SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)NAMEsmb.conf - The configuration file for the Samba suite
SYNOPSIS
The smb.conf file is a configuration file for the Samba
suite. smb.conf contains runtime configuration information
for the Samba programs. The smb.conf file is designed to
be configured and administered by the swat(8) program. The
complete description of the file format and possible
parameters held within are here for reference purposes.
FILE FORMAT
The file consists of sections and parameters. A section
begins with the name of the section in square brackets and
continues until the next section begins. Sections contain
parameters of the form
name = value
The file is line-based - that is, each newline-terminated
line represents either a comment, a section name or a
parameter.
Section and parameter names are not case sensitive.
Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant.
Whitespace before or after the first equals sign is dis-
carded. Leading, trailing and internal whitespace in sec-
tion and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading and trail-
ing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal
whitespace within a parameter value is retained verbatim.
Any line beginning with a semicolon (';') or a hash ('#')
character is ignored, as are lines containing only whites-
pace.
Any line ending in a '\' is continued on the next line in
the customary UNIX fashion.
The values following the equals sign in parameters are all
either a string (no quotes needed) or a boolean, which may
be given as yes/no, 0/1 or true/false. Case is not signif-
icant in boolean values, but is preserved in string val-
ues. Some items such as create modes are numeric.
SECTION DESCRIPTIONS
Each section in the configuration file (except for the
[global] section) describes a shared resource (known as a
"share"). The section name is the name of the shared
resource and the parameters within the section define the
shares attributes.
There are three special sections, [global], [homes] and
[printers], which are described under special sections.
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The following notes apply to ordinary section descrip-
tions.
A share consists of a directory to which access is being
given plus a description of the access rights which are
granted to the user of the service. Some housekeeping
options are also specifiable.
Sections are either file share services (used by the
client as an extension of their native file systems) or
printable services (used by the client to access print
services on the host running the server).
Sections may be designated guest services, in which case
no password is required to access them. A specified UNIX
guest account is used to define access privileges in this
case.
Sections other than guest services will require a password
to access them. The client provides the username. As older
clients only provide passwords and not usernames, you may
specify a list of usernames to check against the password
using the "user=" option in the share definition. For mod-
ern clients such as Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000, this should
not be necessary.
Note that the access rights granted by the server are
masked by the access rights granted to the specified or
guest UNIX user by the host system. The server does not
grant more access than the host system grants.
The following sample section defines a file space share.
The user has write access to the path /home/bar. The
share is accessed via the share name "foo":
[foo]
path = /home/bar
writeable = true
The following sample section defines a printable share.
The share is readonly, but printable. That is, the only
write access permitted is via calls to open, write to and
close a spool file. The guest ok parameter means access
will be permitted as the default guest user (specified
elsewhere):
[aprinter]
path = /usr/spool/public
writeable = false
printable = true
guest ok = true
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SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)SPECIAL SECTIONS
THE GLOBAL SECTION
parameters in this section apply to the server as a whole,
or are defaults for sections which do not specifically
define certain items. See the notes under PARAMETERS for
more information.
THE HOMES SECTION
If a section called homes is included in the configuration
file, services connecting clients to their home directo-
ries can be created on the fly by the server.
When the connection request is made, the existing sections
are scanned. If a match is found, it is used. If no match
is found, the requested section name is treated as a user
name and looked up in the local password file. If the name
exists and the correct password has been given, a share is
created by cloning the [homes] section.
Some modifications are then made to the newly created
share:
o The share name is changed from homes to the located
username.
o If no path was given, the path is set to the user's home
directory.
If you decide to use a path= line in your [homes] section
then you may find it useful to use the %S macro. For exam-
ple :
path=/data/pchome/%S
would be useful if you have different home directories for
your PCs than for UNIX access.
This is a fast and simple way to give a large number of
clients access to their home directories with a minimum of
fuss.
A similar process occurs if the requested section name is
"homes", except that the share name is not changed to that
of the requesting user. This method of using the [homes]
section works well if different users share a client PC.
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The [homes] section can specify all the parameters a nor-
mal service section can specify, though some make more
sense than others. The following is a typical and suitable
[homes] section:
[homes]
writeable = yes
An important point is that if guest access is specified in
the [homes] section, all home directories will be visible
to all clients without a password. In the very unlikely
event that this is actually desirable, it would be wise to
also specify read only access.
