1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//Samba-Team//DTD DocBook V4.2-Based Variant V1.0//EN" "http://www.samba.org/samba/DTD/samba-doc">
6 <refentrytitle>nmbd</refentrytitle>
7 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
12 <refname>nmbd</refname>
13 <refpurpose>NetBIOS name server to provide NetBIOS
14 over IP naming services to clients</refpurpose>
19 <command>nmbd</command>
20 <arg choice="opt">-D</arg>
21 <arg choice="opt">-F</arg>
22 <arg choice="opt">-S</arg>
23 <arg choice="opt">-a</arg>
24 <arg choice="opt">-i</arg>
25 <arg choice="opt">-o</arg>
26 <arg choice="opt">-h</arg>
27 <arg choice="opt">-V</arg>
28 <arg choice="opt">-d <debug level></arg>
29 <arg choice="opt">-H <lmhosts file></arg>
30 <arg choice="opt">-l <log directory></arg>
31 <arg choice="opt">-p <port number></arg>
32 <arg choice="opt">-s <configuration file></arg>
37 <title>DESCRIPTION</title>
38 <para>This program is part of the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>samba</refentrytitle>
39 <manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> suite.</para>
41 <para><command>nmbd</command> is a server that understands
42 and can reply to NetBIOS over IP name service requests, like
43 those produced by SMB/CIFS clients such as Windows 95/98/ME,
44 Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and LanManager clients. It also
45 participates in the browsing protocols which make up the
46 Windows "Network Neighborhood" view.</para>
48 <para>SMB/CIFS clients, when they start up, may wish to
49 locate an SMB/CIFS server. That is, they wish to know what
50 IP number a specified host is using.</para>
52 <para>Amongst other services, <command>nmbd</command> will
53 listen for such requests, and if its own NetBIOS name is
54 specified it will respond with the IP number of the host it
55 is running on. Its "own NetBIOS name" is by
56 default the primary DNS name of the host it is running on,
57 but this can be overridden by the <smbconfoption name="netbios name"/>
58 in &smb.conf;. Thus <command>nmbd</command> will
59 reply to broadcast queries for its own name(s). Additional
60 names for <command>nmbd</command> to respond on can be set
61 via parameters in the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
62 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> configuration file.</para>
64 <para><command>nmbd</command> can also be used as a WINS
65 (Windows Internet Name Server) server. What this basically means
66 is that it will act as a WINS database server, creating a
67 database from name registration requests that it receives and
68 replying to queries from clients for these names.</para>
70 <para>In addition, <command>nmbd</command> can act as a WINS
71 proxy, relaying broadcast queries from clients that do
72 not understand how to talk the WINS protocol to a WINS
77 <title>OPTIONS</title>
82 <listitem><para>If specified, this parameter causes
83 <command>nmbd</command> to operate as a daemon. That is,
84 it detaches itself and runs in the background, fielding
85 requests on the appropriate port. By default, <command>nmbd</command>
86 will operate as a daemon if launched from a command shell.
87 nmbd can also be operated from the <command>inetd</command>
88 meta-daemon, although this is not recommended.
94 <listitem><para>If specified, this parameter causes
95 the main <command>nmbd</command> process to not daemonize,
96 i.e. double-fork and disassociate with the terminal.
97 Child processes are still created as normal to service
98 each connection request, but the main process does not
99 exit. This operation mode is suitable for running
100 <command>nmbd</command> under process supervisors such
101 as <command>supervise</command> and <command>svscan</command>
102 from Daniel J. Bernstein's <command>daemontools</command>
103 package, or the AIX process monitor.
109 <listitem><para>If specified, this parameter causes
110 <command>nmbd</command> to log to standard output rather
111 than a file.</para></listitem>
116 <listitem><para>If this parameter is specified it causes the
117 server to run "interactively", not as a daemon, even if the
118 server is executed on the command line of a shell. Setting this
119 parameter negates the implicit daemon mode when run from the
120 command line. <command>nmbd</command> also logs to standard
121 output, as if the <constant>-S</constant> parameter had been
122 given. </para></listitem>
128 <term>-H <filename></term>
129 <listitem><para>NetBIOS lmhosts file. The lmhosts
130 file is a list of NetBIOS names to IP addresses that
131 is loaded by the nmbd server and used via the name
132 resolution mechanism <smbconfoption name="name resolve order"/> described in <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
133 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> to resolve any
134 NetBIOS name queries needed by the server. Note
135 that the contents of this file are <emphasis>NOT</emphasis>
136 used by <command>nmbd</command> to answer any name queries.
