1 <refentry id="smb.conf.5" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2003/XInclude"
2 xmlns:samba="http://www.samba.org/samba/DTD/samba-doc">
5 <refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
6 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
7 <refmiscinfo class="source">Samba</refmiscinfo>
8 <refmiscinfo class="manual">File Formats and Conventions</refmiscinfo>
9 <refmiscinfo class="version">4.0</refmiscinfo>
14 <refname>smb.conf</refname>
15 <refpurpose>The configuration file for the Samba suite</refpurpose>
19 <title>SYNOPSIS</title>
22 The <filename moreinfo="none">smb.conf</filename> file is a configuration file for the Samba suite. <filename
23 moreinfo="none">smb.conf</filename> contains runtime configuration information for the Samba programs. The
24 complete description of the file format and possible parameters held within are here for reference purposes.
28 <refsect1 id="FILEFORMATSECT">
29 <title>FILE FORMAT</title>
32 The file consists of sections and parameters. A section begins with the name of the section in square brackets
33 and continues until the next section begins. Sections contain parameters of the form:
35 <replaceable>name</replaceable> = <replaceable>value </replaceable>
40 The file is line-based - that is, each newline-terminated line represents either a comment, a section name or
44 <para>Section and parameter names are not case sensitive.</para>
47 Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before or after the first equals sign is
48 discarded. Leading, trailing and internal whitespace in section and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading
49 and trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal whitespace within a parameter value is
54 Any line beginning with a semicolon (<quote>;</quote>) or a hash (<quote>#</quote>)
55 character is ignored, as are lines containing only whitespace.
59 Any line ending in a <quote><literal>\</literal></quote> is continued on the next line in the customary UNIX fashion.
63 The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a string (no quotes needed) or a boolean,
64 which may be given as yes/no, 1/0 or true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, but is preserved
65 in string values. Some items such as create masks are numeric.
71 <title>SECTION DESCRIPTIONS</title>
74 Each section in the configuration file (except for the [global] section) describes a shared resource (known as
75 a <quote>share</quote>). The section name is the name of the shared resource and the parameters within the
76 section define the shares attributes.
80 There are three special sections, [global], [homes] and [printers], which are described under
81 <emphasis>special sections</emphasis>. The following notes apply to ordinary section descriptions.
85 A share consists of a directory to which access is being given plus a description of the access rights
86 which are granted to the user of the service. Some housekeeping options are also specifiable.
90 Sections are either file share services (used by the client as an extension of their native file systems)
91 or printable services (used by the client to access print services on the host running the server).
95 Sections may be designated <emphasis>guest</emphasis> services, in which case no password is required to
96 access them. A specified UNIX <emphasis>guest account</emphasis> is used to define access privileges in this
101 Sections other than guest services will require a password to access them. The client provides the
102 username. As older clients only provide passwords and not usernames, you may specify a list of usernames to
103 check against the password using the <literal>user =</literal> option in the share definition. For modern clients
104 such as Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000, this should not be necessary.
108 The access rights granted by the server are masked by the access rights granted to the specified or guest
109 UNIX user by the host system. The server does not grant more access than the host system grants.
113 The following sample section defines a file space share. The user has write access to the path <filename
114 moreinfo="none">/home/bar</filename>. The share is accessed via the share name <literal>foo</literal>:
116 <smbconfsection name="[foo]"/>
117 <smbconfoption name="path">/home/bar</smbconfoption>
118 <smbconfoption name="read only">no</smbconfoption>
123 The following sample section defines a printable share. The share is read-only, but printable. That is,
124 the only write access permitted is via calls to open, write to and close a spool file. The <emphasis>guest
125 ok</emphasis> parameter means access will be permitted as the default guest user (specified elsewhere):
127 <smbconfsection name="[aprinter]"/>
128 <smbconfoption name="path">/usr/spool/public</smbconfoption>
129 <smbconfoption name="read only">yes</smbconfoption>
130 <smbconfoption name="printable">yes</smbconfoption>
131 <smbconfoption name="guest ok">yes</smbconfoption>
138 <title>SPECIAL SECTIONS</title>
141 <title>The [global] section</title>
144 Parameters in this section apply to the server as a whole, or are defaults for sections that do not
145 specifically define certain items. See the notes under PARAMETERS for more information.
