1 <refentry id="smb.conf.5" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2003/XInclude"
2 xmlns:samba="http://www.samba.org/samba/DTD/samba-doc">
5 <refentrytitle>smb.conf</refentrytitle>
6 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
7 <refmiscinfo class="source">Samba</refmiscinfo>
8 <refmiscinfo class="manual">File Formats and Conventions</refmiscinfo>
9 <refmiscinfo class="version">3.6</refmiscinfo>
14 <refname>smb.conf</refname>
15 <refpurpose>The configuration file for the Samba suite</refpurpose>
19 <title>SYNOPSIS</title>
22 The <filename moreinfo="none">smb.conf</filename> file is a configuration file for the Samba suite. <filename
23 moreinfo="none">smb.conf</filename> contains runtime configuration information for the Samba programs. The
24 <filename moreinfo="none">smb.conf</filename> file is designed to be configured and administered by the
25 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>swat</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> program. The
26 complete description of the file format and possible parameters held within are here for reference purposes.
30 <refsect1 id="FILEFORMATSECT">
31 <title>FILE FORMAT</title>
34 The file consists of sections and parameters. A section begins with the name of the section in square brackets
35 and continues until the next section begins. Sections contain parameters of the form:
37 <replaceable>name</replaceable> = <replaceable>value </replaceable>
42 The file is line-based - that is, each newline-terminated line represents either a comment, a section name or
46 <para>Section and parameter names are not case sensitive.</para>
49 Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before or after the first equals sign is
50 discarded. Leading, trailing and internal whitespace in section and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading
51 and trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal whitespace within a parameter value is
56 Any line beginning with a semicolon (<quote>;</quote>) or a hash (<quote>#</quote>)
57 character is ignored, as are lines containing only whitespace.
61 Any line ending in a <quote><literal>\</literal></quote> is continued on the next line in the customary UNIX fashion.
65 The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a string (no quotes needed) or a boolean,
66 which may be given as yes/no, 1/0 or true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, but is preserved
67 in string values. Some items such as create masks are numeric.
73 <title>SECTION DESCRIPTIONS</title>
76 Each section in the configuration file (except for the [global] section) describes a shared resource (known as
77 a <quote>share</quote>). The section name is the name of the shared resource and the parameters within the
78 section define the shares attributes.
82 There are three special sections, [global], [homes] and [printers], which are described under
83 <emphasis>special sections</emphasis>. The following notes apply to ordinary section descriptions.
87 A share consists of a directory to which access is being given plus a description of the access rights
88 which are granted to the user of the service. Some housekeeping options are also specifiable.
92 Sections are either file share services (used by the client as an extension of their native file systems)
93 or printable services (used by the client to access print services on the host running the server).
97 Sections may be designated <emphasis>guest</emphasis> services, in which case no password is required to
98 access them. A specified UNIX <emphasis>guest account</emphasis> is used to define access privileges in this
103 Sections other than guest services will require a password to access them. The client provides the
104 username. As older clients only provide passwords and not usernames, you may specify a list of usernames to
105 check against the password using the <literal>user =</literal> option in the share definition. For modern clients
106 such as Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000, this should not be necessary.
110 The access rights granted by the server are masked by the access rights granted to the specified or guest
111 UNIX user by the host system. The server does not grant more access than the host system grants.
115 The following sample section defines a file space share. The user has write access to the path <filename
116 moreinfo="none">/home/bar</filename>. The share is accessed via the share name <literal>foo</literal>:
118 <smbconfsection name="[foo]"/>
119 <smbconfoption name="path">/home/bar</smbconfoption>
120 <smbconfoption name="read only">no</smbconfoption>
125 The following sample section defines a printable share. The share is read-only, but printable. That is,
126 the only write access permitted is via calls to open, write to and close a spool file. The <emphasis>guest
127 ok</emphasis> parameter means access will be permitted as the default guest user (specified elsewhere):
129 <smbconfsection name="[aprinter]"/>
130 <smbconfoption name="path">/usr/spool/public</smbconfoption>
131 <smbconfoption name="read only">yes</smbconfoption>
132 <smbconfoption name="printable">yes</smbconfoption>
133 <smbconfoption name="guest ok">yes</smbconfoption>
140 <title>SPECIAL SECTIONS</title>
143 <title>The [global] section</title>
146 Parameters in this section apply to the server as a whole, or are defaults for sections that do not
147 specifically define certain items. See the notes under PARAMETERS for more information.