Note that the browseable flag for auto home directories
will be inherited from the global browseable flag, not the
[homes] browseable flag. This is useful as it means set-
ting browseable=no in the [homes] section will hide the
[homes] share but make any auto home directories visible.
THE PRINTERS SECTION
This section works like [homes], but for printers.
If a [printers] section occurs in the configuration file,
users are able to connect to any printer specified in the
local host's printcap file.
When a connection request is made, the existing sections
are scanned. If a match is found, it is used. If no match
is found, but a [homes] section exists, it is used as
described above. Otherwise, the requested section name is
treated as a printer name and the appropriate printcap
file is scanned to see if the requested section name is a
valid printer share name. If a match is found, a new
printer share is created by cloning the [printers] sec-
tion.
A few modifications are then made to the newly created
share:
o The share name is set to the located printer name
o If no printer name was given, the printer name is set to
the located printer name
o If the share does not permit guest access and no user-
name was given, the username is set to the located
printer name.
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Note that the [printers] service MUST be printable - if
you specify otherwise, the server will refuse to load the
configuration file.
Typically the path specified would be that of a world-
writeable spool directory with the sticky bit set on it. A
typical [printers] entry would look like this:
[printers]
path = /usr/spool/public
guest ok = yes
printable = yes
All aliases given for a printer in the printcap file are
legitimate printer names as far as the server is con-
cerned. If your printing subsystem doesn't work like
that, you will have to set up a pseudo-printcap. This is a
file consisting of one or more lines like this:
alias|alias|alias|alias...
Each alias should be an acceptable printer name for your
printing subsystem. In the [global] section, specify the
new file as your printcap. The server will then only rec-
ognize names found in your pseudo-printcap, which of
course can contain whatever aliases you like. The same
technique could be used simply to limit access to a subset
of your local printers.
An alias, by the way, is defined as any component of the
first entry of a printcap record. Records are separated by
newlines, components (if there are more than one) are sep-
arated by vertical bar symbols ('|').
NOTE: On SYSV systems which use lpstat to determine what
printers are defined on the system you may be able to use
"printcap name = lpstat" to automatically obtain a list of
printers. See the "printcap name" option for more details.
PARAMETERS
parameters define the specific attributes of sections.
Some parameters are specific to the [global] section
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(e.g., security). Some parameters are usable in all sec-
tions (e.g., create mode). All others are permissible only
in normal sections. For the purposes of the following
descriptions the [homes] and [printers] sections will be
considered normal. The letter G in parentheses indicates
that a parameter is specific to the [global] section. The
letter S indicates that a parameter can be specified in a
service specific section. Note that all S parameters can
also be specified in the [global] section - in which case
they will define the default behavior for all services.
parameters are arranged here in alphabetical order - this
may not create best bedfellows, but at least you can find
them! Where there are synonyms, the preferred synonym is
described, others refer to the preferred synonym.
VARIABLE SUBSTITUTIONS
Many of the strings that are settable in the config file
can take substitutions. For example the option "path =
/tmp/%u" would be interpreted as "path = /tmp/john" if the
user connected with the username john.
These substitutions are mostly noted in the descriptions
below, but there are some general substitutions which
apply whenever they might be relevant. These are:
%S the name of the current service, if any.
%P the root directory of the current service, if any.
%u user name of the current service, if any.
%g primary group name of %u.
%U session user name (the user name that the client
wanted, not necessarily the same as the one they
got).
%G primary group name of %U.
%H the home directory of the user given by %u.
%v the Samba version.
%h the Internet hostname that Samba is running on.
%m the NetBIOS name of the client machine (very use-
ful).
%L the NetBIOS name of the server. This allows you to
change your config based on what the client calls
you. Your server can have a "dual personality".
%M the Internet name of the client machine.
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%N the name of your NIS home directory server. This
is obtained from your NIS auto.map entry. If you
have not compiled Samba with the --with-automount
option then this value will be the same as %.
%p the path of the service's home directory, obtained
from your NIS auto.map entry. The NIS auto.map
entry is split up as "%N:%p".