149 <refsect2 id="HOMESECT">
150 <title>The [homes] section</title>
153 If a section called [homes] is included in the configuration file, services connecting clients
154 to their home directories can be created on the fly by the server.
158 When the connection request is made, the existing sections are scanned. If a match is found, it is
159 used. If no match is found, the requested section name is treated as a username and looked up in the local
160 password file. If the name exists and the correct password has been given, a share is created by cloning the
165 Some modifications are then made to the newly created share:
170 The share name is changed from homes to the located username.
174 If no path was given, the path is set to the user's home directory.
179 If you decide to use a <emphasis>path =</emphasis> line in your [homes] section, it may be useful
180 to use the %S macro. For example:
182 <userinput moreinfo="none">path = /data/pchome/%S</userinput>
184 is useful if you have different home directories for your PCs than for UNIX access.
188 This is a fast and simple way to give a large number of clients access to their home directories with a minimum
193 A similar process occurs if the requested section name is <quote>homes</quote>, except that the share
194 name is not changed to that of the requesting user. This method of using the [homes] section works well if
195 different users share a client PC.
199 The [homes] section can specify all the parameters a normal service section can specify, though some make more sense
200 than others. The following is a typical and suitable [homes] section:
202 <smbconfsection name="[homes]"/>
203 <smbconfoption name="read only">no</smbconfoption>
208 An important point is that if guest access is specified in the [homes] section, all home directories will be
209 visible to all clients <emphasis>without a password</emphasis>. In the very unlikely event that this is actually
210 desirable, it is wise to also specify <emphasis>read only access</emphasis>.
214 The <emphasis>browseable</emphasis> flag for auto home directories will be inherited from the global browseable
215 flag, not the [homes] browseable flag. This is useful as it means setting <emphasis>browseable = no</emphasis> in
216 the [homes] section will hide the [homes] share but make any auto home directories visible.
220 <refsect2 id="PRINTERSSECT">
221 <title>The [printers] section</title>
224 This section works like [homes], but for printers.
228 If a [printers] section occurs in the configuration file, users are able to connect to any printer
229 specified in the local host's printcap file.
233 When a connection request is made, the existing sections are scanned. If a match is found, it is used.
234 If no match is found, but a [homes] section exists, it is used as described above. Otherwise, the requested
235 section name is treated as a printer name and the appropriate printcap file is scanned to see if the requested
236 section name is a valid printer share name. If a match is found, a new printer share is created by cloning the
241 A few modifications are then made to the newly created share:
245 <listitem><para>The share name is set to the located printer name</para></listitem>
247 <listitem><para>If no printer name was given, the printer name is set to the located printer name</para></listitem>
249 <listitem><para>If the share does not permit guest access and no username was given, the username is set
250 to the located printer name.</para></listitem>
254 The [printers] service MUST be printable - if you specify otherwise, the server will refuse
255 to load the configuration file.
259 Typically the path specified is that of a world-writeable spool directory with the sticky bit set on
260 it. A typical [printers] entry looks like this:
262 <smbconfsection name="[printers]"/>
263 <smbconfoption name="path">/usr/spool/public</smbconfoption>
264 <smbconfoption name="guest ok">yes</smbconfoption>
265 <smbconfoption name="printable">yes</smbconfoption>
270 All aliases given for a printer in the printcap file are legitimate printer names as far as the server is concerned.
271 If your printing subsystem doesn't work like that, you will have to set up a pseudo-printcap. This is a file
272 consisting of one or more lines like this:
274 alias|alias|alias|alias...
279 Each alias should be an acceptable printer name for your printing subsystem. In the [global] section,
280 specify the new file as your printcap. The server will only recognize names found in your pseudo-printcap,
281 which of course can contain whatever aliases you like. The same technique could be used simply to limit access
282 to a subset of your local printers.
