1 .TH SMB.CONF 5 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.
19 The file consists of sections and parameters. A section begins with the
20 name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
21 section begins. Sections contain parameters of the form 'name = value'.
23 The file is line-based - that is, each newline-terminated line represents
24 either a comment, a section name or a parameter.
26 Section and parameter names are not case sensitive.
28 Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before
29 or after the first equals sign is discarded. Leading, trailing and internal
30 whitespace in section and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading and
31 trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal whitespace
32 within a parameter value is retained verbatim.
34 Any line beginning with a semicolon is ignored, as are lines containing
37 Any line ending in a \e is "continued" on the next line in the
38 customary UNIX fashion.
40 The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a string
41 (no quotes needed) or a boolean, which may be given as yes/no, 0/1 or
42 true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, but is preserved
43 in string values. Some items such as create modes are numeric.
44 .SH SERVICE DESCRIPTIONS
45 Each section in the configuration file describes a service. The section name
46 is the service name and the parameters within the section define the service's
49 There are three special sections, [global], [homes] and [printers], which are
50 described under 'special sections'. The following notes apply to ordinary
53 A service consists of a directory to which access is being given plus a
54 description of the access rights which are granted to the user of the
55 service. Some housekeeping options are also specifiable.
57 Services are either filespace services (used by the client as an extension of
58 their native file systems) or printable services (used by the client to access
59 print services on the host running the server).
61 Services may be guest services, in which case no password is required to
62 access them. A specified guest account is used to define access privileges
65 Services other than guest services will require a password to access
66 them. The client provides the username. As many clients only provide
67 passwords and not usernames, you may specify a list of usernames to
68 check against the password using the "user=" option in the service
71 Note that the access rights granted by the server are masked by the access
72 rights granted to the specified or guest user by the host system. The
73 server does not grant more access than the host system grants.
75 The following sample section defines a file space service. The user has write
76 access to the path /home/bar. The service is accessed via the service name
83 The following sample section defines a printable service. The service is
84 readonly, but printable. That is, the only write access permitted is via
85 calls to open, write to and close a spool file. The 'guest ok' parameter
86 means access will be permitted as the default guest user (specified elsewhere):
89 path = /usr/spool/public
95 .SS The [global] section
97 Parameters in this section apply to the server as a whole, or are defaults
98 for services which do not specifically define certain items. See the notes
99 under 'Parameters' for more information.
102 .SS The [homes] section
104 If a section called 'homes' is included in the configuration file, services
105 connecting clients to their home directories can be created on the fly by the
108 When the connection request is made, the existing services are scanned. If a
109 match is found, it is used. If no match is found, the requested service name is
110 treated as a user name and looked up in the local passwords file. If the
111 name exists and the correct password has been given, a service is created
112 by cloning the [homes] section.
114 Some modifications are then made to the newly created section:
117 The service name is changed from 'homes' to the located username
119 If no path was given, the path is set to the user's home directory.
122 If you decide to use a path= line in your [homes] section then you may
123 find it useful to use the %S macro. For example path=/data/pchome/%S
124 would be useful if you have different home directories for your PCs
125 than for UNIX access.
127 This is a fast and simple way to give a large number of clients access to
128 their home directories with a minimum of fuss.
130 A similar process occurs if the requested service name is "homes", except that
131 the service name is not changed to that of the requesting user. This method
132 of using the [homes] section works well if different users share a client PC.
134 The [homes] section can specify all the parameters a normal service section
135 can specify, though some make more sense than others. The following is a
136 typical and suitable [homes] section:
144 If guest access is specified in the [homes] section, all home directories will
145 be accessible to all clients
146 .B without a password.
147 In the very unlikely event
148 that this is actually desirable, it would be wise to also specify read only
153 Note that the browseable flag for auto home directories will be
154 inherited from the global browseable flag, not the [homes] browseable
155 flag. This is useful as it means setting browseable=no in the [homes]
156 section will hide the [homes] service but make any auto home
159 .SS The [printers] section
161 This section works like [homes], but for printers.
163 If a [printers] section occurs in the configuration file, users are able
164 to connect to any printer specified in the local host's printcap file.
166 When a connection request is made, the existing services are scanned. If a
167 match is found, it is used. If no match is found, but a [homes] section
168 exists, it is used as described above. Otherwise, the requested service name is
169 treated as a printer name and the appropriate printcap file is scanned to
170 see if the requested service name is a valid printer name. If a match is
171 found, a new service is created by cloning the [printers] section.
173 A few modifications are then made to the newly created section:
176 The service name is set to the located printer name
178 If no printer name was given, the printer name is set to the located printer
181 If the service does not permit guest access and no username was given, the
182 username is set to the located printer name.
185 Note that the [printers] service MUST be printable - if you specify otherwise,
186 the server will refuse to load the configuration file.
188 Typically the path specified would be that of a world-writable spool directory
189 with the sticky bit set on it. A typical [printers] entry would look like this:
192 path = /usr/spool/public
197 All aliases given for a printer in the printcap file are legitimate printer
198 names as far as the server is concerned. If your printing subsystem doesn't
199 work like that, you will have to set up a pseudo-printcap. This is a file
200 consisting of one or more lines like this:
202 alias|alias|alias|alias...
204 Each alias should be an acceptable printer name for your printing
205 subsystem. In the [global] section, specify the new file as your printcap.
206 The server will then only recognise names found in your pseudo-printcap,
207 which of course can contain whatever aliases you like. The same technique
208 could be used simply to limit access to a subset of your local printers.
210 An alias, by the way, is defined as any component of the first entry of a
211 printcap record. Records are separated by newlines, components (if there are
212 more than one) are separated by vertical bar symbols ("|").
215 Parameters define the specific attributes of services.
217 Some parameters are specific to the [global] section (eg., security).
218 Some parameters are usable in all sections (eg., create mode). All others are
219 permissible only in normal sections. For the purposes of the following
220 descriptions the [homes] and [printers] sections will be considered normal.
221 The letter 'G' in parentheses indicates that a parameter is specific to the
222 [global] section. The letter 'S' indicates that a parameter can be
223 specified in a service specific section. Note that all S parameters
224 can also be specified in the [global] section - in which case they
225 will define the default behaviour for all services.
227 Parameters are arranged here in alphabetical order - this may not create
228 best bedfellows, but at least you can find them! Where there are synonyms,
229 the preferred synonym is described, others refer to the preferred synonym.
231 .SS VARIABLE SUBSTITUTIONS
233 Many of the strings that are settable in the config file can take
234 substitutions. For example the option "path = /tmp/%u" would be
235 interpreted as "path = /tmp/john" if the user connected with the
238 These substitutions are mostly noted in the descriptions below, but
239 there are some general substitutions which apply whenever they might be
242 %S = the name of the current service, if any
244 %P = the root directory of the current service, if any
246 %u = user name of the current service, if any
248 %g = primary group name of %u
250 %U = session user name (the user name that the client wanted, not
251 necessarily the same as the one they got)
253 %G = primary group name of %U
255 %H = the home directory of the user given by %u
257 %v = the Samba version
259 %h = the hostname that Samba is running on
261 %m = the netbios name of the client machine (very useful)
263 %L = the netbios name of the server. This allows you to change your
264 config based on what the client calls you. Your server can have a "dual
267 %M = the internet name of the client machine
269 %d = The process id of the current server process
271 %a = the architecture of the remote machine. Only some are recognised,
272 and those may not be 100% reliable. It currently recognises Samba,
273 WfWg, WinNT and Win95. Anything else will be known as "UNKNOWN". If it
274 gets it wrong then sending me a level 3 log should allow me to fix it.
276 %I = The IP address of the client machine
278 %T = the current date and time
280 There are some quite creative things that can be done with these
281 substitutions and other smb.conf options.
285 Samba supports "name mangling" so that DOS and Windows clients can use
286 files that don't conform to the 8.3 format. It can also be set to adjust
287 the case of 8.3 format filenames.
289 There are several options that control the way mangling is performed,
290 and they are grouped here rather than listed separately. For the
291 defaults look at the output of the testparm program.
293 All of these options can be set separately for each service (or
294 globally, of course).
298 "mangle case = yes/no" controls if names that have characters that
299 aren't of the "default" case are mangled. For example, if this is yes
300 then a name like "Mail" would be mangled. Default no.
302 "case sensitive = yes/no" controls whether filenames are case
303 sensitive. If they aren't then Samba must do a filename search and
304 match on passed names. Default no.
306 "default case = upper/lower" controls what the default case is for new
307 filenames. Default lower.
309 "preserve case = yes/no" controls if new files are created with the
310 case that the client passes, or if they are forced to be the "default"
313 "short preserve case = yes/no" controls if new files which conform to 8.3
314 syntax, that is all in upper case and of suitable length, are created
315 upper case, or if they are forced to be the "default" case. This option can
316 be use with "preserve case = yes" to permit long filenames to retain their
317 case, while short names are lowered. Default no.
319 .SS COMPLETE LIST OF GLOBAL PARAMETERS
321 Here is a list of all global parameters. See the section of each
322 parameter for details. Note that some are synonyms.
484 .SS COMPLETE LIST OF SERVICE PARAMETERS
486 Here is a list of all service parameters. See the section of each
487 parameter for details. Note that some are synonyms.
493 alternate permissions
649 .SS EXPLANATION OF EACH PARAMETER
654 This is a list of users who will be granted administrative privileges
655 on the share. This means that they will do all file operations as the
658 You should use this option very carefully, as any user in this list
659 will be able to do anything they like on the share, irrespective of
668 .SS auto services (G)
669 This is a list of services that you want to be automatically added to
670 the browse lists. This is most useful for homes and printers services
671 that would otherwise not be visible.
673 Note that if you just want all printers in your printcap file loaded
674 then the "load printers" option is easier.
680 auto services = fred lp colorlp
683 A synonym for this parameter is 'hosts allow'.
685 This parameter is a comma delimited set of hosts which are permitted to access
686 a services. If specified in the [global] section, matching hosts will be
687 allowed access to any service that does not specifically exclude them from
688 access. Specific services my have their own list, which override those
689 specified in the [global] section.
691 You can specify the hosts by name or IP number. For example, you could
692 restrict access to only the hosts on a Class C subnet with something like
693 "allow hosts = 150.203.5.". The full syntax of the list is described in
695 .BR hosts_access (5).