%R the selected protocol level after protocol negotia-
tion. It can be one of CORE, COREPLUS, LANMAN1,
LANMAN2 or NT1.
%d The process id of the current server process.
%a the architecture of the remote machine. Only some
are recognized, and those may not be 100% reliable.
It currently recognizes Samba, WfWg, WinNT and
Win95. Anything else will be known as "UNKNOWN". If
it gets it wrong then sending a level 3 log to
samba@samba.org
<URL:mailto:samba@samba.org> should allow it to be
fixed.
%I The IP address of the client machine.
%T the current date and time.
%$(envvar)
The value of the environment variable envar.
There are some quite creative things that can be done with
these substitutions and other smb.conf options.
NAME MANGLING
Samba supports "name mangling" so that DOS and Windows
clients can use files that don't conform to the 8.3 for-
mat. It can also be set to adjust the case of 8.3 format
filenames.
There are several options that control the way mangling is
performed, and they are grouped here rather than listed
separately. For the defaults look at the output of the
testparm program.
All of these options can be set separately for each ser-
vice (or globally, of course).
The options are:
mangle case= yes/no
controls if names that have characters that aren't
of the "default" case are mangled. For example, if
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this is yes then a name like "Mail" would be man-
gled. Default no.
case sensitive = yes/no
controls whether filenames are case sensitive. If
they aren't then Samba must do a filename search
and match on passed names. Default no.
default case = upper/lower
controls what the default case is for new file-
names. Default lower.
preserve case = yes/no
controls if new files are created with the case
that the client passes, or if they are forced to be
the "default" case. Default yes.
short preserve case = yes/no
controls if new files which conform to 8.3 syntax,
that is all in upper case and of suitable length,
are created upper case, or if they are forced to be
the "default" case. This option can be use with
"preserve case = yes" to permit long filenames to
retain their case, while short names are lower-
cased. Default yes.
By default, Samba 2.2 has the same semantics as a Windows
NT server, in that it is case insensitive but case pre-
serving.
NOTE ABOUT USERNAME/PASSWORD VALIDATION
There are a number of ways in which a user can connect to
a service. The server uses the following steps in deter-
mining if it will allow a connection to a specified ser-
vice. If all the steps fail, then the connection request
is rejected. However, if one of the steps succeeds, then
the following steps are not checked.
If the service is marked "guest only = yes" then steps 1
to 5 are skipped.
1. If the client has passed a username/password pair
and that username/password pair is validated by the
UNIX system's password programs then the connection
is made as that username. Note that this includes
the \\server\service%username method of passing a
username.
2. If the client has previously registered a username
with the system and now supplies a correct password
for that username then the connection is allowed.
3. The client's NetBIOS name and any previously used
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user names are checked against the supplied pass-
word, if they match then the connection is allowed
as the corresponding user.
4. If the client has previously validated a user-
name/password pair with the server and the client
has passed the validation token then that username
is used.
5. If a "user = " field is given in the smb.conf file
for the service and the client has supplied a pass-
word, and that password matches (according to the
UNIX system's password checking) with one of the
usernames from the "user=" field then the connec-
tion is made as the username in the "user=" line.
If one of the username in the "user=" list begins
with a '@' then that name expands to a list of
names in the group of the same name.
6. If the service is a guest service then a connection
is made as the username given in the "guest account
=" for the service, irrespective of the supplied
password.
COMPLETE LIST OF GLOBAL PARAMETERS
Here is a list of all global parameters. See the section
of each parameter for details. Note that some are syn-
onyms.