286 An alias, by the way, is defined as any component of the first entry of a printcap record. Records are separated by newlines,
287 components (if there are more than one) are separated by vertical bar symbols (<literal>|</literal>).
291 On SYSV systems which use lpstat to determine what printers are defined on the system you may be able to use
292 <literal>printcap name = lpstat</literal> to automatically obtain a list of printers. See the
293 <literal>printcap name</literal> option for more details.
299 <title>USERSHARES</title>
301 <para>Starting with Samba version 3.0.23 the capability for non-root users to add, modify, and delete
302 their own share definitions has been added. This capability is called <emphasis>usershares</emphasis> and
303 is controlled by a set of parameters in the [global] section of the smb.conf.
304 The relevant parameters are :
309 <term>usershare allow guests</term>
310 <listitem><para>Controls if usershares can permit guest access.</para></listitem>
314 <term>usershare max shares</term>
315 <listitem><para>Maximum number of user defined shares allowed.</para></listitem>
319 <term>usershare owner only</term>
320 <listitem><para>If set only directories owned by the sharing user can be shared.</para></listitem>
324 <term>usershare path</term>
325 <listitem><para>Points to the directory containing the user defined share definitions.
326 The filesystem permissions on this directory control who can create user defined shares.</para></listitem>
330 <term>usershare prefix allow list</term>
331 <listitem><para>Comma-separated list of absolute pathnames restricting what directories
332 can be shared. Only directories below the pathnames in this list are permitted.</para></listitem>
336 <term>usershare prefix deny list</term>
337 <listitem><para>Comma-separated list of absolute pathnames restricting what directories
338 can be shared. Directories below the pathnames in this list are prohibited.</para></listitem>
342 <term>usershare template share</term>
343 <listitem><para>Names a pre-existing share used as a template for creating new usershares.
344 All other share parameters not specified in the user defined share definition
345 are copied from this named share.</para></listitem>
349 <para>To allow members of the UNIX group <literal>foo</literal> to create user defined
350 shares, create the directory to contain the share definitions as follows:
352 <para>Become root:</para>
354 mkdir /usr/local/samba/lib/usershares
355 chgrp foo /usr/local/samba/lib/usershares
356 chmod 1770 /usr/local/samba/lib/usershares
358 <para>Then add the parameters
361 <smbconfoption name="usershare path">/usr/local/samba/lib/usershares</smbconfoption>
362 <smbconfoption name="usershare max shares">10</smbconfoption> # (or the desired number of shares)
366 section of your <filename>smb.conf</filename>. Members of the group foo may then manipulate the user defined shares
367 using the following commands.</para>
371 <term>net usershare add sharename path [comment] [acl] [guest_ok=[y|n]]</term>
372 <listitem><para>To create or modify (overwrite) a user defined share.</para></listitem>
376 <term>net usershare delete sharename</term>
377 <listitem><para>To delete a user defined share.</para></listitem>
381 <term>net usershare list wildcard-sharename</term>
382 <listitem><para>To list user defined shares.</para></listitem>
386 <term>net usershare info wildcard-sharename</term>
387 <listitem><para>To print information about user defined shares.</para></listitem>
393 <title>PARAMETERS</title>
395 <para>Parameters define the specific attributes of sections.</para>
398 Some parameters are specific to the [global] section (e.g., <emphasis>security</emphasis>). Some parameters
399 are usable in all sections (e.g., <emphasis>create mask</emphasis>). All others are permissible only in normal
400 sections. For the purposes of the following descriptions the [homes] and [printers] sections will be
401 considered normal. The letter <emphasis>G</emphasis> in parentheses indicates that a parameter is specific to
402 the [global] section. The letter <emphasis>S</emphasis> indicates that a parameter can be specified in a
403 service specific section. All <emphasis>S</emphasis> parameters can also be specified in the [global] section
404 - in which case they will define the default behavior for all services.
