1 This is the release version of Samba, the free SMB and CIFS client and
2 server and Domain Controller for UNIX and other operating
3 systems. Samba is maintained by the Samba Team, who support the
4 original author, Andrew Tridgell.
6 >>>> Please read THE WHOLE of this file as it gives important information
7 >>>> about the configuration and use of Samba.
9 NOTE: Installation instructions may be found
10 for the file/print server and domain member in:
11 docs/htmldocs/Samba3-HOWTO/install.html
13 For the AD DC implementation a full HOWTO is provided at:
14 http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba4/HOWTO
16 This software is freely distributable under the GNU public license, a
17 copy of which you should have received with this software (in a file
24 This is a big question.
26 The very short answer is that it is the protocol by which a lot of
27 PC-related machines share files and printers and other information
28 such as lists of available files and printers. Operating systems that
29 support this natively include Windows 9x, Windows NT (and derivatives),
30 OS/2, Mac OS X and Linux. Add on packages that achieve the same
31 thing are available for DOS, Windows 3.1, VMS, Unix of all kinds,
32 MVS, and more. Some Web Browsers can speak this protocol as well
33 (smb://). Alternatives to SMB include Netware, NFS, Appletalk,
34 Banyan Vines, Decnet etc; many of these have advantages but none are
35 both public specifications and widely implemented in desktop machines
38 The Common Internet File system (CIFS) is what the new SMB initiative
39 is called. For details watch http://samba.org/cifs.
42 WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO USE SMB?
43 ==============================
45 1. Many people want to integrate their Microsoft desktop clients
46 with their Unix servers.
48 2. Others want to integrate their Microsoft (etc) servers with Unix
49 servers. This is a different problem to integrating desktop
52 3. Others want to replace protocols like NFS, DecNet and Novell NCP,
53 especially when used with PCs.
59 Please refer to the WHATSNEW.txt included with this README for
60 a list of features in the latest Samba release.
62 Here is a very short list of what samba includes, and what it does.
63 For many networks this can be simply summarized by "Samba provides
64 a complete replacement for Windows NT, Warp, NFS or Netware servers."
66 - a SMB server, to provide Windows NT and LAN Manager-style file and print
67 services to SMB clients such as Windows 95, Warp Server, smbfs and others.
69 - a Windows Domain Controller (NT4 and AD) replacement.
71 - a file/print server that can act as a member of a Windows NT 4.0
72 or Active Directory domain.
74 - a NetBIOS (rfc1001/1002) nameserver, which amongst other things gives
75 browsing support. Samba can be the master browser on your LAN if you wish.
77 - a ftp-like SMB client so you can access PC resources (disks and
78 printers) from UNIX, Netware, and other operating systems
80 - a tar extension to the client for backing up PCs
82 - limited command-line tool that supports some of the NT administrative
83 functionality, which can be used on Samba, NT workstation and NT server.
85 For a much better overview have a look at the web site at
86 http://samba.org/samba, and browse the user survey.
88 Related packages include:
90 - cifsvfs, an advanced Linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount
91 remote SMB filesystems from PCs on your Linux box. This is included
92 as standard with Linux 2.5 and later.
94 - smbfs, the previous Linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount remote SMB
95 filesystems from PCs on your Linux box. This is included as standard with
103 If you want to contribute to the development of the software then
104 please join the mailing list. The Samba team accepts patches
105 (preferably in "diff -u" format, see http://samba.org/samba/devel/
106 for more details) and are always glad to receive feedback or
107 suggestions to the address samba@lists.samba.org. More information
108 on the various Samba mailing lists can be found at http://lists.samba.org/.
110 You can also get the Samba sourcecode straight from the git repository - see
111 http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Using_Git_for_Samba_Development.
113 If you like a particular feature then look through the git change-log
114 (on the web at http://gitweb.samba.org/?p=samba.git;a=summary) and see
115 who added it, then send them an email.
117 Remember that free software of this kind lives or dies by the response
118 we get. If no one tells us they like it then we'll probably move onto
127 There is quite a bit of documentation included with the package,
128 including man pages, and lots of .html files with hints and useful
129 info. This is also available from the web page. There is a growing
130 collection of information under docs/.
132 A list of Samba documentation in languages other than English is
133 available on the web page.
135 If you would like to help with the documentation, please coodinate
136 on the samba@samba.org mailing list. See the next section for details
137 on subscribing to samba mailing lists.
143 Please do NOT send subscription/unsubscription requests to the lists!
145 There is a mailing list for discussion of Samba. For details go to
146 <http://lists.samba.org/> or send mail to <samba-subscribe@lists.samba.org>
148 There is also an announcement mailing list where new versions are
149 announced. To subscribe go to <http://lists.samba.org/> or send mail
150 to <samba-announce-subscribe@lists.samba.org>. All announcements also
151 go to the samba list, so you only need to be on one.
153 For details of other Samba mailing lists and for access to archives, see
154 <http://lists.samba.org/>
157 MAILING LIST ETIQUETTE
158 ----------------------
160 A few tips when submitting to this or any mailing list.
162 1. Make your subject short and descriptive. Avoid the words "help" or
163 "Samba" in the subject. The readers of this list already know that
164 a) you need help, and b) you are writing about samba (of course,
165 you may need to distinguish between Samba PDC and other file
166 sharing software). Avoid phrases such as "what is" and "how do
167 i". Some good subject lines might look like "Slow response with
168 Excel files" or "Migrating from Samba PDC to NT PDC".
170 2. If you include the original message in your reply, trim it so that
171 only the relevant lines, enough to establish context, are
172 included. Chances are (since this is a mailing list) we've already
173 read the original message.
175 3. Trim irrelevant headers from the original message in your
176 reply. All we need to see is a) From, b) Date, and c) Subject. We
177 don't even really need the Subject, if you haven't changed
178 it. Better yet is to just preface the original message with "On
179 [date] [someone] wrote:".
181 4. Please don't reply to or argue about spam, spam filters or viruses
182 on any Samba lists. We do have a spam filtering system that is
183 working quite well thank you very much but occasionally unwanted
184 messages slip through. Deal with it.
186 5. Never say "Me too." It doesn't help anyone solve the
187 problem. Instead, if you ARE having the same problem, give more
188 information. Have you seen something that the other writer hasn't
189 mentioned, which may be helpful?
191 6. If you ask about a problem, then come up with the solution on your
192 own or through another source, by all means post it. Someone else
193 may have the same problem and is waiting for an answer, but never
196 7. Give as much *relevant* information as possible such as Samba
197 release number, OS, kernel version, etc...
199 8. RTFM. Google. groups.google.com.
205 A Samba WWW site has been setup with lots of useful info. Connect to:
209 As well as general information and documentation, this also has searchable
210 archives of the mailing list and a user survey that shows who else is using