o add printer command
o add share command
o add user script
o allow trusted domains
o announce as
o announce version
o auto services
o bind interfaces only
o browse list
o change notify timeout
o change share command
o character set
o client code page
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o code page directory
o coding system
o config file
o deadtime
o debug hires timestamp
o debug pid
o debug timestamp
o debug uid
o debuglevel
o default
o default service
o delete printer command
o delete share command
o delete user script
o dfree command
o dns proxy
o domain admin group
o domain guest group
o domain logons
o domain master
o encrypt passwords
o enhanced browsing
o enumports command
o getwd cache
o hide local users
o hide unreadable
o homedir map
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o host msdfs
o hosts equiv
o interfaces
o keepalive
o kernel oplocks
o lanman auth
o large readwrite
o lm announce
o lm interval
o load printers
o local master
o lock dir
o lock directory
o log file
o log level
o logon drive
o logon home
o logon path
o logon script
o lpq cache time
o machine password timeout
o mangled stack
o map to guest
o max disk size
o max log size
o max mux
o max open files
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o max protocol
o max smbd processes
o max ttl
o max wins ttl
o max xmit
o message command
o min passwd length
o min password length
o min protocol
o min wins ttl
o name resolve order
o netbios aliases
o netbios name
o netbios scope
o nis homedir
o nt acl support
o nt pipe support
o nt smb support
o null passwords
o obey pam restrictions
o oplock break wait time
o os level
o os2 driver map
o pam password change
o panic action
o passwd chat
o passwd chat debug
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o passwd program
o password level
o password server
o prefered master
o preferred master
o preload
o printcap
o printcap name
o printer driver file
o protocol
o read bmpx
o read raw
o read size
o remote announce
o remote browse sync
o restrict anonymous
o root
o root dir
o root directory
o security
o server string
o show add printer wizard
o smb passwd file
o socket address
o socket options
o source environment
o ssl
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o ssl CA certDir
o ssl CA certFile
o ssl ciphers
o ssl client cert
o ssl client key
o ssl compatibility
o ssl hosts
o ssl hosts resign
o ssl require clientcert
o ssl require servercert
o ssl server cert
o ssl server key
o ssl version
o stat cache
o stat cache size
o strip dot
o syslog
o syslog only
o template homedir
o template shell
o time offset
o time server
o timestamp logs
o total print jobs
o unix password sync
o update encrypted
o use rhosts
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o username level
o username map
o utmp directory
o valid chars
o winbind cache time
o winbind gid
o winbind separator
o winbind uid
o wins hook
o wins proxy
o wins server
o wins support
o workgroup
o write raw
COMPLETE LIST OF SERVICE PARAMETERS
Here is a list of all service parameters. See the section
on each parameter for details. Note that some are syn-
onyms.
o admin users
o allow hosts
o available
o blocking locks
o browsable
o browseable
o case sensitive
o casesignames
o comment
o copy
o create mask
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o create mode
o default case
o delete readonly
o delete veto files
o deny hosts
o directory
o directory mask
o directory mode
o directory security mask
o dont descend
o dos filemode
o dos filetime resolution
o dos filetimes
o exec
o fake directory create times
o fake oplocks
o follow symlinks
o force create mode
o force directory mode
o force directory security mode
o force group
o force security mode
o force user
o fstype
o group
o guest account
o guest ok
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o guest only
o hide dot files
o hide files
o hosts allow
o hosts deny
o include
o inherit permissions
o invalid users
o level2 oplocks
o locking
o lppause command
o lpq command
o lpresume command
o lprm command
o magic output
o magic script
o mangle case
o mangled map
o mangled names
o mangling char
o map archive
o map hidden
o map system
o max connections
o max print jobs
o min print space
o msdfs root
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o only guest
o only user
o oplock contention limit
o oplocks
o path
o posix locking
o postexec
o postscript
o preexec
o preexec close
o preserve case
o print command
o print ok
o printable
o printer
o printer admin
o printer driver
o printer driver location
o printer name
o printing
o public
o queuepause command
o queueresume command
o read list
o read only
o root postexec
o root preexec
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o root preexec close
o security mask
o set directory
o share modes
o short preserve case
o status
o strict locking
o strict sync
o sync always
o user
o username
o users
o utmp
o valid users
o veto files
o veto oplock files
o vfs object
o vfs options
o volume
o wide links
o writable
o write cache size
o write list
o write ok
o writeable
EXPLANATION OF EACH PARAMETER
add printer command (G)
With the introduction of MS-RPC based printing sup-
port for Windows NT/2000 clients in Samba 2.2, The
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MS Add Printer Wizard (APW) icon is now also avail-
able in the "Printers..." folder displayed a share
listing. The APW allows for printers to be add
remotely to a Samba or Windows NT/2000 print
server.