408 Parameters are arranged here in alphabetical order - this may not create best bedfellows, but at least you can
409 find them! Where there are synonyms, the preferred synonym is described, others refer to the preferred
415 <title>VARIABLE SUBSTITUTIONS</title>
418 Many of the strings that are settable in the config file can take substitutions. For example the option
419 <quote>path = /tmp/%u</quote> is interpreted as <quote>path = /tmp/john</quote> if the user connected with the
424 These substitutions are mostly noted in the descriptions below, but there are some general substitutions
425 which apply whenever they might be relevant. These are:
431 <listitem><para>session username (the username that the client wanted, not
432 necessarily the same as the one they got).</para></listitem>
437 <listitem><para>primary group name of %U.</para></listitem>
442 <listitem><para>the Internet hostname that Samba is running on.</para></listitem>
447 <listitem><para>the NetBIOS name of the client machine (very useful).</para>
449 <para>This parameter is not available when Samba listens on port 445, as clients no longer
450 send this information. If you use this macro in an include statement on a domain that has
451 a Samba domain controller be sure to set in the [global] section <parameter>smb ports =
452 139</parameter>. This will cause Samba to not listen on port 445 and will permit include
453 functionality to function as it did with Samba 2.x.
460 <listitem><para>the NetBIOS name of the server. This allows you to change your config based on what
461 the client calls you. Your server can have a <quote>dual personality</quote>.
467 <listitem><para>the Internet name of the client machine.
473 <listitem><para>the selected protocol level after protocol negotiation. It can be one of CORE, COREPLUS,
474 LANMAN1, LANMAN2, NT1, SMB2_02, SMB2_10, SMB2_22, SMB2_24, SMB3_00 or SMB2_FF.</para></listitem>
479 <listitem><para>the process id of the current server
480 process.</para></listitem>
486 The architecture of the remote
487 machine. It currently recognizes Samba (<constant>Samba</constant>),
488 the Linux CIFS file system (<constant>CIFSFS</constant>), OS/2, (<constant>OS2</constant>),
489 Mac OS X (<constant>OSX</constant>), Windows for Workgroups (<constant>WfWg</constant>), Windows 9x/ME
490 (<constant>Win95</constant>), Windows NT (<constant>WinNT</constant>),
491 Windows 2000 (<constant>Win2K</constant>),
492 Windows XP (<constant>WinXP</constant>),
493 Windows XP 64-bit(<constant>WinXP64</constant>),
494 Windows 2003 including
495 2003R2 (<constant>Win2K3</constant>), and Windows
496 Vista (<constant>Vista</constant>). Anything else will be known as
497 <constant>UNKNOWN</constant>.</para>
503 <listitem><para>the IP address of the client machine.</para>
504 <para>Before 4.0.0 it could contain IPv4 mapped IPv6 addresses,
505 now it only contains IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.</para>
511 <listitem><para>the local IP address to which a client connected.</para>
512 <para>Before 4.0.0 it could contain IPv4 mapped IPv6 addresses,
513 now it only contains IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.</para>
519 <listitem><para>the current date and time.</para></listitem>
524 <listitem><para>name of the domain or workgroup of the current user.</para></listitem>
529 <listitem><para>the winbind separator.</para></listitem>
533 <term>%$(<replaceable>envvar</replaceable>)</term>
534 <listitem><para>the value of the environment variable
535 <replaceable>envar</replaceable>.</para></listitem>
540 The following substitutes apply only to some configuration options (only those that are
541 used when a connection has been established):
547 <listitem><para>the name of the current service, if any.</para>
553 <listitem><para>the root directory of the current service, if any.</para></listitem>
558 <listitem><para>username of the current service, if any.</para>
564 <listitem><para>primary group name of %u.</para></listitem>
569 <listitem><para>the home directory of the user given by %u.</para></listitem>
575 the name of your NIS home directory server. This is obtained from your NIS auto.map entry.