151 <refsect2 id="HOMESECT">
152 <title>The [homes] section</title>
155 If a section called [homes] is included in the configuration file, services connecting clients
156 to their home directories can be created on the fly by the server.
160 When the connection request is made, the existing sections are scanned. If a match is found, it is
161 used. If no match is found, the requested section name is treated as a username and looked up in the local
162 password file. If the name exists and the correct password has been given, a share is created by cloning the
167 Some modifications are then made to the newly created share:
172 The share name is changed from homes to the located username.
176 If no path was given, the path is set to the user's home directory.
181 If you decide to use a <emphasis>path =</emphasis> line in your [homes] section, it may be useful
182 to use the %S macro. For example:
184 <userinput moreinfo="none">path = /data/pchome/%S</userinput>
186 is useful if you have different home directories for your PCs than for UNIX access.
190 This is a fast and simple way to give a large number of clients access to their home directories with a minimum
195 A similar process occurs if the requested section name is <quote>homes</quote>, except that the share
196 name is not changed to that of the requesting user. This method of using the [homes] section works well if
197 different users share a client PC.
201 The [homes] section can specify all the parameters a normal service section can specify, though some make more sense
202 than others. The following is a typical and suitable [homes] section:
204 <smbconfsection name="[homes]"/>
205 <smbconfoption name="read only">no</smbconfoption>
210 An important point is that if guest access is specified in the [homes] section, all home directories will be
211 visible to all clients <emphasis>without a password</emphasis>. In the very unlikely event that this is actually
212 desirable, it is wise to also specify <emphasis>read only access</emphasis>.
216 The <emphasis>browseable</emphasis> flag for auto home directories will be inherited from the global browseable
217 flag, not the [homes] browseable flag. This is useful as it means setting <emphasis>browseable = no</emphasis> in
218 the [homes] section will hide the [homes] share but make any auto home directories visible.
222 <refsect2 id="PRINTERSSECT">
223 <title>The [printers] section</title>
226 This section works like [homes], but for printers.
230 If a [printers] section occurs in the configuration file, users are able to connect to any printer
231 specified in the local host's printcap file.
235 When a connection request is made, the existing sections are scanned. If a match is found, it is used.
236 If no match is found, but a [homes] section exists, it is used as described above. Otherwise, the requested
237 section name is treated as a printer name and the appropriate printcap file is scanned to see if the requested
238 section name is a valid printer share name. If a match is found, a new printer share is created by cloning the
243 A few modifications are then made to the newly created share:
247 <listitem><para>The share name is set to the located printer name</para></listitem>
249 <listitem><para>If no printer name was given, the printer name is set to the located printer name</para></listitem>
251 <listitem><para>If the share does not permit guest access and no username was given, the username is set
252 to the located printer name.</para></listitem>
256 The [printers] service MUST be printable - if you specify otherwise, the server will refuse
257 to load the configuration file.
261 Typically the path specified is that of a world-writeable spool directory with the sticky bit set on
262 it. A typical [printers] entry looks like this:
264 <smbconfsection name="[printers]"/>
265 <smbconfoption name="path">/usr/spool/public</smbconfoption>
266 <smbconfoption name="guest ok">yes</smbconfoption>
267 <smbconfoption name="printable">yes</smbconfoption>
272 All aliases given for a printer in the printcap file are legitimate printer names as far as the server is concerned.
273 If your printing subsystem doesn't work like that, you will have to set up a pseudo-printcap. This is a file
274 consisting of one or more lines like this:
276 alias|alias|alias|alias...