For a Samba host this means that the printer must
be physically added to the underlying printing sys-
tem. The add printer command defines a script to be
run which will perform the necessary operations for
adding the printer to the print system and to add
the appropriate service definition to the smb.conf
file in order that it can be shared by smbd(8)
The add printer command is automatically invoked
with the following parameter (in order:
o printer name
o share name
o port name
o driver name
o location
o Windows 9x driver location
All parameters are filled in from the PRINTER_INFO_2
structure sent by the Windows NT/2000 client with one
exception. The "Windows 9x driver location" parameter is
included for backwards compatibility only. The remaining
fields in the structure are generated from answers to the
APW questions.
Once the add printer command has been executed, smbd will
reparse the smb.conf to determine if the share defined by
the APW exists. If the sharename is still invalid, then
smbd will return an ACCESS_DENIED error to the client.
See also delete printer command, printing, show add
printer wizard
Default: none
Example: addprinter command = /usr/bin/addprinter
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add share command (G)
Samba 2.2.0 introduced the ability to dynamically
add and delete shares via the Windows NT 4.0 Server
Manager. The add share command is used to define an
external program or script which will add a new
service definition to smb.conf. In order to suc-
cessfully execute the add share command, smbd
requires that the administrator be connected using
a root account (i.e. uid == 0).
When executed, smbd will automatically invoke the
add share command with four parameters.
o configFile - the location of the global smb.conf
file.
o shareName - the name of the new share.
o pathName - path to an **existing** directory on
disk.
o comment - comment string to associate with the
new share.
This parameter is only used for add file shares. To add
printer shares, see the add printer command.
See also change share command, delete share command.
Default: none
Example: add share command = /usr/local/bin/addshare
add user script (G)
This is the full pathname to a script that will be
run AS ROOT by smbd(8) under special circumstances
described below.
Normally, a Samba server requires that UNIX users
are created for all users accessing files on this
server. For sites that use Windows NT account
databases as their primary user database creating
these users and keeping the user list in sync with
the Windows NT PDC is an onerous task. This option
allows smbdto create the required UNIX users ON
DEMAND when a user accesses the Samba server.
In order to use this option, smbd must be set to
security=server or security=domain and add user
script must be set to a full pathname for a script
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that will create a UNIX user given one argument of
%u, which expands into the UNIX user name to cre-
ate.
When the Windows user attempts to access the Samba
server, at login (session setup in the SMB proto-
col) time, smbdcontacts the password server and
attempts to authenticate the given user with the
given password. If the authentication succeeds then
smbd attempts to find a UNIX user in the UNIX pass-
word database to map the Windows user into. If this
lookup fails, and add user script is set then smbd
will call the specified script AS ROOT, expanding
any %u argument to be the user name to create.
If this script successfully creates the user then
smbd will continue on as though the UNIX user
already existed. In this way, UNIX users are dynam-
ically created to match existing Windows NT
accounts.
See also security, password server, delete user
script.
Default: add user script = <empty string>
Example: add user script =
/usr/local/samba/bin/add_user %u
admin users (S)
This is a list of users who will be granted admin-
istrative privileges on the share. This means that
they will do all file operations as the super-user
(root).
You should use this option very carefully, as any
user in this list will be able to do anything they
like on the share, irrespective of file permis-
sions.
Default: no admin users
Example: admin users = jason
allow hosts (S)
Synonym for hosts allow.
allow trusted domains (G)
This option only takes effect when the security
option is set to server or domain. If it is set to
no, then attempts to connect to a resource from a
domain or workgroup other than the one which smbdis
running in will fail, even if that domain is
trusted by the remote server doing the
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authentication.
This is useful if you only want your Samba server
to serve resources to users in the domain it is a
member of. As an example, suppose that there are
two domains DOMA and DOMB. DOMB is trusted by DOMA,
which contains the Samba server. Under normal cir-
cumstances, a user with an account in DOMB can then
access the resources of a UNIX account with the
same account name on the Samba server even if they
do not have an account in DOMA. This can make
implementing a security boundary difficult.
Default: allow trusted domains = yes
announce as (G)
This specifies what type of server nmbd will
announce itself as, to a network neighborhood
browse list. By default this is set to Windows NT.
