username then the
2604 connection is allowed.
2606 Step 3: The clients netbios name and any previously used user names
2607 are checked against the supplied password, if they match then the
2608 connection is allowed as the corresponding user.
2610 Step 4: If the client has previously validated a username/password
2611 pair with the server and the client has passed the validation token
2612 then that username is used. This step is skipped if "revalidate = yes"
2615 Step 5: If a "user = " field is given in the smb.conf file for the
2616 service and the client has supplied a password, and that password
2617 matches (according to the unix systems password checking) with one of
2618 the usernames from the user= field then the connection is made as the
2619 username in the "user=" line. If one of the username in the user= list
2620 begins with a @ then that name expands to a list of names in the group
2623 Step 6: If the service is a guest service then a connection is made as
2624 the username given in the "guest account =" for the service,
2625 irrespective of the supplied password.
2629 Although the configuration file permits service names to contain spaces,
2630 your client software may not. Spaces will be ignored in comparisons anyway,
2631 so it shouldn't be a problem - but be aware of the possibility.
2633 On a similar note, many clients - especially DOS clients - limit service
2634 names to eight characters. Smbd has no such limitation, but attempts
2635 to connect from such clients will fail if they truncate the service names.
2636 For this reason you should probably keep your service names down to eight
2637 characters in length.
2639 Use of the [homes] and [printers] special sections make life for an
2640 administrator easy, but the various combinations of default attributes can be
2641 tricky. Take extreme care when designing these sections. In particular,
2642 ensure that the permissions on spool directories are correct.
2644 This man page is (mostly) correct for version 1.9.00 of the Samba suite, plus some
2645 of the recent patches to it. These notes will necessarily lag behind
2646 development of the software, so it is possible that your version of
2647 the server has extensions or parameter semantics that differ from or are not
2648 covered by this man page. Please notify these to the address below for
2651 Prior to version 1.5.21 of the Samba suite, the configuration file was
2652 radically different (more primitive). If you are using a version earlier than
2653 1.8.05, it is STRONGLY recommended that you upgrade.
2660 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
2672 [This section under construction]
2674 Most diagnostics issued by the server are logged in a specified log file. The
2675 log file name is specified at compile time, but may be overridden on the
2676 smbd (see smbd(8)) command line.
2678 The number and nature of diagnostics available depends on the debug level used
2679 by the server. If you have problems, set the debug level to 3 and peruse the
2682 Most messages are reasonably self-explanatory. Unfortunately, at time of
2683 creation of this man page the source code is still too fluid to warrant
2684 describing each and every diagnostic. At this stage your best bet is still
2685 to grep the source code and inspect the conditions that gave rise to the
2686 diagnostics you are seeing.
2691 Please send bug reports, comments and so on to:
2694 .B samba-bugs@anu.edu.au (Andrew Tridgell)
2697 or to the mailing list
2700 .B samba@listproc.anu.edu.au
2703 You may also like to subscribe to the announcement channel
2706 samba-announce@listproc.anu.edu.au
2709 To subscribe to these lists send a message to
2710 listproc@listproc.anu.edu.au with a body of "subscribe samba Your
2711 Name" or "subscribe samba-announce Your Name".
2713 Errors or suggestions for improvements to the Samba man pages should be
2717 .B samba-bugs@anu.edu.au (Andrew Tridgell)