697 You can also specify hosts by network/netmask pairs and by netgroup
698 names if your system supports netgroups. The EXCEPT keyword can also
699 be used to limit a wildcard list. The following examples may provide
702 Example 1: allow all IPs in 150.203.*.* except one
704 hosts allow = 150.203. EXCEPT 150.203.6.66
706 Example 2: allow hosts that match the given network/netmask
708 hosts allow = 150.203.15.0/255.255.255.0
710 Example 3: allow a couple of hosts
712 hosts allow = lapland, arvidsjaur
714 Example 4: allow only hosts in netgroup "foonet" or localhost, but
715 deny access from one particular host
717 hosts allow = @foonet, localhost
720 Note that access still requires suitable user-level passwords.
724 for a way of testing your host access to see if it
725 does what you expect.
728 none (i.e., all hosts permitted access)
731 allow hosts = 150.203.5. myhost.mynet.edu.au
733 .SS alternate permissions (S)
735 This option affects the way the "read only" DOS attribute is produced
736 for UNIX files. If this is false then the read only bit is set for
737 files on writeable shares which the user cannot write to.
739 If this is true then it is set for files whos user write bit is not set.
741 The latter behaviour is useful for when users copy files from each
742 others directories, and use a file manager that preserves
743 permissions. Without this option they may get annoyed as all copied
744 files will have the "read only" bit set.
747 alternate permissions = no
750 alternate permissions = yes
753 This parameter lets you 'turn off' a service. If 'available = no', then
754 ALL attempts to connect to the service will fail. Such failures are logged.
762 This controls whether this share is seen in the list of available
763 shares in a net view and in the browse list.
771 This controls whether the smbd will serve a browse list to a client
772 doing a NetServerEnum call. Normally set to true. You should never
778 .SS case sensitive (G)
779 See the discussion on NAME MANGLING.
781 .SS case sig names (G)
784 .SS character set (G)
785 This allows a smbd to map incoming characters from a DOS 850 Code page
786 to either a Western European (ISO8859-1) or Easter European (ISO8859-2)
787 code page. Normally not set, meaning no filename translation is done.
795 character set = iso8859-1
797 .SS client code page (G)
798 Currently (Samba 1.9.17 and above) this may be set to one of two
799 values, 850 or 437. It specifies the base DOS code page that the
800 clients accessing Samba are using. To determine this, open a DOS
801 command prompt and type the command "chcp". This will output the
802 code page. The default for USA MS-DOS, Windows 95, and Windows NT
803 releases is code page 437. The default for western european
804 releases of the above operating systems is code page 850.
806 This parameter co-operates with the "valid chars" parameter in
807 determining what characters are valid in filenames and how
808 capitalization is done. It has been added as a convenience for
809 clients whose code page is either 437 or 850 so a convoluted
810 "valid chars" string does not have to be determined. If you
811 set both this parameter and the "valid chars" parameter the
812 "client code page" parameter MUST be set before the "valid chars"
813 in the smb.conf file. The "valid chars" string will then augment
814 the character settings in the "client code page" parameter.
816 If "client code page" is set to a value other than 850 or 437
817 it will default to 850.
819 See also : "valid chars".
823 client code page = 850
827 client code page = 437
830 This is a text field that is seen when a client does a net view to
831 list what shares are available. It will also be used when browsing is
838 comment = Fred's Files
842 This allows you to override the config file to use, instead of the
843 default (usually smb.conf). There is a chicken and egg problem here as
844 this option is set in the config file!
846 For this reason, if the name of the config file has changed when the
847 parameters are loaded then it will reload them from the new config
850 This option takes the usual substitutions, which can be very useful.
852 If the config file doesn't exist then it won't be loaded (allowing
853 you to special case the config files of just a few clients).
856 config file = /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf.%m
859 This parameter allows you to 'clone' service entries. The specified
860 service is simply duplicated under the current service's name. Any
861 parameters specified in the current section will override those in the
862 section being copied.
864 This feature lets you set up a 'template' service and create similar
865 services easily. Note that the service being copied must occur earlier
866 in the configuration file than the service doing the copying.
874 A synonym for this parameter is 'create mode'.
876 When a file is created, the neccessary permissions are calculated
877 according to the mapping from DOS modes to UNIX permissions, and
878 the resulting UNIX mode is then bit-wise 'AND'ed with this parameter.
879 This parameter may be thought of as a bit-wise MASK for the UNIX
880 modes of a file. Any bit *not* set here will be removed from the
881 modes set on a file when it is created.
883 The default value of this parameter removes the 'group' and 'other'
884 write and execute bits from the UNIX modes.
886 Following this Samba will bit-wise 'OR' the UNIX mode created from
887 this parameter with the value of the "force create mode" parameter
888 which is set to 000 by default.
890 For Samba 1.9.17 and above this parameter no longer affects directory
891 modes. See the parameter 'directory mode' for details.
893 See also the "force create mode" parameter for forcing particular
894 mode bits to be set on created files.
895 See also the "directory mode" parameter for masking mode bits on created
908 The value of the parameter (a decimal integer) represents the number of
909 minutes of inactivity before a connection is considered dead, and it
910 is disconnected. The deadtime only takes effect if the number of open files
913 This is useful to stop a server's resources being exhausted by a large
914 number of inactive connections.
916 Most clients have an auto-reconnect feature when a connection is broken so
917 in most cases this parameter should be transparent to users.
919 Using this parameter with a timeout of a few minutes is recommended
922 A deadtime of zero indicates that no auto-disconnection should be performed.
930 The value of the parameter (an integer) allows the debug level
931 (logging level) to be specified in the
933 file. This is to give
934 greater flexibility in the configuration of the system.
936 The default will be the debug level specified on the command line.
945 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" Also note the addition of "short
948 .SS default service (G)
949 A synonym for this parameter is 'default'.
951 This parameter specifies the name of a service which will be connected to
952 if the service actually requested cannot be found. Note that the square
953 brackets are NOT given in the parameter value (see example below).
955 There is no default value for this parameter. If this parameter is not given,
956 attempting to connect to a nonexistent service results in an error.
958 Typically the default service would be a public, read-only service.
960 Also note that as of 1.9.14 the apparent service name will be changed to
961 equal that of the requested service, this is very useful as it allows
962 you to use macros like %S to make a wildcard service.
964 Note also that any _ characters in the name of the service used in the
965 default service will get mapped to a /. This allows for interesting
970 default service = pub
976 .SS delete readonly (S)
977 This parameter allows readonly files to be deleted. This is not normal DOS
978 semantics, but is allowed by UNIX.
980 This option may be useful for running applications such as rcs, where UNIX
981 file ownership prevents changing file permissions, and DOS semantics prevent
982 deletion of a read only file.
988 delete readonly = Yes
990 A synonym for this parameter is 'hosts deny'.
992 The opposite of 'allow hosts' - hosts listed here are NOT permitted
993 access to services unless the specific services have their own lists to
994 override this one. Where the lists conflict, the 'allow' list takes precedence.
997 none (i.e., no hosts specifically excluded)
1000 deny hosts = 150.203.4. badhost.mynet.edu.au
1001 .SS dfree command (G)
1002 The dfree command setting should only be used on systems where a
1003 problem occurs with the internal disk space calculations. This has
1004 been known to happen with Ultrix, but may occur with other operating
1005 systems. The symptom that was seen was an error of "Abort Retry
1006 Ignore" at the end of each directory listing.
1008 This setting allows the replacement of the internal routines to
1009 calculate the total disk space and amount available with an external
1010 routine. The example below gives a possible script that might fulfill
1013 The external program will be passed a single parameter indicating a
1014 directory in the filesystem being queried. This will typically consist
1015 of the string "./". The script should return two integers in ascii. The
1016 first should be the total disk space in blocks, and the second should
1017 be the number of available blocks. An optional third return value
1018 can give the block size in bytes. The default blocksize is 1024 bytes.
1020 Note: Your script should NOT be setuid or setgid and should be owned by
1021 (and writable only by) root!
1024 By default internal routines for determining the disk capacity
1025 and remaining space will be used.
1028 dfree command = /usr/local/samba/bin/dfree
1030 Where the script dfree (which must be made executable) could be
1034 df $1 | tail -1 | awk '{print $2" "$4}'
1037 or perhaps (on Sys V)
1041 /usr/bin/df -k $1 | tail -1 | awk '{print $3" "$5}'
1044 Note that you may have to replace the command names with full
1045 path names on some systems.
1050 .SS directory mask (S)
1051 A synonym for this parameter is 'directory mode'.
1053 This parameter is the octal modes which are used when converting DOS modes
1054 to UNIX modes when creating UNIX directories.
1056 When a directory is created, the neccessary permissions are calculated
1057 according to the mapping from DOS modes to UNIX permissions, and
1058 the resulting UNIX mode is then bit-wise 'AND'ed with this parameter.
1059 This parameter may be thought of as a bit-wise MASK for the UNIX
1060 modes of a directory. Any bit *not* set here will be removed from the
1061 modes set on a directory when it is created.
1063 The default value of this parameter removes the 'group' and 'other'
1064 write bits from the UNIX mode, allowing only the user who owns the
1065 directory to modify it.
1067 Following this Samba will bit-wise 'OR' the UNIX mode created from
1068 this parameter with the value of the "force directory mode" parameter.
1069 This parameter is set to 000 by default (ie. no extra mode bits are added).
1071 See the "force directory mode" parameter to cause particular mode
1072 bits to always be set on created directories.
1074 See also the "create mode" parameter for masking mode bits on created
1078 directory mask = 0755
1081 directory mask = 0775
1082 .SS directory mode (S)
1088 Specifies that nmbd should (as a WINS server), on finding that a NetBIOS
1089 name has not been registered, treat the NetBIOS name word-for-word as
1092 Note that the maximum length for a NetBIOS name is 15
1093 characters, so the DNS name (or DNS alias) can likewise only be 15
1094 characters, maximum.
1096 Note also that nmbd will block completely until the DNS name is resolved.
1097 This will result in temporary loss of browsing and WINS services.
1098 Enable this option only if you are certain that DNS resolution is fast,
1099 or you can live with the consequences of periodic pauses in nmbd service.
1104 .SS domain controller (G)
1106 Specifies the DNS name or IP address of the machine to refer domain
1107 logons from Win95 machines to. You should never need to set this parameter.
1110 domain controller = no
1112 .SS domain master (G)
1114 Enable WAN-wide browse list collation. Local master browsers on
1115 broadcast-isolated subnets will give samba their local browse lists, and
1116 ask for a complete copy of the browse list for the whole wide area network.
1117 Browser clients will then contact their local master browser, and will
1118 receive the domain-wide browse list, instead of just the list for their
1119 broadcast-isolated subnet.