576 If you have not compiled Samba with the <emphasis>--with-automount</emphasis> option, this
577 value will be the same as %L.</para></listitem>
583 the path of the service's home directory, obtained from your NIS auto.map entry. The NIS
584 auto.map entry is split up as <literal>%N:%p</literal>.</para></listitem>
589 There are some quite creative things that can be done with these substitutions and other
590 <filename moreinfo="none">smb.conf</filename> options.
594 <refsect1 id="NAMEMANGLINGSECT">
595 <title>NAME MANGLING</title>
598 Samba supports <literal>name mangling</literal> so that DOS and Windows clients can use files that don't
599 conform to the 8.3 format. It can also be set to adjust the case of 8.3 format filenames.
603 There are several options that control the way mangling is performed, and they are grouped here rather
604 than listed separately. For the defaults look at the output of the testparm program.
608 These options can be set separately for each service.
618 <term>case sensitive = yes/no/auto</term>
620 controls whether filenames are case sensitive. If they aren't, Samba must do a filename search and match on
621 passed names. The default setting of auto allows clients that support case sensitive filenames (Linux CIFSVFS
622 and smbclient 3.0.5 and above currently) to tell the Samba server on a per-packet basis that they wish to
623 access the file system in a case-sensitive manner (to support UNIX case sensitive semantics). No Windows or
624 DOS system supports case-sensitive filename so setting this option to auto is that same as setting it to no
625 for them. Default <emphasis>auto</emphasis>.
630 <term>default case = upper/lower</term>
632 controls what the default case is for new filenames (ie. files that don't currently exist in the filesystem).
633 Default <emphasis>lower</emphasis>. IMPORTANT NOTE: As part of the optimizations for directories containing
634 large numbers of files, the following special case applies. If the options
635 <smbconfoption name="case sensitive">yes</smbconfoption>, <smbconfoption name="preserve case">No</smbconfoption>, and
636 <smbconfoption name="short preserve case">No</smbconfoption> are set, then the case of <emphasis>all</emphasis>
637 incoming client filenames, not just new filenames, will be modified. See additional notes below.
642 <term>preserve case = yes/no</term>
644 controls whether new files (ie. files that don't currently exist in the filesystem) are created with the case
645 that the client passes, or if they are forced to be the <literal>default</literal> case. Default
646 <emphasis>yes</emphasis>.
651 <term>short preserve case = yes/no</term>
653 controls if new files (ie. files that don't currently exist in the filesystem) which conform to 8.3 syntax,
654 that is all in upper case and of suitable length, are created upper case, or if they are forced to be the
655 <literal>default</literal> case. This option can be used with <literal>preserve case = yes</literal> to permit
656 long filenames to retain their case, while short names are lowercased. Default <emphasis>yes</emphasis>.
662 By default, Samba 3.0 has the same semantics as a Windows NT server, in that it is case insensitive
663 but case preserving. As a special case for directories with large numbers of files, if the case
664 options are set as follows, "case sensitive = yes", "case preserve = no", "short preserve case = no"
665 then the "default case" option will be applied and will modify all filenames sent from the client
666 when accessing this share.
672 <title>REGISTRY-BASED CONFIGURATION</title>
675 Starting with Samba version 3.2.0, the capability to
676 store Samba configuration in the registry is available.
677 The configuration is stored in the registry key
678 <emphasis><literal>HKLM\Software\Samba\smbconf</literal></emphasis>.
679 There are two levels of registry configuration:
682 <orderedlist continuation="restarts" inheritnum="ignore" numeration="arabic">
683 <listitem><para>Share definitions stored in registry are used.
684 This is triggered by setting the global
685 parameter <parameter>registry shares</parameter>
686 to <quote>yes</quote> in <emphasis>smb.conf</emphasis>.
689 <para>The registry shares are loaded not at startup but
690 on demand at runtime by <emphasis>smbd</emphasis>.