137 Adding a line to this file affects name NetBIOS resolution
138 from this host <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis>.</para>
140 <para>The default path to this file is compiled into
141 Samba as part of the build process. Common defaults
142 are <filename>/usr/local/samba/lib/lmhosts</filename>,
143 <filename>/usr/samba/lib/lmhosts</filename> or
144 <filename>/etc/samba/lmhosts</filename>. See the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>lmhosts</refentrytitle>
145 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> man page for details on the contents of this file.</para></listitem>
151 <term>-p <UDP port number></term>
152 <listitem><para>UDP port number is a positive integer value.
153 This option changes the default UDP port number (normally 137)
154 that <command>nmbd</command> responds to name queries on. Don't
155 use this option unless you are an expert, in which case you
156 won't need help!</para></listitem>
167 <term><filename>/etc/inetd.conf</filename></term>
168 <listitem><para>If the server is to be run by the
169 <command>inetd</command> meta-daemon, this file
170 must contain suitable startup information for the
176 <term><filename>/etc/rc</filename></term>
177 <listitem><para>or whatever initialization script your
180 <para>If running the server as a daemon at startup,
181 this file will need to contain an appropriate startup
182 sequence for the server.</para></listitem>
186 <term><filename>/etc/services</filename></term>
187 <listitem><para>If running the server via the
188 meta-daemon <command>inetd</command>, this file
189 must contain a mapping of service name (e.g., netbios-ssn)
190 to service port (e.g., 139) and protocol type (e.g., tcp).
195 <term><filename>/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf</filename></term>
196 <listitem><para>This is the default location of
197 the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
198 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> server
199 configuration file. Other common places that systems
200 install this file are <filename>/usr/samba/lib/smb.conf</filename>
201 and <filename>/etc/samba/smb.conf</filename>.</para>
203 <para>When run as a WINS server (see the
204 <smbconfoption name="wins support"/>
205 parameter in the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
206 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> man page),
207 <command>nmbd</command>
208 will store the WINS database in the file <filename>wins.dat</filename>
209 in the <filename>var/locks</filename> directory configured under
210 wherever Samba was configured to install itself.</para>
212 <para>If <command>nmbd</command> is acting as a <emphasis>
213 browse master</emphasis> (see the <smbconfoption name="local master"/>
214 parameter in the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
215 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> man page, <command>nmbd</command>
216 will store the browsing database in the file <filename>browse.dat
217 </filename> in the <filename>var/locks</filename> directory
218 configured under wherever Samba was configured to install itself.
225 <title>SIGNALS</title>
227 <para>To shut down an <command>nmbd</command> process it is recommended
228 that SIGKILL (-9) <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> be used, except as a last
229 resort, as this may leave the name database in an inconsistent state.
230 The correct way to terminate <command>nmbd</command> is to send it
231 a SIGTERM (-15) signal and wait for it to die on its own.</para>
233 <para><command>nmbd</command> will accept SIGHUP, which will cause
234 it to dump out its namelists into the file <filename>namelist.debug
235 </filename> in the <filename>/usr/local/samba/var/locks</filename>
236 directory (or the <filename>var/locks</filename> directory configured
237 under wherever Samba was configured to install itself). This will also
238 cause <command>nmbd</command> to dump out its server database in
239 the <filename>log.nmb</filename> file.</para>
241 <para>The debug log level of nmbd may be raised or lowered
242 using <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbcontrol</refentrytitle>
243 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> (SIGUSR[1|2] signals
244 are no longer used since Samba 2.2). This is to allow
245 transient problems to be diagnosed, whilst still running
246 at a normally low log level.</para>
251 <title>VERSION</title>
253 <para>This man page is correct for version 3.0 of
254 the Samba suite.</para>
258 <title>SEE ALSO</title>
260 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>inetd</refentrytitle>
261 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbd</refentrytitle>
262 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
263 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbclient</refentrytitle>
264 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>testparm</refentrytitle>
265 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>testprns</refentrytitle>
266 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, and the Internet
267 RFC's <filename>rfc1001.txt</filename>, <filename>rfc1002.txt</filename>.
268 In addition the CIFS (formerly SMB) specification is available
269 as a link from the Web page <ulink noescape="1" url="http://samba.org/cifs/">
270 http://samba.org/cifs/</ulink>.</para>
274 <title>AUTHOR</title>
276 <para>The original Samba software and related utilities
277 were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed
278 by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar
279 to the way the Linux kernel is developed.</para>
281 <para>The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer.
282 The man page sources were converted to YODL format (another
283 excellent piece of Open Source software, available at <ulink url="ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/">
284 ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/</ulink>) and updated for the Samba 2.0
285 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to DocBook for
286 Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter. The conversion to DocBook
287 XML 4.2 for Samba 3.0 was done by Alexander Bokovoy.</para>