1124 .SS dont descend (S)
1125 There are certain directories on some systems (eg., the /proc tree under
1126 Linux) that are either not of interest to clients or are infinitely deep
1127 (recursive). This parameter allows you to specify a comma-delimited list
1128 of directories that the server should always show as empty.
1130 Note that Samba can be very fussy about the exact format of the "dont
1131 descend" entries. For example you may need "./proc" instead of just
1132 "/proc". Experimentation is the best policy :-)
1135 none (i.e., all directories are OK to descend)
1138 dont descend = /proc,/dev
1140 .SS encrypt passwords (G)
1142 This boolean controls whether encrypted passwords will be negotiated
1143 with the client. Note that this option has no effect if you haven't
1144 compiled in the necessary des libraries and encryption code. It
1149 This is an alias for preexec
1151 .SS fake oplocks (S)
1153 Oplocks are the way that SMB clients get permission from a server to
1154 locally cache file operations. If a server grants an oplock
1155 (opportunistic lock) then the client is free to assume that it is the
1156 only one accessing the file and it will aggressively cache file
1157 data. With some oplock types the client may even cache file open/close
1158 operations. This can give enormous performance benefits.
1160 Samba does not support opportunistic locks because they are very
1161 difficult to do under Unix. Samba can fake them, however, by granting
1162 a oplock whenever a client asks for one. This is controlled using the
1163 smb.conf option "fake oplocks". If you set "fake oplocks = yes" then
1164 you are telling the client that it may aggressively cache the file
1167 By enabling this option on all read-only shares or shares that you know
1168 will only be accessed from one client at a time you will see a big
1169 performance improvement on many operations. If you enable this option
1170 on shares where multiple clients may be accessing the files read-write
1171 at the same time you can get data corruption. Use this option
1174 This option is disabled by default.
1176 .SS follow symlinks (S)
1178 This parameter allows the Samba administrator to stop smbd from
1179 following symbolic links in a particular share. Setting this
1180 parameter to "No" prevents any file or directory that is a
1181 symbolic link from being followed (the user will get an error).
1182 This option is very useful to stop users from adding a symbolic
1183 link to /etc/pasword in their home directory for instance.
1184 However it will slow filename lookups down slightly.
1186 This option is enabled (ie. smbd will follow symbolic links)
1189 .SS force create mode (S)
1190 This parameter specifies a set of UNIX mode bit permissions that
1191 will *always* be set on a file created by Samba. This is done
1192 by bitwise 'OR'ing these bits onto the mode bits of a file that
1193 is being created. The default for this parameter is (in octel)
1194 000. The modes in this parameter are bitwise 'OR'ed onto the
1195 file mode after the mask set in the "create mask" parameter
1198 See also the parameter "create mask" for details on masking mode
1199 bits on created files.
1202 force create mode = 000
1205 force create mode = 0755
1207 would force all created files to have read and execute permissions
1208 set for 'group' and 'other' as well as the read/write/execute bits
1211 .SS force directory mode (S)
1212 This parameter specifies a set of UNIX mode bit permissions that
1213 will *always* be set on a directory created by Samba. This is done
1214 by bitwise 'OR'ing these bits onto the mode bits of a directory that
1215 is being created. The default for this parameter is (in octel)
1216 0000 which will not add any extra permission bits to a created
1217 directory. This operation is done after the mode mask in the parameter
1218 "directory mask" is applied.
1220 See also the parameter "directory mask" for details on masking mode
1221 bits on created directories.
1224 force directory mode = 000
1227 force directory mode = 0755
1229 would force all created directories to have read and execute permissions
1230 set for 'group' and 'other' as well as the read/write/execute bits
1234 This specifies a group name that all connections to this service
1235 should be made as. This may be useful for sharing files.
1241 force group = agroup
1244 This specifies a user name that all connections to this service
1245 should be made as. This may be useful for sharing files. You should
1246 also use it carefully as using it incorrectly can cause security
1249 This user name only gets used once a connection is established. Thus
1250 clients still need to connect as a valid user and supply a valid
1251 password. Once connected, all file operations will be performed as the
1252 "forced user", not matter what username the client connected as.
1261 This is a tuning option. When this is enabled a cacheing algorithm will
1262 be used to reduce the time taken for getwd() calls. This can have a
1263 significant impact on performance, especially when widelinks is False.
1272 This is an alias for "force group" and is only kept for compatibility
1273 with old versions of Samba. It may be removed in future versions.
1275 .SS guest account (S)
1276 This is a username which will be used for access to services which are
1277 specified as 'guest ok' (see below). Whatever privileges this user has
1278 will be available to any client connecting to the guest
1279 service. Typically this user will exist in the password file, but will
1280 not have a valid login. If a username is specified in a given service,
1281 the specified username overrides this one.
1283 One some systems the account "nobody" may not be able to print. Use
1284 another account in this case. You should test this by trying to log in
1285 as your guest user (perhaps by using the "su \-" command) and trying to
1289 Note that as of version 1.9 of Samba this option may be set
1290 differently for each service.
1293 specified at compile time
1296 guest account = nobody
1301 If this parameter is 'yes' for a service, then only guest connections to the
1302 service are permitted. This parameter will have no affect if "guest ok" or
1303 "public" is not set for the service.
1305 See the section below on user/password validation for more information about
1313 .SS hide dot files (S)
1314 This is a boolean parameter that controls whether files starting with
1315 a dot appear as hidden files.
1318 hide dot files = yes
1325 This is a list of files or directories that are not visible but are
1326 accessible. The DOS 'hidden' attribute is applied to any files or
1327 directories that match.
1329 Each entry in the list must be separated by a "/", which allows spaces
1330 to be included in the entry. '*' and '?' can be used to specify multiple
1331 files or directories as in DOS wildcards.
1333 Each entry must be a unix path, not a DOS path and must not include the
1334 unix directory separator "/".
1336 Note that the case sensitivity option is applicable in hiding files.
1338 Setting this parameter will affect the performance of Samba, as
1339 it will be forced to check all files and directories for a match
1340 as they are scanned.
1342 See also "hide dot files", "veto files" and "case sensitive"
1345 No files or directories are hidden by this option (dot files are
1346 hidden by default because of the "hide dot files" option).
1349 hide files = /.*/DesktopFolderDB/TrashFor%m/resource.frk/
1351 The above example is based on files that the Macintosh client (DAVE)
1352 creates for internal use, and also still hides all files beginning with
1356 If "nis homedir" is true, this parameter specifies the NIS (or YP) map
1357 from which the server for the user's home directory should be extracted.
1358 At present, only the Sun auto.home map format is understood. The form of
1361 username server:/some/file/system
1363 and the program will extract the servername from before the first ':'.
1364 There should probably be a better parsing system that copes with different
1365 map formats and also Amd (another automounter) maps.
1367 NB: The -DNETGROUP option is required in the Makefile for option to work
1368 and on some architectures the line -lrpcsvc needs to be added to the
1369 LIBSM variable. This is required for Solaris 2, FreeBSD and HPUX.
1371 See also "nis homedir"
1374 homedir map = auto.home
1377 homedir map = amd.homedir
1386 If this global parameter is a non-null string, it specifies the name of
1387 a file to read for the names of hosts and users who will be allowed access
1388 without specifying a password.
1390 This is not be confused with
1392 which is about hosts access to services and is more useful for guest services.
1394 may be useful for NT clients which will not supply passwords to samba.
1396 NOTE: The use of hosts.equiv can be a major security hole. This is
1397 because you are trusting the PC to supply the correct username. It is
1398 very easy to get a PC to supply a false username. I recommend that the
1399 hosts.equiv option be only used if you really know what you are doing,
1400 or perhaps on a home network where you trust your wife and kids :-)
1403 No host equivalences
1406 hosts equiv = /etc/hosts.equiv
1410 This allows you to include one config file inside another. The file is
1411 included literally, as though typed in place.
1413 It takes the standard substitutions, except %u, %P and %S
1417 This option allows you to setup multiple network interfaces, so that
1418 Samba can properly handle browsing on all interfaces.
1420 The option takes a list of ip/netmask pairs. The netmask may either be
1421 a bitmask, or a bitlength.
1423 For example, the following line:
1425 interfaces = 192.168.2.10/24 192.168.3.10/24
1427 would configure two network interfaces with IP addresses 192.168.2.10
1428 and 192.168.3.10. The netmasks of both interfaces would be set to
1431 You could produce an equivalent result by using:
1433 interfaces = 192.168.2.10/255.255.255.0 192.168.3.10/255.255.255.0
1435 if you prefer that format.
1437 If this option is not set then Samba will attempt to find a primary
1438 interface, but won't attempt to configure more than one interface.
1440 .SS invalid users (S)
1441 This is a list of users that should not be allowed to login to this
1442 service. This is really a "paranoid" check to absolutely ensure an
1443 improper setting does not breach your security.
1445 A name starting with @ is interpreted as a UNIX group.
1447 The current servicename is substituted for %S. This is useful in the
1450 See also "valid users"
1456 invalid users = root fred admin @wheel
1459 The value of the parameter (an integer) represents the number of seconds
1460 between 'keepalive' packets. If this parameter is zero, no keepalive packets
1461 will be sent. Keepalive packets, if sent, allow the server to tell whether a
1462 client is still present and responding.
1464 Keepalives should, in general, not be needed if the socket being used
1465 has the SO_KEEPALIVE attribute set on it (see "socket
1466 options"). Basically you should only use this option if you strike
1474 .SS load printers (G)
1475 A boolean variable that controls whether all printers in the printcap
1476 will be loaded for browsing by default.
1484 .SS local master (G)
1485 This option allows the nmbd to become a local master browser on a
1486 subnet. If set to False then nmbd will not attempt to become a local
1487 master browser on a subnet and will also lose in all browsing elections.
1488 By default this value is set to true. Setting this value to true doesn't
1489 mean that Samba will become the local master browser on a subnet, just
1490 that the nmbd will participate in elections for local master browser.
1495 .SS lock directory (G)
1496 This option specifies the directory where lock files will be placed.
1497 The lock files are used to implement the "max connections" option.
1500 lock directory = /tmp/samba
1503 lock directory = /usr/local/samba/var/locks
1505 This controls whether or not locking will be performed by the server in
1506 response to lock requests from the client.
1508 If "locking = no", all lock and unlock requests will appear to succeed and
1509 all lock queries will indicate that the queried lock is clear.
1511 If "locking = yes", real locking will be performed by the server.
1513 This option may be particularly useful for read-only filesystems which
1514 do not need locking (such as cdrom drives).
1516 Be careful about disabling locking either globally or in a specific
1517 service, as lack of locking may result in data corruption.