281 Each alias should be an acceptable printer name for your printing subsystem. In the [global] section,
282 specify the new file as your printcap. The server will only recognize names found in your pseudo-printcap,
283 which of course can contain whatever aliases you like. The same technique could be used simply to limit access
284 to a subset of your local printers.
288 An alias, by the way, is defined as any component of the first entry of a printcap record. Records are separated by newlines,
289 components (if there are more than one) are separated by vertical bar symbols (<literal>|</literal>).
293 On SYSV systems which use lpstat to determine what printers are defined on the system you may be able to use
294 <literal>printcap name = lpstat</literal> to automatically obtain a list of printers. See the
295 <literal>printcap name</literal> option for more details.
301 <title>USERSHARES</title>
303 <para>Starting with Samba version 3.0.23 the capability for non-root users to add, modify, and delete
304 their own share definitions has been added. This capability is called <emphasis>usershares</emphasis> and
305 is controlled by a set of parameters in the [global] section of the smb.conf.
306 The relevant parameters are :
311 <term>usershare allow guests</term>
312 <listitem><para>Controls if usershares can permit guest access.</para></listitem>
316 <term>usershare max shares</term>
317 <listitem><para>Maximum number of user defined shares allowed.</para></listitem>
321 <term>usershare owner only</term>
322 <listitem><para>If set only directories owned by the sharing user can be shared.</para></listitem>
326 <term>usershare path</term>
327 <listitem><para>Points to the directory containing the user defined share definitions.
328 The filesystem permissions on this directory control who can create user defined shares.</para></listitem>
332 <term>usershare prefix allow list</term>
333 <listitem><para>Comma-separated list of absolute pathnames restricting what directories
334 can be shared. Only directories below the pathnames in this list are permitted.</para></listitem>
338 <term>usershare prefix deny list</term>
339 <listitem><para>Comma-separated list of absolute pathnames restricting what directories
340 can be shared. Directories below the pathnames in this list are prohibited.</para></listitem>
344 <term>usershare template share</term>
345 <listitem><para>Names a pre-existing share used as a template for creating new usershares.
346 All other share parameters not specified in the user defined share definition
347 are copied from this named share.</para></listitem>
351 <para>To allow members of the UNIX group <literal>foo</literal> to create user defined
352 shares, create the directory to contain the share definitions as follows:
354 <para>Become root:</para>
356 mkdir /usr/local/samba/lib/usershares
357 chgrp foo /usr/local/samba/lib/usershares
358 chmod 1770 /usr/local/samba/lib/usershares
360 <para>Then add the parameters
363 <smbconfoption name="usershare path">/usr/local/samba/lib/usershares</smbconfoption>
364 <smbconfoption name="usershare max shares">10</smbconfoption> # (or the desired number of shares)
368 section of your <filename>smb.conf</filename>. Members of the group foo may then manipulate the user defined shares
369 using the following commands.</para>
373 <term>net usershare add sharename path [comment] [acl] [guest_ok=[y|n]]</term>
374 <listitem><para>To create or modify (overwrite) a user defined share.</para></listitem>
378 <term>net usershare delete sharename</term>
379 <listitem><para>To delete a user defined share.</para></listitem>
383 <term>net usershare list wildcard-sharename</term>
384 <listitem><para>To list user defined shares.</para></listitem>
388 <term>net usershare info wildcard-sharename</term>
389 <listitem><para>To print information about user defined shares.</para></listitem>
395 <title>PARAMETERS</title>
397 <para>Parameters define the specific attributes of sections.</para>
400 Some parameters are specific to the [global] section (e.g., <emphasis>security</emphasis>). Some parameters
401 are usable in all sections (e.g., <emphasis>create mask</emphasis>). All others are permissible only in normal
402 sections. For the purposes of the following descriptions the [homes] and [printers] sections will be
403 considered normal. The letter <emphasis>G</emphasis> in parentheses indicates that a parameter is specific to
404 the [global] section. The letter <emphasis>S</emphasis> indicates that a parameter can be specified in a
405 service specific section. All <emphasis>S</emphasis> parameters can also be specified in the [global] section
406 - in which case they will define the default behavior for all services.