The valid options are : "NT Server" (which can also
be written as "NT"), "NT Workstation", "Win95" or
"WfW" meaning Windows NT Server, Windows NT Work-
station, Windows 95 and Windows for Workgroups
respectively. Do not change this parameter unless
you have a specific need to stop Samba appearing as
an NT server as this may prevent Samba servers from
participating as browser servers correctly.
Default: announce as = NT Server
Example: announce as = Win95
announce version (G)
This specifies the major and minor version numbers
that nmbd will use when announcing itself as a
server. The default is 4.2. Do not change this
parameter unless you have a specific need to set a
Samba server to be a downlevel server.
Default: announce version = 4.2
Example: announce version = 2.0
auto services (G)
This is a synonym for the preload.
available (S)
This parameter lets you "turn off" a service. If
available = no, then ALL attempts to connect to the
service will fail. Such failures are logged.
Default: available = yes
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bind interfaces only (G)
This global parameter allows the Samba admin to
limit what interfaces on a machine will serve SMB
requests. If affects file service smbd(8)and name
service nmbd(8)in slightly different ways.
For name service it causes nmbd to bind to ports
137 and 138 on the interfaces listed in the inter-
faces parameter. nmbd also binds to the "all
addresses" interface (0.0.0.0) on ports 137 and 138
for the purposes of reading broadcast messages. If
this option is not set then nmbd will service name
requests on all of these sockets. If bind inter-
faces only is set then nmbd will check the source
address of any packets coming in on the broadcast
sockets and discard any that don't match the broad-
cast addresses of the interfaces in the interfaces
parameter list. As unicast packets are received on
the other sockets it allows nmbd to refuse to serve
names to machines that send packets that arrive
through any interfaces not listed in the interfaces
list. IP Source address spoofing does defeat this
simple check, however so it must not be used seri-
ously as a security feature for nmbd.
For file service it causes smbd(8) to bind only to
the interface list given in the interfaces parame-
ter. This restricts the networks that smbd will
serve to packets coming in those interfaces. Note
that you should not use this parameter for machines
that are serving PPP or other intermittent or non-
broadcast network interfaces as it will not cope
with non-permanent interfaces.
If bind interfaces only is set then unless the net-
work address 127.0.0.1 is added to the interfaces
parameter list smbpasswd(8) and swat(8)may not work
as expected due to the reasons covered below.
To change a users SMB password, the smbpasswd by
default connects to the localhost - 127.0.0.1
address as an SMB client to issue the password
change request. If bind interfaces only is set then
unless the network address 127.0.0.1 is added to
the interfaces parameter list then smbpasswd will
fail to connect in it's default mode. smbpasswd
can be forced to use the primary IP interface of
the local host by using its -r remote machine
parameter, with remote machine set to the IP name
of the primary interface of the local host.
The swat status page tries to connect with smbd and
nmbd at the address 127.0.0.1 to determine if they
are running. Not adding 127.0.0.1 will cause smbd
09 July 2001 24
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
and nmbd to always show "not running" even if they
really are. This can prevent swat from start-
ing/stopping/restarting smbd and nmbd.
Default: bind interfaces only = no
blocking locks (S)
This parameter controls the behavior of smbd(8)when
given a request by a client to obtain a byte range
lock on a region of an open file, and the request
has a time limit associated with it.
If this parameter is set and the lock range
requested cannot be immediately satisfied, Samba
2.2 will internally queue the lock request, and
periodically attempt to obtain the lock until the
timeout period expires.
If this parameter is set to false, then Samba 2.2
will behave as previous versions of Samba would and
will fail the lock request immediately if the lock
range cannot be obtained.
Default: blocking locks = yes
browsable (S)
See the browseable.
browse list (G)
This controls whether smbd(8)will serve a browse
list to a client doing a NetServerEnum call. Nor-
mally set to true. You should never need to change
this.
Default: browse list = yes
browseable (S)
This controls whether this share is seen in the
list of available shares in a net view and in the
browse list.
Default: browseable = yes
case sensitive (S)
See the discussion in the section NAME MANGLING.