1527 This options allows you to override the name of the Samba log file
1528 (also known as the debug file).
1530 This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you to have
1531 separate log files for each user or machine.
1534 log file = /usr/local/samba/var/log.%m
1541 This parameter specifies the home directory where roaming profiles
1542 (USER.DAT / USER.MAN files) are stored.
1544 This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you to have
1545 separate logon scripts for each user or machine. It also specifies
1546 the directory from which the "desktop", "start menu", "nethood" and
1547 "programs" folders, and their contents, are loaded and displayed
1548 on your Windows 95 client.
1550 The share and the path must be readable by the user for the preferences
1551 and directories to be loaded onto the Windows 95 client. The share
1552 must be writeable when the logs in for the first time, in order that
1553 the Windows 95 client can create the user.dat and other directories.
1555 Thereafter, the directories and any of contents can, if required,
1556 be made read-only. It is not adviseable that the USER.DAT file be made
1557 read-only - rename it to USER.MAN to achieve the desired effect
1558 (a MANdatory profile).
1561 logon path = \\\\%L\\%U
1564 logon path = \\\\PROFILESERVER\\HOME_DIR\\%U
1566 .SS logon script (G)
1568 This parameter specifies the batch file (.bat) or NT command file (.cmd)
1569 to be downloaded and run on a machine when a user successfully logs in.
1570 The file must contain the DOS style cr/lf line endings. Using a DOS-style
1571 editor to create the file is recommended.
1573 The script must be a relative path to the [netlogon] service. If the
1574 [netlogon] service specifies a path of /usr/local/samba/netlogon, and
1575 logon script = STARTUP.BAT, then file that will be downloaded is:
1577 .B /usr/local/samba/netlogon/STARTUP.BAT
1579 The contents of the batch file is entirely your choice. A suggested
1580 command would be to add NET TIME \\\\SERVER /SET /YES, to force every
1581 machine to synchronise clocks with the same time server. Another use
1582 would be to add NET USE U: \\\\SERVER\\UTILS for commonly used utilities,
1583 or NET USE Q: \\\\SERVER\\ISO9001_QA.
1585 Note that it is particularly important not to allow write access to
1586 the [netlogon] share, or to grant users write permission on the
1587 batch files in a secure environment, as this would allow the batch
1588 files to be arbitrarily modified.
1591 This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you to have
1592 separate logon scripts for each user or machine.
1595 logon script = scripts/%U.bat
1597 .SS lppause command (S)
1598 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1599 order to stop printing or spooling a specific print job.
1601 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name and
1602 job number to pause the print job. Currently I don't know of any print
1603 spooler system that can do this with a simple option, except for the PPR
1604 system from Trinity College (ppr\-dist.trincoll.edu/pub/ppr). One way
1605 of implementing this is by using job priorities, where jobs having a too
1606 low priority won't be sent to the printer. See also the
1610 If a %p is given then the printername is put in its place. A %j is
1611 replaced with the job number (an integer).
1612 On HPUX (see printing=hpux), if the -p%p option is added to the lpq
1613 command, the job will show up with the correct status, i.e. if the job
1614 priority is lower than the set fence priority it will have the PAUSED
1615 status, whereas if the priority is equal or higher it will have the
1616 SPOOLED or PRINTING status.
1618 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lppause
1619 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1622 Currently no default value is given to this string
1624 .B Example for HPUX:
1625 lppause command = /usr/bin/lpalt %p-%j -p0
1627 .SS lpq cache time (G)
1629 This controls how long lpq info will be cached for to prevent the lpq
1630 command being called too often. A separate cache is kept for each
1631 variation of the lpq command used by the system, so if you use
1632 different lpq commands for different users then they won't share cache
1635 The cache files are stored in /tmp/lpq.xxxx where xxxx is a hash
1636 of the lpq command in use.
1638 The default is 10 seconds, meaning that the cached results of a
1639 previous identical lpq command will be used if the cached data is less
1640 than 10 seconds old. A large value may be advisable if your lpq
1641 command is very slow.
1643 A value of 0 will disable cacheing completely.
1652 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1653 order to obtain "lpq"-style printer status information.
1655 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name
1656 as its only parameter and outputs printer status information.
1658 Currently six styles of printer status information are supported; BSD,
1659 SYSV, AIX, HPUX, QNX, LPRNG and PLP. This covers most UNIX systems. You
1660 control which type is expected using the "printing =" option.
1662 Some clients (notably Windows for Workgroups) may not correctly send the
1663 connection number for the printer they are requesting status information
1664 about. To get around this, the server reports on the first printer service
1665 connected to by the client. This only happens if the connection number sent
1668 If a %p is given then the printername is put in its place. Otherwise
1669 it is placed at the end of the command.
1671 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lpq
1672 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1675 depends on the setting of "printing ="
1678 lpq command = /usr/bin/lpq %p
1680 .SS lpresume command (S)
1681 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1682 order to restart or continue printing or spooling a specific print job.
1684 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name and
1685 job number to resume the print job. See also the lppause command.
1687 If a %p is given then the printername is put in its place. A %j is
1688 replaced with the job number (an integer).
1690 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lpresume
1691 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1694 Currently no default value is given to this string
1696 .B Example for HPUX:
1697 lpresume command = /usr/bin/lpalt %p-%j -p2
1699 .SS lprm command (S)
1700 This parameter specifies the command to be executed on the server host in
1701 order to delete a print job.
1703 This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name
1704 and job number, and deletes the print job.
1706 Currently seven styles of printer control are supported; BSD, SYSV, AIX
1707 HPUX, QNX, LPRNG and PLP. This covers most UNIX systems. You control
1708 which type is expected using the "printing =" option.
1710 If a %p is given then the printername is put in its place. A %j is
1711 replaced with the job number (an integer).
1713 Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path in the lprm
1714 command as the PATH may not be available to the server.
1717 depends on the setting of "printing ="
1720 lprm command = /usr/bin/lprm -P%p %j
1723 lprm command = /usr/bin/cancel %p-%j
1725 .SS magic output (S)
1726 This parameter specifies the name of a file which will contain output
1727 created by a magic script (see
1731 Warning: If two clients use the same magic script in the same directory the
1732 output file content is undefined.
1734 magic output = <magic script name>.out
1737 magic output = myfile.txt
1738 .SS magic script (S)
1739 This parameter specifies the name of a file which, if opened, will be
1740 executed by the server when the file is closed. This allows a UNIX script
1741 to be sent to the Samba host and executed on behalf of the connected user.
1743 Scripts executed in this way will be deleted upon completion, permissions
1746 If the script generates output, output will be sent to the file specified by
1749 parameter (see above).
1751 Note that some shells are unable to interpret scripts containing
1752 carriage-return-linefeed instead of linefeed as the end-of-line
1753 marker. Magic scripts must be executable "as is" on the host, which
1754 for some hosts and some shells will require filtering at the DOS end.
1756 Magic scripts are EXPERIMENTAL and should NOT be relied upon.
1759 None. Magic scripts disabled.
1762 magic script = user.csh
1766 See the section on "NAME MANGLING"
1769 This is for those who want to directly map UNIX file names which are
1770 not representable on DOS. The mangling of names is not always what is
1771 needed. In particular you may have documents with file extensions
1772 that differ between DOS and UNIX. For example, under UNIX it is common
1773 to use .html for HTML files, whereas under DOS .htm is more commonly
1776 So to map 'html' to 'htm' you put:
1778 mangled map = (*.html *.htm)
1780 One very useful case is to remove the annoying ;1 off the ends of
1781 filenames on some CDROMS (only visible under some UNIXes). To do this
1782 use a map of (*;1 *)
1788 mangled map = (*;1 *)
1790 .SS mangled names (S)
1791 This controls whether non-DOS names under UNIX should be mapped to
1792 DOS-compatible names ("mangled") and made visible, or whether non-DOS names
1793 should simply be ignored.
1795 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for details on how to control the
1798 If mangling is used then the mangling algorithm is as follows:
1800 - the first (up to) five alphanumeric characters before the rightmost dot of
1801 the filename are preserved, forced to upper case, and appear as the first (up
1802 to) five characters of the mangled name.
1804 - a tilde ("~") is appended to the first part of the mangled name, followed
1805 by a two-character unique sequence, based on the original root name
1806 (i.e., the original filename minus its final extension). The final
1807 extension is included in the hash calculation only if it contains any upper
1808 case characters or is longer than three characters.
1810 Note that the character to use may be specified using the "mangling
1811 char" option, if you don't like ~.
1813 - the first three alphanumeric characters of the final extension are preserved,
1814 forced to upper case and appear as the extension of the mangled name. The
1815 final extension is defined as that part of the original filename after the
1816 rightmost dot. If there are no dots in the filename, the mangled name will
1817 have no extension (except in the case of hidden files - see below).
1819 - files whose UNIX name begins with a dot will be presented as DOS hidden
1820 files. The mangled name will be created as for other filenames, but with the
1821 leading dot removed and "___" as its extension regardless of actual original
1822 extension (that's three underscores).
1825 The two-digit hash value consists of upper case alphanumeric characters.
1827 This algorithm can cause name collisions only if files in a directory share
1828 the same first five alphanumeric characters. The probability of such a clash
1831 The name mangling (if enabled) allows a file to be copied between UNIX
1832 directories from DOS while retaining the long UNIX filename. UNIX files can
1833 be renamed to a new extension from DOS and will retain the same basename.
1834 Mangled names do not change between sessions.
1841 .SS mangling char (S)
1842 This controls what character is used as the "magic" character in name
1843 mangling. The default is a ~ but this may interfere with some
1844 software. Use this option to set it to whatever you prefer.
1852 .SS mangled stack (G)
1853 This parameter controls the number of mangled names that should be cached in
1856 This stack is a list of recently mangled base names (extensions are only
1857 maintained if they are longer than 3 characters or contains upper case
1860 The larger this value, the more likely it is that mangled names can be
1861 successfully converted to correct long UNIX names. However, large stack
1862 sizes will slow most directory access. Smaller stacks save memory in the
1863 server (each stack element costs 256 bytes).
1865 It is not possible to absolutely guarantee correct long file names, so
1866 be prepared for some surprises!
1875 This controls whether the DOS archive attribute should be mapped to the
1876 UNIX owner execute bit. The DOS archive bit is set when a file has been modified
1877 since its last backup. One motivation for this option it to keep Samba/your
1878 PC from making any file it touches from becoming executable under UNIX.
1879 This can be quite annoying for shared source code, documents, etc...
1881 Note that this requires the 'create mask' to be set such that owner
1882 execute bit is not masked out (ie. it must include 100). See the
1883 parameter "create mask" for details.