410 Parameters are arranged here in alphabetical order - this may not create best bedfellows, but at least you can
411 find them! Where there are synonyms, the preferred synonym is described, others refer to the preferred
417 <title>VARIABLE SUBSTITUTIONS</title>
420 Many of the strings that are settable in the config file can take substitutions. For example the option
421 <quote>path = /tmp/%u</quote> is interpreted as <quote>path = /tmp/john</quote> if the user connected with the
426 These substitutions are mostly noted in the descriptions below, but there are some general substitutions
427 which apply whenever they might be relevant. These are:
433 <listitem><para>session username (the username that the client wanted, not
434 necessarily the same as the one they got).</para></listitem>
439 <listitem><para>primary group name of %U.</para></listitem>
444 <listitem><para>the Internet hostname that Samba is running on.</para></listitem>
449 <listitem><para>the NetBIOS name of the client machine (very useful).</para>
451 <para>This parameter is not available when Samba listens on port 445, as clients no longer
452 send this information. If you use this macro in an include statement on a domain that has
453 a Samba domain controller be sure to set in the [global] section <parameter>smb ports =
454 139</parameter>. This will cause Samba to not listen on port 445 and will permit include
455 functionality to function as it did with Samba 2.x.
462 <listitem><para>the NetBIOS name of the server. This allows you to change your config based on what
463 the client calls you. Your server can have a <quote>dual personality</quote>.
469 <listitem><para>the Internet name of the client machine.
475 <listitem><para>the selected protocol level after protocol negotiation. It can be one of CORE, COREPLUS,
476 LANMAN1, LANMAN2 or NT1.</para></listitem>
481 <listitem><para>the process id of the current server
482 process.</para></listitem>
488 The architecture of the remote
489 machine. It currently recognizes Samba (<constant>Samba</constant>),
490 the Linux CIFS file system (<constant>CIFSFS</constant>), OS/2, (<constant>OS2</constant>),
491 Mac OS X (<constant>OSX</constant>), Windows for Workgroups (<constant>WfWg</constant>), Windows 9x/ME
492 (<constant>Win95</constant>), Windows NT (<constant>WinNT</constant>),
493 Windows 2000 (<constant>Win2K</constant>),
494 Windows XP (<constant>WinXP</constant>),
495 Windows XP 64-bit(<constant>WinXP64</constant>),
496 Windows 2003 including
497 2003R2 (<constant>Win2K3</constant>), and Windows
498 Vista (<constant>Vista</constant>). Anything else will be known as
499 <constant>UNKNOWN</constant>.</para>
505 <listitem><para>the IP address of the client machine.</para>
506 <para>Before 3.6.0 it could contain IPv4 mapped IPv6 addresses,
507 now it only contains IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.</para>
513 <listitem><para>the local IP address to which a client connected.</para>
514 <para>Before 3.6.0 it could contain IPv4 mapped IPv6 addresses,
515 now it only contains IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.</para>
521 <listitem><para>the current date and time.</para></listitem>
526 <listitem><para>name of the domain or workgroup of the current user.</para></listitem>
531 <listitem><para>the winbind separator.</para></listitem>
535 <term>%$(<replaceable>envvar</replaceable>)</term>
536 <listitem><para>the value of the environment variable
537 <replaceable>envar</replaceable>.</para></listitem>
542 The following substitutes apply only to some configuration options (only those that are
543 used when a connection has been established):
549 <listitem><para>the name of the current service, if any.</para>
555 <listitem><para>the root directory of the current service, if any.</para></listitem>
560 <listitem><para>username of the current service, if any.</para>
566 <listitem><para>primary group name of %u.</para></listitem>
571 <listitem><para>the home directory of the user given by %u.</para></listitem>
577 the name of your NIS home directory server. This is obtained from your NIS auto.map entry.
