-This is the release version of Samba, the free SMB and CIFS client and
-server and Domain Controller for UNIX and other operating
-systems. Samba is maintained by the Samba Team, who support the
-original author, Andrew Tridgell.
+About Samba
+===========
-**Please read THE WHOLE of this file as it gives important information
-about the configuration and use of Samba.**
+Samba is the standard Windows interoperability suite of
+programs for Linux and Unix.
+Samba is Free Software licensed under the GNU General Public License and
+the Samba project is a member of the Software Freedom Conservancy.
+Since 1992, Samba has provided secure, stable and fast file and print services
+for all clients using the SMB/CIFS protocol, such as all versions of DOS
+and Windows, OS/2, Linux and many others.
+Samba is an important component to seamlessly integrate Linux/Unix Servers and
+Desktops into Active Directory environments. It can function both as a
+domain controller or as a regular domain member.
-NOTE: Installation instructions may be found
- for the file/print server and domain member in:
- docs/htmldocs/Samba3-HOWTO/install.html
For the AD DC implementation a full HOWTO is provided at:
https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba4/HOWTO
+Community guidelines can be read at:
+ https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/How_to_do_Samba:_Nicely
+
This software is freely distributable under the GNU public license, a
copy of which you should have received with this software (in a file
called COPYING).
-WHAT IS SMB/CIFS?
-=================
-
-This is a big question.
-
-The very short answer is that it is the protocol by which a lot of
-PC-related machines share files and printers and other information
-such as lists of available files and printers. Operating systems that
-support this natively include Windows 9x, Windows NT (and derivatives),
-OS/2, Mac OS X and Linux. Add on packages that achieve the same
-thing are available for DOS, Windows 3.1, VMS, Unix of all kinds,
-MVS, and more. Some Web Browsers can speak this protocol as well
-(smb://). Alternatives to SMB include Netware, NFS, Appletalk,
-Banyan Vines, Decnet etc; many of these have advantages but none are
-both public specifications and widely implemented in desktop machines
-by default.
-
-The Common Internet File system (CIFS) is what the new SMB initiative
-is called. For details watch https://www.samba.org/cifs/.
-
-
-WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO USE SMB?
-==============================
-
-1. Many people want to integrate their Microsoft desktop clients
- with their Unix servers.
-
-2. Others want to integrate their Microsoft (etc) servers with Unix
- servers. This is a different problem to integrating desktop
- clients.
-
-3. Others want to replace protocols like NFS, DecNet and Novell NCP,
- especially when used with PCs.
-
-
-WHAT CAN SAMBA DO?
-==================
-
-Please refer to the WHATSNEW.txt included with this README for
-a list of features in the latest Samba release.
-
-Here is a very short list of what samba includes, and what it does.
-For many networks this can be simply summarized by "Samba provides
-a complete replacement for Windows NT, Warp, NFS or Netware servers."
-
-- a SMB server, to provide Windows NT and LAN Manager-style file and print
- services to SMB clients such as Windows 95, Warp Server, smbfs and others.
-
-- a Windows Domain Controller (NT4 and AD) replacement.
-- a file/print server that can act as a member of a Windows NT 4.0
- or Active Directory domain.
-
-- a NetBIOS (rfc1001/1002) nameserver, which amongst other things gives
- browsing support. Samba can be the master browser on your LAN if you wish.
-
-- a ftp-like SMB client so you can access PC resources (disks and
- printers) from UNIX, Netware, and other operating systems
-
-- a tar extension to the client for backing up PCs
-
-- limited command-line tool that supports some of the NT administrative
- functionality, which can be used on Samba, NT workstation and NT server.
-
-For a much better overview have a look at the web site at
-https://www.samba.org/samba/, and browse the user survey.
-
-Related packages include:
-
-- cifsvfs, an advanced Linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount
- remote SMB filesystems from PCs on your Linux box. This is included
- as standard with Linux 2.5 and later.
-
-- smbfs, the previous Linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount remote SMB
- filesystems from PCs on your Linux box. This is included as standard with
- Linux 2.0 and later.
+CONTRIBUTIONS
+=============
+Please see https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Contribute
+for detailed set-by-step instructions on how to submit a patch
+for Samba via GitLab.
+Samba's GitLab mirror is at https://gitlab.com/samba-team/samba
-CONTRIBUTIONS
-=============
+OUR CONTRIBUTORS
+================
-1. To contribute via GitHub
- - fork the official Samba team repository on GitHub
- * see https://github.com/samba-team/samba
- - become familiar with the coding standards as described in README.Coding
- - make sure you read the Samba copyright policy
- * see https://www.samba.org/samba/devel/copyright-policy.html
- - create a feature branch
- - make changes
- - when committing, be sure to add signed-off-by tags
- * see https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/CodeReview#commit_message_tags
- - send a pull request for your branch through GitHub
- - this will trigger an email to the samba-technical mailing list
- - discussion happens on the samba-technical mailing list as described below
- - more info on using Git for Samba development can be found on the Samba Wiki
- * see https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Using_Git_for_Samba_Development
-
-2. If you want to contribute to the development of the software then
-please join the mailing list. The Samba team accepts patches
-(preferably in "diff -u" format, see https://www.samba.org/samba/devel/
-for more details) and are always glad to receive feedback or
-suggestions to the address samba@lists.samba.org. More information
-on the various Samba mailing lists can be found at https://lists.samba.org/.
-
-You can also get the Samba sourcecode straight from the git repository - see
-https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Using_Git_for_Samba_Development.
+See https://www.samba.org/samba/team/ for details of the Samba Team,
+as well as details of all those currently active in Samba development.
If you like a particular feature then look through the git change-log
(on the web at https://gitweb.samba.org/?p=samba.git;a=summary) and see
we get. If no one tells us they like it then we'll probably move onto
something else.
+
MORE INFO
=========
-------------
There is quite a bit of documentation included with the package,
-including man pages, and lots of .html files with hints and useful
-info. This is also available from the web page. There is a growing
-collection of information under docs/.
-
-A list of Samba documentation in languages other than English is
-available on the web page.
+including man pages and the wiki at https://wiki.samba.org
-If you would like to help with the documentation, please coordinate
-on the samba@samba.org mailing list. See the next section for details
-on subscribing to samba mailing lists.
+If you would like to help with our documentation, please contribute
+that improved content to the wiki, we are moving as much content there
+as possible.
MAILING LIST
7. Give as much *relevant* information as possible such as Samba
release number, OS, kernel version, etc...
-8. RTFM. Google. groups.google.com.
+8. RTFM. Google.
-WEB SITE
---------
+WEBSITE
+-------
-A Samba WWW site has been setup with lots of useful info. Connect to:
+A Samba website has been setup with lots of useful info. Connect to:
https://www.samba.org/
As well as general information and documentation, this also has searchable
-archives of the mailing list and a user survey that shows who else is using
-this package.
-
+archives of the mailing list and links to other useful resources such as
+the wiki.
git.samba.org / metze / samba-autobuild / .git / blobdiff