1892 This controls whether DOS style hidden files should be mapped to the
1893 UNIX world execute bit.
1895 Note that this requires the 'create mask' to be set such that the world
1896 execute bit is not masked out (ie. it must include 001).
1897 See the parameter "create mask" for details.
1905 This controls whether DOS style system files should be mapped to the
1906 UNIX group execute bit.
1908 Note that this requires the 'create mask' to be set such that the group
1909 execute bit is not masked out (ie. it must include 010). See the parameter
1910 "create mask" for details.
1917 .SS max connections (S)
1918 This option allows the number of simultaneous connections to a
1919 service to be limited. If "max connections" is greater than 0 then
1920 connections will be refused if this number of connections to the
1921 service are already open. A value of zero mean an unlimited number of
1922 connections may be made.
1924 Record lock files are used to implement this feature. The lock files
1925 will be stored in the directory specified by the "lock directory" option.
1931 max connections = 10
1933 .SS max disk size (G)
1934 This option allows you to put an upper limit on the apparent size of
1935 disks. If you set this option to 100 then all shares will appear to be
1936 not larger than 100 MB in size.
1938 Note that this option does not limit the amount of data you can put on
1939 the disk. In the above case you could still store much more than 100
1940 MB on the disk, but if a client ever asks for the amount of free disk
1941 space or the total disk size then the result will be bounded by the
1942 amount specified in "max disk size".
1944 This option is primarily useful to work around bugs in some pieces of
1945 software that can't handle very large disks, particularly disks over
1948 A "max disk size" of 0 means no limit.
1954 max disk size = 1000
1956 .SS max log size (G)
1958 This option (an integer in kilobytes) specifies the max size the log
1959 file should grow to. Samba periodically checks the size and if it is
1960 exceeded it will rename the file, adding a .old extension.
1962 A size of 0 means no limit.
1972 This option controls the maximum number of outstanding simultaneous SMB
1973 operations that samba tells the client it will allow. You should never need
1974 to set this parameter.
1981 A synonym for this parameter is 'packet size'.
1985 This option tells nmbd what the default 'time to live' of NetBIOS
1986 names should be (in seconds). You should never need to change this parameter.
1992 This option controls the maximum packet size that will be negotiated
1993 by Samba. The default is 65535, which is the maximum. In some cases
1994 you may find you get better performance with a smaller value. A value
1995 below 2048 is likely to cause problems.
2003 .SS message command (G)
2005 This specifies what command to run when the server receives a WinPopup
2008 This would normally be a command that would deliver the message
2009 somehow. How this is to be done is up to your imagination.
2013 message command = csh -c 'xedit %s;rm %s' &
2015 This delivers the message using xedit, then removes it
2016 afterwards. NOTE THAT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THIS COMMAND RETURN
2017 IMMEDIATELY. That's why I have the & on the end. If it doesn't return
2018 immediately then your PCs may freeze when sending messages (they
2019 should recover after 30secs, hopefully).
2021 All messages are delivered as the global guest user. The command takes
2022 the standard substitutions, although %u won't work (%U may be better
2025 Apart from the standard substitutions, some additional ones apply. In
2028 %s = the filename containing the message
2030 %t = the destination that the message was sent to (probably the server
2033 %f = who the message is from
2035 You could make this command send mail, or whatever else takes your
2036 fancy. Please let me know of any really interesting ideas you have.
2038 Here's a way of sending the messages as mail to root:
2040 message command = /bin/mail -s 'message from %f on %m' root < %s; rm %s
2042 If you don't have a message command then the message won't be
2043 delivered and Samba will tell the sender there was an
2044 error. Unfortunately WfWg totally ignores the error code and carries
2045 on regardless, saying that the message was delivered.
2047 If you want to silently delete it then try "message command = rm %s".
2049 For the really adventurous, try something like this:
2051 message command = csh -c 'csh < %s |& /usr/local/samba/bin/smbclient \e
2054 this would execute the command as a script on the server, then give
2055 them the result in a WinPopup message. Note that this could cause a
2056 loop if you send a message from the server using smbclient! You better
2057 wrap the above in a script that checks for this :-)
2063 message command = csh -c 'xedit %s;rm %s' &
2065 .SS min print space (S)
2067 This sets the minimum amount of free disk space that must be available
2068 before a user will be able to spool a print job. It is specified in
2069 kilobytes. The default is 0, which means no limit.
2075 min print space = 2000
2077 .SS netbios name (G)
2079 This sets the NetBIOS name by which a Samba server is known. By
2080 default it is the same as the first component of the host's DNS name.
2083 Get the home share server from a NIS (or YP) map. For unix systems that
2084 use an automounter, the user's home directory will often be mounted on
2085 a workstation on demand from a remote server. When the Samba logon server
2086 is not the actual home directory server, two network hops are required
2087 to access the home directory and this can be very slow especially with
2088 writing via Samba to an NFS mounted directory. This option allows samba
2089 to return the home share as being on a different server to the logon
2090 server and as long as a samba daemon is running on the home directory
2091 server, it will be mounted on the Samba client directly from the directory
2092 server. When Samba is returning the home share to the client, it will
2093 consult the NIS (or YP) map specified in "homedir map" and return the
2094 server listed there.
2102 .SS null passwords (G)
2103 Allow or disallow access to accounts that have null passwords.
2109 null passwords = yes
2112 A synonym for this command is 'guest only'.
2115 This is a boolean option that controls whether connections with
2116 usernames not in the user= list will be allowed. By default this
2117 option is disabled so a client can supply a username to be used by
2120 Note that this also means Samba won't try to deduce usernames from the
2121 service name. This can be annoying for the [homes] section. To get
2122 around this you could use "user = %S" which means your "user" list
2123 will be just the service name, which for home directories is the name
2133 This integer value controls what level Samba advertises itself as for
2134 browse elections. See BROWSING.txt for details.
2137 The maximum transmit packet size during a raw read. This option is no
2138 longer implemented as of version 1.7.00, and is kept only so old
2139 configuration files do not become invalid.
2142 This string controls the "chat" conversation that takes places
2143 between smbd and the local password changing program to change the
2144 users password. The string describes a sequence of response-receive
2145 pairs that smbd uses to determine what to send to the passwd program
2146 and what to expect back. If the expected output is not received then
2147 the password is not changed.
2149 This chat sequence is often quite site specific, depending on what
2150 local methods are used for password control (such as NIS+ etc).
2152 The string can contain the macros %o and %n which are substituted for
2153 the old and new passwords respectively. It can also contain the
2154 standard macros \en \er \et and \es to give line-feed, carriage-return,
2157 The string can also contain a * which matches any sequence of
2160 Double quotes can be used to collect strings with spaces in them into
2163 If the send string in any part of the chat sequence is a fullstop "."
2164 then no string is sent. Similarly, is the expect string is a fullstop
2165 then no string is expected.
2168 passwd chat = "*Enter OLD password*" %o\en "*Enter NEW password*" %n\en \e
2169 "*Reenter NEW password*" %n\en "*Password changed*"
2173 passwd chat = *old*password* %o\en *new*password* %n\en *new*password* %n\en *changed*
2175 .SS passwd program (G)
2176 The name of a program that can be used to set user passwords.
2178 This is only necessary if you have enabled remote password changing at
2179 compile time. Any occurrences of %u will be replaced with the user
2182 Also note that many passwd programs insist in "reasonable" passwords,
2183 such as a minimum length, or the inclusion of mixed case chars and
2184 digits. This can pose a problem as some clients (such as Windows for
2185 Workgroups) uppercase the password before sending it.
2188 passwd program = /bin/passwd
2191 passwd program = /sbin/passwd %u
2193 .SS password level (G)
2194 Some client/server combinations have difficulty with mixed-case passwords.
2195 One offending client is Windows for Workgroups, which for some reason forces
2196 passwords to upper case when using the LANMAN1 protocol, but leaves them alone
2197 when using COREPLUS!
2199 This parameter defines the maximum number of characters that may be upper case
2202 For example, say the password given was "FRED". If
2204 is set to 1 (one), the following combinations would be tried if "FRED" failed:
2205 "Fred", "fred", "fRed", "frEd", "freD". If
2206 .B password level was set to 2 (two), the following combinations would also be
2207 tried: "FRed", "FrEd", "FreD", "fREd", "fReD", "frED". And so on.
2209 The higher value this parameter is set to the more likely it is that a mixed
2210 case password will be matched against a single case password. However, you
2211 should be aware that use of this parameter reduces security and increases the
2212 time taken to process a new connection.
2214 A value of zero will cause only two attempts to be made - the password as is
2215 and the password in all-lower case.
2217 If you find the connections are taking too long with this option then
2218 you probably have a slow crypt() routine. Samba now comes with a fast
2219 "ufc crypt" that you can select in the Makefile. You should also make
2220 sure the PASSWORD_LENGTH option is correct for your system in local.h
2221 and includes.h. On most systems only the first 8 chars of a password
2222 are significant so PASSWORD_LENGTH should be 8, but on some longer
2223 passwords are significant. The includes.h file tries to select the
2224 right length for your system.
2232 .SS password server (G)
2234 By specifying the name of another SMB server (such as a WinNT box)
2235 with this option, and using "security = server" you can get Samba to
2236 do all its username/password validation via a remote server.
2238 This options sets the name of the password server to use. It must be a
2239 netbios name, so if the machine's netbios name is different from its
2240 internet name then you may have to add its netbios name to
2243 The password server much be a machine capable of using the "LM1.2X002"
2244 or the "LM NT 0.12" protocol, and it must be in user level security
2247 NOTE: Using a password server means your UNIX box (running Samba) is
2248 only as secure as your password server. DO NOT CHOOSE A PASSWORD
2249 SERVER THAT YOU DON'T COMPLETELY TRUST.
2251 Never point a Samba server at itself for password serving. This will
2252 cause a loop and could lock up your Samba server!
2254 The name of the password server takes the standard substitutions, but
2255 probably the only useful one is %m, which means the Samba server will
2256 use the incoming client as the password server. If you use this then
2257 you better trust your clients, and you better restrict them with hosts
2260 If you list several hosts in the "password server" option then smbd
2261 will try each in turn till it finds one that responds. This is useful
2262 in case your primary server goes down.
2265 A synonym for this parameter is 'directory'.
2267 This parameter specifies a directory to which the user of the service is to
2268 be given access. In the case of printable services, this is where print data
2269 will spool prior to being submitted to the host for printing.