578 If you have not compiled Samba with the <emphasis>--with-automount</emphasis> option, this
579 value will be the same as %L.</para></listitem>
585 the path of the service's home directory, obtained from your NIS auto.map entry. The NIS
586 auto.map entry is split up as <literal>%N:%p</literal>.</para></listitem>
591 There are some quite creative things that can be done with these substitutions and other
592 <filename moreinfo="none">smb.conf</filename> options.
596 <refsect1 id="NAMEMANGLINGSECT">
597 <title>NAME MANGLING</title>
600 Samba supports <literal>name mangling</literal> so that DOS and Windows clients can use files that don't
601 conform to the 8.3 format. It can also be set to adjust the case of 8.3 format filenames.
605 There are several options that control the way mangling is performed, and they are grouped here rather
606 than listed separately. For the defaults look at the output of the testparm program.
610 These options can be set separately for each service.
620 <term>case sensitive = yes/no/auto</term>
622 controls whether filenames are case sensitive. If they aren't, Samba must do a filename search and match on
623 passed names. The default setting of auto allows clients that support case sensitive filenames (Linux CIFSVFS
624 and smbclient 3.0.5 and above currently) to tell the Samba server on a per-packet basis that they wish to
625 access the file system in a case-sensitive manner (to support UNIX case sensitive semantics). No Windows or
626 DOS system supports case-sensitive filename so setting this option to auto is that same as setting it to no
627 for them. Default <emphasis>auto</emphasis>.
632 <term>default case = upper/lower</term>
634 controls what the default case is for new filenames (ie. files that don't currently exist in the filesystem).
635 Default <emphasis>lower</emphasis>. IMPORTANT NOTE: As part of the optimizations for directories containing
636 large numbers of files, the following special case applies. If the options
637 <smbconfoption name="case sensitive">yes</smbconfoption>, <smbconfoption name="preserve case">No</smbconfoption>, and
638 <smbconfoption name="short preserve case">No</smbconfoption> are set, then the case of <emphasis>all</emphasis>
639 incoming client filenames, not just new filenames, will be modified. See additional notes below.
644 <term>preserve case = yes/no</term>
646 controls whether new files (ie. files that don't currently exist in the filesystem) are created with the case
647 that the client passes, or if they are forced to be the <literal>default</literal> case. Default
648 <emphasis>yes</emphasis>.
653 <term>short preserve case = yes/no</term>
655 controls if new files (ie. files that don't currently exist in the filesystem) which conform to 8.3 syntax,
656 that is all in upper case and of suitable length, are created upper case, or if they are forced to be the
657 <literal>default</literal> case. This option can be used with <literal>preserve case = yes</literal> to permit
658 long filenames to retain their case, while short names are lowercased. Default <emphasis>yes</emphasis>.
664 By default, Samba 3.0 has the same semantics as a Windows NT server, in that it is case insensitive
665 but case preserving. As a special case for directories with large numbers of files, if the case
666 options are set as follows, "case sensitive = yes", "case preserve = no", "short preserve case = no"
667 then the "default case" option will be applied and will modify all filenames sent from the client
668 when accessing this share.
674 <title>REGISTRY-BASED CONFIGURATION</title>
677 Starting with Samba version 3.2.0, the capability to
678 store Samba configuration in the registry is available.
679 The configuration is stored in the registry key
680 <emphasis><literal>HKLM\Software\Samba\smbconf</literal></emphasis>.
681 There are two levels of registry configuration:
684 <orderedlist continuation="restarts" inheritnum="ignore" numeration="arabic">
685 <listitem><para>Share definitions stored in registry are used.
686 This is triggered by setting the global
687 parameter <parameter>registry shares</parameter>
688 to <quote>yes</quote> in <emphasis>smb.conf</emphasis>.