691 Shares defined in <emphasis>smb.conf</emphasis> take
692 priority over shares of the same name defined in
693 registry.</para></listitem>
696 <para>Global <emphasis>smb.conf</emphasis>
697 options stored in registry are used. This can be activated
698 in two different ways:</para>
700 <para>Firstly, a registry only configuration is triggered
702 <smbconfoption name="config backend">registry</smbconfoption>
703 in the [global] section of <emphasis>smb.conf</emphasis>.
704 This resets everything that has been read from config files
705 to this point and reads the content of the global configuration
706 section from the registry.
707 This is the recommended method of using registry based
708 configuration.</para>
710 <para>Secondly, a mixed configuration can be activated
711 by a special new meaning of the parameter
712 <smbconfoption name="include">registry</smbconfoption>
713 in the [global] section of <emphasis>smb.conf</emphasis>.
714 This reads the global options from registry with the same
715 priorities as for an include of a text file.
716 This may be especially useful in cases where an initial
717 configuration is needed to access the registry.</para>
719 <para>Activation of global registry options automatically
720 activates registry shares. So in the registry only case,
721 shares are loaded on demand only.</para>
726 Note: To make registry-based configurations foolproof
727 at least to a certain extent, the use
728 of <parameter>lock directory</parameter> and
729 <parameter>config backend</parameter>
730 inside the registry configuration has been disabled:
731 Especially by changing the
732 <parameter>lock directory</parameter> inside the registry
733 configuration, one would create a broken setup where the daemons
734 do not see the configuration they loaded once it is active.
738 The registry configuration can be accessed with
739 tools like <emphasis>regedit</emphasis> or <emphasis>net (rpc)
740 registry</emphasis> in the key
741 <emphasis><literal>HKLM\Software\Samba\smbconf</literal></emphasis>.
743 More conveniently, the <emphasis>conf</emphasis> subcommand of the
744 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>net</refentrytitle>
745 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> utility
746 offers a dedicated interface to read and write the
747 registry based configuration locally, i.e. directly
748 accessing the database file, circumventing the
755 <title>EXPLANATION OF EACH PARAMETER</title>
757 <samba:parameterlist>
758 <!-- The URI below is resolved to local generated version of parameters.all.xml //-->
759 <!-- WAF build places it in bin/default/docs-xml/smbdotconf/parameters.all.xml //-->
760 <!-- and we redirect there via use of XML_CATALOG_FILES, see docs-xml/build/catalog.xml.in //-->
761 <xi:include href="http://www.samba.org/samba/smbdotconf/parameters.all.xml" parse="xml"/>
762 </samba:parameterlist>
767 <title>WARNINGS</title>
770 Although the configuration file permits service names to contain spaces, your client software may not.
771 Spaces will be ignored in comparisons anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem - but be aware of the possibility.
775 On a similar note, many clients - especially DOS clients - limit service names to eight characters.
776 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbd</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> has no such
777 limitation, but attempts to connect from such clients will fail if they truncate the service names. For this
778 reason you should probably keep your service names down to eight characters in length.
782 Use of the <literal>[homes]</literal> and <literal>[printers]</literal> special sections make life
783 for an administrator easy, but the various combinations of default attributes can be tricky. Take extreme
784 care when designing these sections. In particular, ensure that the permissions on spool directories are
791 <title>VERSION</title>
793 <para>This man page is correct for version 4 of the Samba suite.</para>
797 <title>SEE ALSO</title>
799 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>samba</refentrytitle>
800 <manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
801 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbd</refentrytitle>
802 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>nmbd</refentrytitle>
803 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>winbindd</refentrytitle>
804 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>samba</refentrytitle>
805 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>samba-tool</refentrytitle>
806 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbclient</refentrytitle>
807 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>nmblookup</refentrytitle>
808 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>testparm</refentrytitle>
809 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
813 <title>AUTHOR</title>
816 The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed
817 by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed.
821 The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer. The man page sources were converted to YODL format (another
822 excellent piece of Open Source software, available at <ulink noescape="1" url="ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/">
823 ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/</ulink>) and updated for the Samba 2.0 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion
824 to DocBook for Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter. The conversion to DocBook XML 4.2 for Samba 3.0 was done by