2271 For a printable service offering guest access, the service should be readonly
2272 and the path should be world-writable and have the sticky bit set. This is not
2273 mandatory of course, but you probably won't get the results you expect if you
2276 Any occurrences of %u in the path will be replaced with the username
2277 that the client is connecting as. Any occurrences of %m will be
2278 replaced by the name of the machine they are connecting from. These
2279 replacements are very useful for setting up pseudo home directories
2282 Note that this path will be based on 'root dir' if one was specified.
2291 This option specifies a command to be run whenever the service is
2292 disconnected. It takes the usual substitutions. The command may be run
2293 as the root on some systems.
2295 An interesting example may be do unmount server resources:
2297 postexec = /etc/umount /cdrom
2302 none (no command executed)
2305 postexec = echo \e"%u disconnected from %S from %m (%I)\e" >> /tmp/log
2308 This parameter forces a printer to interpret the print files as
2309 postscript. This is done by adding a %! to the start of print output.
2311 This is most useful when you have lots of PCs that persist in putting
2312 a control-D at the start of print jobs, which then confuses your
2323 This option specifies a command to be run whenever the service is
2324 connected to. It takes the usual substitutions.
2326 An interesting example is to send the users a welcome message every
2327 time they log in. Maybe a message of the day? Here is an example:
2329 preexec = csh -c 'echo \e"Welcome to %S!\e" | \e
2330 /usr/local/samba/bin/smbclient -M %m -I %I' &
2332 Of course, this could get annoying after a while :-)
2337 none (no command executed)
2340 preexec = echo \e"%u connected to %S from %m (%I)\e" >> /tmp/log
2342 .SS preferred master (G)
2343 This boolean parameter controls if Samba is a preferred master browser
2345 If this is set to true, on startup, samba will force an election,
2346 and it will have a slight advantage in winning the election.
2347 It is recommended that this parameter is used in conjunction
2348 with domain master = yes, so that samba can guarantee becoming
2351 Use this option with caution, because if there are several hosts
2352 (whether samba servers, Windows 95 or NT) that are preferred master
2353 browsers on the same subnet, they will each periodically and continuously
2354 attempt to become the local master browser. This will result in
2355 unnecessary broadcast traffic and reduced browsing capabilities.
2361 preferred master = no
2364 This is an alias for "auto services"
2366 .SS preserve case (S)
2368 This controls if new filenames are created with the case that the
2369 client passes, or if they are forced to be the "default" case.
2374 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for a fuller discussion.
2376 .SS print command (S)
2377 After a print job has finished spooling to a service, this command will be
2378 used via a system() call to process the spool file. Typically the command
2379 specified will submit the spool file to the host's printing subsystem, but
2380 there is no requirement that this be the case. The server will not remove the
2381 spool file, so whatever command you specify should remove the spool file when
2382 it has been processed, otherwise you will need to manually remove old spool
2385 The print command is simply a text string. It will be used verbatim,
2386 with two exceptions: All occurrences of "%s" will be replaced by the
2387 appropriate spool file name, and all occurrences of "%p" will be
2388 replaced by the appropriate printer name. The spool file name is
2389 generated automatically by the server, the printer name is discussed
2392 The full path name will be used for the filename if %s is not preceded
2393 by a /. If you don't like this (it can stuff up some lpq output) then
2394 use %f instead. Any occurrences of %f get replaced by the spool
2395 filename without the full path at the front.
2397 The print command MUST contain at least one occurrence of "%s" or %f -
2398 the "%p" is optional. At the time a job is submitted, if no printer
2399 name is supplied the "%p" will be silently removed from the printer
2402 If specified in the [global] section, the print command given will be used
2403 for any printable service that does not have its own print command specified.
2405 If there is neither a specified print command for a printable service nor a
2406 global print command, spool files will be created but not processed and (most
2407 importantly) not removed.
2409 Note that printing may fail on some UNIXes from the "nobody"
2410 account. If this happens then create an alternative guest account that
2411 can print and set the "guest account" in the [global] section.
2413 You can form quite complex print commands by realising that they are
2414 just passed to a shell. For example the following will log a print
2415 job, print the file, then remove it. Note that ; is the usual
2416 separator for command in shell scripts.
2418 print command = echo Printing %s >> /tmp/print.log; lpr -P %p %s; rm %s
2420 You may have to vary this command considerably depending on how you
2421 normally print files on your system.
2424 print command = lpr -r -P %p %s
2427 print command = /usr/local/samba/bin/myprintscript %p %s
2432 A synonym for this parameter is 'print ok'.
2434 If this parameter is 'yes', then clients may open, write to and submit spool
2435 files on the directory specified for the service.
2437 Note that a printable service will ALWAYS allow writing to the service path
2438 (user privileges permitting) via the spooling of print data. The 'read only'
2439 parameter controls only non-printing access to the resource.
2447 .SS printcap name (G)
2448 This parameter may be used to override the compiled-in default printcap
2449 name used by the server (usually /etc/printcap). See the discussion of the
2450 [printers] section above for reasons why you might want to do this.
2452 For those of you without a printcap (say on SysV) you can just create a
2453 minimal file that looks like a printcap and set "printcap name =" in
2454 [global] to point at it.
2456 A minimal printcap file would look something like this:
2468 where the | separates aliases of a printer. The fact that the second
2469 alias has a space in it gives a hint to Samba that it's a comment.
2471 NOTE: Under AIX the default printcap name is "/etc/qconfig". Samba
2472 will assume the file is in AIX "qconfig" format if the string
2473 "/qconfig" appears in the printcap filename.
2476 printcap name = /etc/printcap
2479 printcap name = /etc/myprintcap
2481 A synonym for this parameter is 'printer name'.
2483 This parameter specifies the name of the printer to which print jobs spooled
2484 through a printable service will be sent.
2486 If specified in the [global] section, the printer name given will be used
2487 for any printable service that does not have its own printer name specified.
2490 none (but may be 'lp' on many systems)
2493 printer name = laserwriter
2495 .SS printer driver (S)
2496 This option allows you to control the string that clients receive when
2497 they ask the server for the printer driver associated with a
2498 printer. If you are using Windows95 or WindowsNT then you can use this
2499 to automate the setup of printers on your system.
2501 You need to set this parameter to the exact string (case sensitive)
2502 that describes the appropriate printer driver for your system.
2503 If you don't know the exact string to use then you should first try
2504 with no "printer driver" option set and the client will give you a
2505 list of printer drivers. The appropriate strings are shown in a
2506 scrollbox after you have chosen the printer manufacturer.
2509 printer driver = HP LaserJet 4L
2511 .SS printer name (S)
2516 This parameters controls how printer status information is interpreted
2517 on your system, and also affects the default values for the "print
2518 command", "lpq command" and "lprm command".
2520 Currently six printing styles are supported. They are "printing =
2521 bsd", "printing = sysv", "printing = hpux", "printing = aix",
2522 "printing = qnx" and "printing = plp".
2524 To see what the defaults are for the other print commands when using
2525 these three options use the "testparm" program.
2529 The value of the parameter (a string) is the highest protocol level that will
2530 be supported by the server.
2532 Possible values are CORE, COREPLUS, LANMAN1, LANMAN2 and NT1. The relative
2533 merits of each are discussed in the README file.
2535 Normally this option should not be set as the automatic negotiation
2536 phase in the SMB protocol takes care of choosing the appropriate protocol.
2544 A synonym for this parameter is 'guest ok'.
2546 If this parameter is 'yes' for a service, then no password is required
2547 to connect to the service. Privileges will be those of the guest
2550 See the section below on user/password validation for more information about
2559 This is a list of users that are given read-only access to a
2560 service. If the connecting user is in this list then they will
2561 not be given write access, no matter what the "read only" option
2562 is set to. The list can include group names using the @group syntax.
2564 See also the "write list" option
2570 read list = mary, @students
2577 Note that this is an inverted synonym for writable and write ok.
2578 .SS read prediction (G)
2579 This options enables or disables the read prediction code used to
2580 speed up reads from the server. When enabled the server will try to
2581 pre-read data from the last accessed file that was opened read-only
2582 while waiting for packets.
2585 read prediction = False
2588 read prediction = True
2590 This parameter controls whether or not the server will support raw reads when
2591 transferring data to clients.
2593 If enabled, raw reads allow reads of 65535 bytes in one packet. This
2594 typically provides a major performance benefit.
2596 However, some clients either negotiate the allowable block size incorrectly
2597 or are incapable of supporting larger block sizes, and for these clients you
2598 may need to disable raw reads.
2600 In general this parameter should be viewed as a system tuning tool and left
2601 severely alone. See also
2611 The option "read size" affects the overlap of disk reads/writes with
2612 network reads/writes. If the amount of data being transferred in
2613 several of the SMB commands (currently SMBwrite, SMBwriteX and
2614 SMBreadbraw) is larger than this value then the server begins writing
2615 the data before it has received the whole packet from the network, or
2616 in the case of SMBreadbraw, it begins writing to the network before
2617 all the data has been read from disk.
2619 This overlapping works best when the speeds of disk and network access
2620 are similar, having very little effect when the speed of one is much
2621 greater than the other.
2623 The default value is 2048, but very little experimentation has been
2624 done yet to determine the optimal value, and it is likely that the best
2625 value will vary greatly between systems anyway. A value over 65536 is
2626 pointless and will cause you to allocate memory unnecessarily.
2634 .SS remote announce (G)
2636 This option allows you to setup nmbd to periodically announce itself
2637 to arbitrary IP addresses with an arbitrary workgroup name.
2639 This is useful if you want your Samba server to appear in a remote
2640 workgroup for which the normal browse propagation rules don't
2641 work. The remote workgroup can be anywhere that you can send IP
2646 remote announce = 192.168.2.255/SERVERS 192.168.4.255/STAFF
2648 the above line would cause nmbd to announce itself to the two given IP
2649 addresses using the given workgroup names. If you leave out the
2650 workgroup name then the one given in the "workgroup" option is used
2653 The IP addresses you choose would normally be the broadcast addresses
2654 of the remote networks, but can also be the IP addresses of known
2655 browse masters if your network config is that stable.
2657 This option replaces similar functionality from the nmbd lmhosts file.
2661 This options controls whether Samba will allow a previously validated
2662 username/password pair to be used to attach to a share. Thus if you
2663 connect to \e\eserver\eshare1 then to \e\eserver\eshare2 it won't
2664 automatically allow the client to request connection to the second
2665 share as the same username as the first without a password.
2667 If "revalidate" is True then the client will be denied automatic
2668 access as the same username.