691 <para>The registry shares are loaded not at startup but
692 on demand at runtime by <emphasis>smbd</emphasis>.
693 Shares defined in <emphasis>smb.conf</emphasis> take
694 priority over shares of the same name defined in
695 registry.</para></listitem>
698 <para>Global <emphasis>smb.conf</emphasis>
699 options stored in registry are used. This can be activated
700 in two different ways:</para>
702 <para>Firstly, a registry only configuration is triggered
704 <smbconfoption name="config backend">registry</smbconfoption>
705 in the [global] section of <emphasis>smb.conf</emphasis>.
706 This resets everything that has been read from config files
707 to this point and reads the content of the global configuration
708 section from the registry.
709 This is the recommended method of using registry based
710 configuration.</para>
712 <para>Secondly, a mixed configuration can be activated
713 by a special new meaning of the parameter
714 <smbconfoption name="include">registry</smbconfoption>
715 in the [global] section of <emphasis>smb.conf</emphasis>.
716 This reads the global options from registry with the same
717 priorities as for an include of a text file.
718 This may be especially useful in cases where an initial
719 configuration is needed to access the registry.</para>
721 <para>Activation of global registry options automatically
722 activates registry shares. So in the registry only case,
723 shares are loaded on demand only.</para>
728 Note: To make registry-based configurations foolproof
729 at least to a certain extent, the use
730 of <parameter>lock directory</parameter> and
731 <parameter>config backend</parameter>
732 inside the registry configuration has been disabled:
733 Especially by changing the
734 <parameter>lock directory</parameter> inside the registry
735 configuration, one would create a broken setup where the daemons
736 do not see the configuration they loaded once it is active.
740 The registry configuration can be accessed with
741 tools like <emphasis>regedit</emphasis> or <emphasis>net (rpc)
742 registry</emphasis> in the key
743 <emphasis><literal>HKLM\Software\Samba\smbconf</literal></emphasis>.
745 More conveniently, the <emphasis>conf</emphasis> subcommand of the
746 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>net</refentrytitle>
747 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> utility
748 offers a dedicated interface to read and write the
749 registry based configuration locally, i.e. directly
750 accessing the database file, circumventing the
757 <title>EXPLANATION OF EACH PARAMETER</title>
759 <samba:parameterlist>
760 <xi:include href="../smbdotconf/parameters.all.xml" parse="xml"/>
761 </samba:parameterlist>
766 <title>WARNINGS</title>
769 Although the configuration file permits service names to contain spaces, your client software may not.
770 Spaces will be ignored in comparisons anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem - but be aware of the possibility.
774 On a similar note, many clients - especially DOS clients - limit service names to eight characters.
775 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbd</refentrytitle> <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> has no such
776 limitation, but attempts to connect from such clients will fail if they truncate the service names. For this
777 reason you should probably keep your service names down to eight characters in length.
781 Use of the <literal>[homes]</literal> and <literal>[printers]</literal> special sections make life
782 for an administrator easy, but the various combinations of default attributes can be tricky. Take extreme
783 care when designing these sections. In particular, ensure that the permissions on spool directories are
790 <title>VERSION</title>
792 <para>This man page is correct for version 3 of the Samba suite.</para>
796 <title>SEE ALSO</title>
798 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>samba</refentrytitle>
799 <manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbpasswd</refentrytitle>
800 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>swat</refentrytitle>
801 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbd</refentrytitle>
802 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>nmbd</refentrytitle>
803 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>smbclient</refentrytitle>
804 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>nmblookup</refentrytitle>
805 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>testparm</refentrytitle>
806 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>testprns</refentrytitle>
807 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
811 <title>AUTHOR</title>
814 The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed
815 by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed.
819 The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer. The man page sources were converted to YODL format (another
820 excellent piece of Open Source software, available at <ulink noescape="1" url="ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/">
821 ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/</ulink>) and updated for the Samba 2.0 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion
822 to DocBook for Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter. The conversion to DocBook XML 4.2 for Samba 3.0 was done by