2682 .SS root directory (G)
2683 Synonyms for this parameter are 'root dir' and 'root'.
2685 The server will chroot() to this directory on startup. This is not
2686 strictly necessary for secure operation. Even without it the server
2687 will deny access to files not in one of the service entries. It may
2688 also check for, and deny access to, soft links to other parts of the
2689 filesystem, or attempts to use .. in file names to access other
2690 directories (depending on the setting of the "wide links" parameter).
2692 Adding a "root dir" entry other than "/" adds an extra level of security,
2693 but at a price. It absolutely ensures that no access is given to files not
2694 in the sub-tree specified in the "root dir" option, *including* some files
2695 needed for complete operation of the server. To maintain full operability
2696 of the server you will need to mirror some system files into the "root dir"
2697 tree. In particular you will need to mirror /etc/passwd (or a subset of it),
2698 and any binaries or configuration files needed for printing (if required).
2699 The set of files that must be mirrored is operating system dependent.
2705 root directory = /homes/smb
2706 .SS root postexec (S)
2708 This is the same as postexec except that the command is run as
2709 root. This is useful for unmounting filesystems (such as cdroms) after
2710 a connection is closed.
2712 .SS root preexec (S)
2714 This is the same as preexec except that the command is run as
2715 root. This is useful for mounting filesystems (such as cdroms) before
2716 a connection is finalised.
2719 This option affects how clients respond to Samba.
2721 The option sets the "security mode bit" in replies to protocol negotiations
2722 to turn share level security on or off. Clients decide based on this bit
2723 whether (and how) to transfer user and password information to the server.
2725 The default is "security=SHARE", mainly because that was the only
2726 option at one stage.
2728 The alternatives are "security = user" or "security = server".
2730 If your PCs use usernames that are the same as their usernames on the
2731 UNIX machine then you will want to use "security = user". If you
2732 mostly use usernames that don't exist on the UNIX box then use
2735 There is a bug in WfWg that may affect your decision. When in user
2736 level security a WfWg client will totally ignore the password you type
2737 in the "connect drive" dialog box. This makes it very difficult (if
2738 not impossible) to connect to a Samba service as anyone except the
2739 user that you are logged into WfWg as.
2741 If you use "security = server" then Samba will try to validate the
2742 username/password by passing it to another SMB server, such as an NT
2743 box. If this fails it will revert to "security = USER".
2745 See the "password server" option for more details.
2752 .SS server string (G)
2753 This controls what string will show up in the printer comment box in
2754 print manager and next to the IPC connection in "net view". It can be
2755 any string that you wish to show to your users.
2757 It also sets what will appear in browse lists next to the machine name.
2759 A %v will be replaced with the Samba version number.
2761 A %h will be replaced with the hostname.
2764 server string = Samba %v
2767 server string = University of GNUs Samba Server
2769 .SS set directory (S)
2770 If 'set directory = no', then users of the service may not use the setdir
2771 command to change directory.
2773 The setdir command is only implemented in the Digital Pathworks client. See the
2774 Pathworks documentation for details.
2782 .SS shared file entries (G)
2783 This parameter is only useful when Samba has been compiled with FAST_SHARE_MODES.
2784 It specifies the number of hash bucket entries used for share file locking.
2785 You should never change this parameter unless you have studied the source
2786 and know what you are doing.
2789 shared file entries = 113
2791 .SS shared mem size (G)
2792 This parameter is only useful when Samba has been compiled with FAST_SHARE_MODES.
2793 It specifies the size of the shared memory (in bytes) to use between smbd
2794 processes. You should never change this parameter unless you have studied
2795 the source and know what you are doing.
2798 shared mem size = 102400
2800 .SS smb passwd file (G)
2801 This option sets the path to the encrypted smbpasswd file. This is a *VERY
2802 DANGEROUS OPTION* if the smb.conf is user writable. By default the path
2803 to the smbpasswd file is compiled into Samba.
2806 This sets the full path to the smbrun binary. This defaults to the
2807 value in the Makefile.
2809 You must get this path right for many services to work correctly.
2815 smbrun = /usr/local/samba/bin/smbrun
2819 This enables or disables the honouring of the "share modes" during a
2820 file open. These modes are used by clients to gain exclusive read or
2821 write access to a file.
2823 These open modes are not directly supported by UNIX, so they are
2824 simulated using lock files in the "lock directory". The "lock
2825 directory" specified in smb.conf must be readable by all users.
2827 The share modes that are enabled by this option are DENY_DOS,
2828 DENY_ALL, DENY_READ, DENY_WRITE, DENY_NONE and DENY_FCB.
2830 Enabling this option gives full share compatibility but may cost a bit
2831 of processing time on the UNIX server. They are enabled by default.
2839 .SS short preserve case (S)
2841 This controls if new short filenames are created with the case that
2842 the client passes, or if they are forced to be the "default" case.
2845 short preserve case = no
2847 See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for a fuller discussion.
2849 .SS socket address (G)
2851 This option allows you to control what address Samba will listen for
2852 connections on. This is used to support multiple virtual interfaces on
2853 the one server, each with a different configuration.
2855 By default samba will accept connections on any address.
2858 socket address = 192.168.2.20
2860 .SS socket options (G)
2861 This option (which can also be invoked with the -O command line
2862 option) allows you to set socket options to be used when talking with
2865 Socket options are controls on the networking layer of the operating
2866 systems which allow the connection to be tuned.
2868 This option will typically be used to tune your Samba server for
2869 optimal performance for your local network. There is no way that Samba
2870 can know what the optimal parameters are for your net, so you must
2871 experiment and choose them yourself. I strongly suggest you read the
2872 appropriate documentation for your operating system first (perhaps
2873 "man setsockopt" will help).
2875 You may find that on some systems Samba will say "Unknown socket
2876 option" when you supply an option. This means you either mis-typed it
2877 or you need to add an include file to includes.h for your OS. If the
2878 latter is the case please send the patch to me
2879 (samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au).
2881 Any of the supported socket options may be combined in any way you
2882 like, as long as your OS allows it.
2884 This is the list of socket options currently settable using this
2907 Those marked with a * take an integer argument. The others can
2908 optionally take a 1 or 0 argument to enable or disable the option, by
2909 default they will be enabled if you don't specify 1 or 0.
2911 To specify an argument use the syntax SOME_OPTION=VALUE for example
2912 SO_SNDBUF=8192. Note that you must not have any spaces before or after
2915 If you are on a local network then a sensible option might be
2917 socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY
2919 If you have an almost unloaded local network and you don't mind a lot
2920 of extra CPU usage in the server then you could try
2922 socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY
2924 If you are on a wide area network then perhaps try setting
2927 Note that several of the options may cause your Samba server to fail
2928 completely. Use these options with caution!
2934 socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY
2940 This enables or disables logging of connections to a status file that
2946 won't be able to tell you what
2947 connections are active.
2955 .SS strict locking (S)
2956 This is a boolean that controls the handling of file locking in the
2957 server. When this is set to yes the server will check every read and
2958 write access for file locks, and deny access if locks exist. This can
2959 be slow on some systems.
2961 When strict locking is "no" the server does file lock checks only when
2962 the client explicitly asks for them.
2964 Well behaved clients always ask for lock checks when it is important,
2965 so in the vast majority of cases "strict locking = no" is preferable.
2971 strict locking = yes
2974 This is a boolean that controls whether to strip trailing dots off
2975 filenames. This helps with some CDROMs that have filenames ending in a
2978 NOTE: This option is now obsolete, and may be removed in future. You
2979 should use the "mangled map" option instead as it is much more
2983 This parameter maps how Samba debug messages are logged onto the
2984 system syslog logging levels. Samba debug level zero maps onto
2985 syslog LOG_ERR, debug level one maps onto LOG_WARNING, debug
2986 level two maps to LOG_NOTICE, debug level three maps onto LOG_INFO.
2987 The paramter sets the threshold for doing the mapping, all Samba
2988 debug messages above this threashold are mapped to syslog LOG_DEBUG
2996 If this parameter is set then Samba debug messages are logged into
2997 the system syslog only, and not to the debug log files.
3004 This is a boolean parameter that controls whether writes will always
3005 be written to stable storage before the write call returns. If this is
3006 false then the server will be guided by the client's request in each
3007 write call (clients can set a bit indicating that a particular write
3008 should be synchronous). If this is true then every write will be
3009 followed by a fsync() call to ensure the data is written to disk.
3018 This parameter is a setting in minutes to add to the normal GMT to
3019 local time conversion. This is useful if you are serving a lot of PCs
3020 that have incorrect daylight saving time handling.
3029 This parameter determines if nmbd advertises itself as a time server
3030 to Windows clients. The default is False.
3038 .SS unix realname (G)
3039 This boolean parameter when set causes samba to supply the real name field
3040 from the unix password file to the client. This is useful for setting up
3041 mail clients and WWW browsers on systems used by more than one person.
3053 A synonym for this parameter is 'user'.
3055 Multiple users may be specified in a comma-delimited list, in which case the
3056 supplied password will be tested against each username in turn (left to right).
3058 The username= line is needed only when the PC is unable to supply its own
3059 username. This is the case for the coreplus protocol or where your
3060 users have different WfWg usernames to UNIX usernames. In both these
3061 cases you may also be better using the \e\eserver\eshare%user syntax
3064 The username= line is not a great solution in many cases as it means Samba
3065 will try to validate the supplied password against each of the
3066 usernames in the username= line in turn. This is slow and a bad idea for
3067 lots of users in case of duplicate passwords. You may get timeouts or
3068 security breaches using this parameter unwisely.
3070 Samba relies on the underlying UNIX security. This parameter does not
3071 restrict who can login, it just offers hints to the Samba server as to
3072 what usernames might correspond to the supplied password. Users can
3073 login as whoever they please and they will be able to do no more
3074 damage than if they started a telnet session. The daemon runs as the
3075 user that they log in as, so they cannot do anything that user cannot
3078 To restrict a service to a particular set of users you can use the
3079 "valid users=" line.
3081 If any of the usernames begin with a @ then the name will be looked up
3082 in the groups file and will expand to a list of all users in the group
3083 of that name. Note that searching though a groups file can take quite
3084 some time, and some clients may time out during the search.
3086 See the section below on username/password validation for more information
3087 on how this parameter determines access to the services.
3090 The guest account if a guest service, else the name of the service.
3094 username = fred, mary, jack, jane, @users, @pcgroup
3096 .SS username map (G)
3098 This option allows you to to specify a file containing a mapping of
3099 usernames from the clients to the server. This can be used for several
3100 purposes. The most common is to map usernames that users use on DOS or
3101 Windows machines to those that the UNIX box uses. The other is to map
3102 multiple users to a single username so that they can more easily share
3105 The map file is parsed line by line. Each line should contain a single
3106 UNIX username on the left then a '=' followed by a list of usernames
3107 on the right. The list of usernames on the right may contain names of
3108 the form @group in which case they will match any UNIX username in
3109 that group. The special client name '*' is a wildcard and matches any
3112 The file is processed on each line by taking the supplied username and
3113 comparing it with each username on the right hand side of the '='
3114 signs. If the supplied name matches any of the names on the right
3115 hand side then it is replaced with the name on the left. Processing
3116 then continues with the next line.
3118 If any line begins with a '#' or a ';' then it is ignored
3120 For example to map from the name "admin" or "administrator" to the UNIX
3121 name "root" you would use
3123 root = admin administrator
3125 Or to map anyone in the UNIX group "system" to the UNIX name "sys" you
3130 You can have as many mappings as you like in a username map file.
3132 Note that the remapping is applied to all occurrences of
3133 usernames. Thus if you connect to "\e\eserver\efred" and "fred" is
3134 remapped to "mary" then you will actually be connecting to
3135 "\e\eserver\emary" and will need to supply a password suitable for
3136 "mary" not "fred". The only exception to this is the username passed
3137 to the "password server" (if you have one). The password server will
3138 receive whatever username the client supplies without modification.
3140 Also note that no reverse mapping is done. The main effect this has is
3141 with printing. Users who have been mapped may have trouble deleting
3142 print jobs as PrintManager under WfWg will think they don't own the
3149 username map = /usr/local/samba/lib/users.map
3153 The option allows you to specify additional characters that should be
3154 considered valid by the server in filenames. This is particularly
3155 useful for national character sets, such as adding u-umlaut or a-ring.
3157 The option takes a list of characters in either integer or character
3158 form with spaces between them. If you give two characters with a colon
3159 between them then it will be taken as an lowercase:uppercase pair.
3161 If you have an editor capable of entering the characters into the
3162 config file then it is probably easiest to use this method. Otherwise
3163 you can specify the characters in octal, decimal or hexadecimal form
3164 using the usual C notation.
3166 For example to add the single character 'Z' to the charset (which is a
3167 pointless thing to do as it's already there) you could do one of the
3172 valid chars = 0132:0172
3174 The last two examples above actually add two characters, and alter
3175 the uppercase and lowercase mappings appropriately.
3177 Note that you MUST specify this parameter after the "client code page"
3178 parameter if you have both set. If "client code page" is set after
3179 the "valid chars" parameter the "valid chars" settings will be
3182 See also the "client code page" parameter.
3186 Samba defaults to using a reasonable set of valid characters
3191 valid chars = 0345:0305 0366:0326 0344:0304
3193 The above example allows filenames to have the swedish characters in
3196 NOTE: It is actually quite difficult to correctly produce a "valid
3197 chars" line for a particular system. To automate the process
3198 tino@augsburg.net has written a package called "validchars" which will
3199 automatically produce a complete "valid chars" line for a given client
3200 system. Look in the examples subdirectory for this package.
3203 This is a list of users that should be allowed to login to this
3204 service. A name starting with @ is interpreted as a UNIX group.
3206 If this is empty (the default) then any user can login. If a username
3207 is in both this list and the "invalid users" list then access is
3208 denied for that user.
3210 The current servicename is substituted for %S. This is useful in the
3213 See also "invalid users"
3216 No valid users list. (anyone can login)
3219 valid users = greg, @pcusers
3223 This is a list of files and directories that are neither visible nor
3224 accessible. Each entry in the list must be separated by a "/", which
3225 allows spaces to be included in the entry. '*' and '?' can be used to
3226 specify multiple files or directories as in DOS wildcards.
3228 Each entry must be a unix path, not a DOS path and must not include the
3229 unix directory separator "/".
3231 Note that the case sensitivity option is applicable in vetoing files.
3233 One feature of the veto files parameter that it is important to be
3234 aware of, is that if a directory contains nothing but files that
3235 match the veto files parameter (which means that Windows/DOS clients
3236 cannot ever see them) is deleted, the veto files within that directory
3237 *are automatically deleted* along with it, if the user has UNIX permissions
3240 Setting this parameter will affect the performance of Samba, as
3241 it will be forced to check all files and directories for a match
3242 as they are scanned.
3244 See also "hide files" and "case sensitive"
3247 No files or directories are vetoed.
3251 Veto any files containing the word Security,
3252 any ending in .tmp, and any directory containing the
3255 veto files = /*Security*/*.tmp/*root*/
3258 Veto the Apple specific files that a NetAtalk server
3261 veto files = /.AppleDouble/.bin/.AppleDesktop/Network Trash Folder/
3264 This allows you to override the volume label returned for a
3265 share. Useful for CDROMs with installation programs that insist on a
3266 particular volume label.
3268 The default is the name of the share
3271 This parameter controls whether or not links in the UNIX file system may be
3272 followed by the server. Links that point to areas within the directory tree
3273 exported by the server are always allowed; this parameter controls access
3274 only to areas that are outside the directory tree being exported.
3284 This is a boolean that controls if nmbd will respond to broadcast name
3285 queries on behalf of other hosts. You may need to set this to no for
3292 This specifies the DNS name (or IP address) of the WINS server that Samba
3293 should register with. If you have a WINS server on your network then you
3294 should set this to the WINS servers name.
3296 You should point this at your WINS server if you have a multi-subnetted
3301 .SS wins support (G)
3303 This boolean controls if Samba will act as a WINS server. You should
3304 not set this to true unless you have a multi-subnetted network and
3305 you wish a particular nmbd to be your WINS server. Note that you
3306 should *NEVER* set this to true on more than one machine in your
3313 This controls what workgroup your server will appear to be in when
3323 A synonym for this parameter is 'write ok'. An inverted synonym is 'read only'.
3325 If this parameter is 'no', then users of a service may not create or modify
3326 files in the service's directory.
3328 Note that a printable service ('printable = yes') will ALWAYS allow
3329 writing to the directory (user privileges permitting), but only via
3330 spooling operations.
3340 This is a list of users that are given read-write access to a
3341 service. If the connecting user is in this list then they will be
3342 given write access, no matter what the "read only" option is set
3343 to. The list can include group names using the @group syntax.
3345 Note that if a user is in both the read list and the write list then
3346 they will be given write access.
3348 See also the "read list" option
3354 write list = admin, root, @staff
3362 This parameter controls whether or not the server will support raw writes when
3363 transferring data from clients.
3370 .SH NOTE ABOUT USERNAME/PASSWORD VALIDATION
3371 There are a number of ways in which a user can connect to a
3372 service. The server follows the following steps in determining if it
3373 will allow a connection to a specified service. If all the steps fail
3374 then the connection request is rejected. If one of the steps pass then
3375 the following steps are not checked.
3377 If the service is marked "guest only = yes" then steps 1 to 5 are skipped
3379 Step 1: If the client has passed a username/password pair and that
3380 username/password pair is validated by the UNIX system's password
3381 programs then the connection is made as that username. Note that this
3382 includes the \e\eserver\eservice%username method of passing a username.
3384 Step 2: If the client has previously registered a username with the
3385 system and now supplies a correct password for that username then the
3386 connection is allowed.
3388 Step 3: The client's netbios name and any previously used user names
3389 are checked against the supplied password, if they match then the
3390 connection is allowed as the corresponding user.
3392 Step 4: If the client has previously validated a username/password
3393 pair with the server and the client has passed the validation token
3394 then that username is used. This step is skipped if "revalidate = yes"
3397 Step 5: If a "user = " field is given in the smb.conf file for the
3398 service and the client has supplied a password, and that password
3399 matches (according to the UNIX system's password checking) with one of
3400 the usernames from the user= field then the connection is made as the
3401 username in the "user=" line. If one of the username in the user= list
3402 begins with a @ then that name expands to a list of names in the group
3405 Step 6: If the service is a guest service then a connection is made as
3406 the username given in the "guest account =" for the service,
3407 irrespective of the supplied password.
3409 Although the configuration file permits service names to contain spaces,
3410 your client software may not. Spaces will be ignored in comparisons anyway,
3411 so it shouldn't be a problem - but be aware of the possibility.
3413 On a similar note, many clients - especially DOS clients - limit service
3414 names to eight characters. Smbd has no such limitation, but attempts
3415 to connect from such clients will fail if they truncate the service names.
3416 For this reason you should probably keep your service names down to eight
3417 characters in length.
3419 Use of the [homes] and [printers] special sections make life for an
3420 administrator easy, but the various combinations of default attributes can be
3421 tricky. Take extreme care when designing these sections. In particular,
3422 ensure that the permissions on spool directories are correct.
3424 This man page is (mostly) correct for version 1.9.16 of the Samba suite, plus some
3425 of the recent patches to it. These notes will necessarily lag behind
3426 development of the software, so it is possible that your version of
3427 the server has extensions or parameter semantics that differ from or are not
3428 covered by this man page. Please notify these to the address below for
3431 Prior to version 1.5.21 of the Samba suite, the configuration file was
3432 radically different (more primitive). If you are using a version earlier than
3433 1.8.05, it is STRONGLY recommended that you upgrade.
3438 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
3447 .BR hosts_access (5)
3449 [This section under construction]
3451 Most diagnostics issued by the server are logged in a specified log file. The
3452 log file name is specified at compile time, but may be overridden on the
3453 smbd command line (see
3456 The number and nature of diagnostics available depends on the debug level used
3457 by the server. If you have problems, set the debug level to 3 and peruse the
3460 Most messages are reasonably self-explanatory. Unfortunately, at time of
3461 creation of this man page the source code is still too fluid to warrant
3462 describing each and every diagnostic. At this stage your best bet is still
3463 to grep the source code and inspect the conditions that gave rise to the
3464 diagnostics you are seeing.
3468 Please send bug reports, comments and so on to:
3471 .B samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au (Andrew Tridgell)
3474 or to the mailing list:
3477 .B samba@listproc.anu.edu.au
3480 You may also like to subscribe to the announcement channel:
3483 .B samba-announce@listproc.anu.edu.au
3486 To subscribe to these lists send a message to
3487 listproc@listproc.anu.edu.au with a body of "subscribe samba Your
3488 Name" or "subscribe samba-announce Your Name".
3490 Errors or suggestions for improvements to the Samba man pages should be
3494 .B samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au (Andrew Tridgell)