Default: case sensitive = no
casesignames (S)
Synonym for case sensitive.
change notify timeout (G)
This SMB allows a client to tell a server to
"watch" a particular directory for any changes and
09 July 2001 25
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
only reply to the SMB request when a change has
occurred. Such constant scanning of a directory is
expensive under UNIX, hence an smbd(8)daemon only
performs such a scan on each requested directory
once every change notify timeout seconds.
Default: change notify timeout = 60
Example: change notify timeout = 300
Would change the scan time to every 5 minutes.
change share command (G)
Samba 2.2.0 introduced the ability to dynamically
add and delete shares via the Windows NT 4.0 Server
Manager. The change share command is used to define
an external program or script which will modify an
existing service definition in smb.conf. In order
to successfully execute the change share command,
smbd requires that the administrator be connected
using a root account (i.e. uid == 0).
When executed, smbd will automatically invoke the
change share command with four parameters.
o configFile - the location of the global smb.conf
file.
o shareName - the name of the new share.
o pathName - path to an **existing** directory on
disk.
o comment - comment string to associate with the
new share.
This parameter is only used modify existing file shares
definitions. To modify printer shares, use the "Print-
ers..." folder as seen when browsing the Samba host.
See also add share command, delete share command.
Default: none
Example: change share command = /usr/local/bin/addshare
character set (G)
This allows smbdto map incoming filenames from a
DOS Code page (see the client code page parameter)
to several built in UNIX character sets. The built
09 July 2001 26
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
in code page translations are:
o ISO8859-1 : Western European UNIX character set.
The parameter client code page MUST be set to
code page 850 if the character set parameter is
set to ISO8859-1 in order for the conversion to
the UNIX character set to be done correctly.
o ISO8859-2 : Eastern European UNIX character set.
The parameter client code page MUST be set to
code page 852 if the character set parameter is
set to ISO8859-2 in order for the conversion to
the UNIX character set to be done correctly.
o ISO8859-5 : Russian Cyrillic UNIX character set.
The parameter client code page MUST be set to
code page 866 if the character set parameter is
set to ISO8859-5 in order for the conversion to
the UNIX character set to be done correctly.
o ISO8859-7 : Greek UNIX character set. The parame-
ter client code page MUST be set to code page 737
if the character set parameter is set to
ISO8859-7 in order for the conversion to the UNIX
character set to be done correctly.
o KOI8-R : Alternate mapping for Russian Cyrillic
UNIX character set. The parameter client code
page MUST be set to code page 866 if the charac-
ter set parameter is set to KOI8-R in order for
the conversion to the UNIX character set to be
done correctly.
BUG. These MSDOS code page to UNIX character set mappings
should be dynamic, like the loading of MS DOS code pages,
not static.
Normally this parameter is not set, meaning no filename
translation is done.
Default: character set = <empty string>
Example: character set = ISO8859-1
client code page (G)
This parameter specifies the DOS code page that the
clients accessing Samba are using. To determine
what code page a Windows or DOS client is using,
open a DOS command prompt and type the command
chcp. This will output the code page. The default
09 July 2001 27
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
for USA MS-DOS, Windows 95, and Windows NT releases
is code page 437. The default for western European
releases of the above operating systems is code
page 850.
This parameter tells smbd(8) which of the code-
page.XXX files to dynamically load on startup.
These files, described more fully in the manual
page make_smbcodepage(1), tell smbd how to map
lower to upper case characters to provide the case
insensitivity of filenames that Windows clients
expect.
Samba currently ships with the following code page
files :
o Code Page 437 - MS-DOS Latin US
o Code Page 737 - Windows '95 Greek
o Code Page 850 - MS-DOS Latin 1
o Code Page 852 - MS-DOS Latin 2
o Code Page 861 - MS-DOS Icelandic
o Code Page 866 - MS-DOS Cyrillic
o Code Page 932 - MS-DOS Japanese SJIS
o Code Page 936 - MS-DOS Simplified Chinese
o Code Page 949 - MS-DOS Korean Hangul
o Code Page 950 - MS-DOS Traditional Chinese
Thus this parameter may have any of the values 437, 737,
850, 852, 861, 932, 936, 949, or 950. If you don't find
the codepage you need, read the comments in one of the
other codepage files and the make_smbcodepage(1) man page
and write one. Please remember to donate it back to the
Samba user community.
This parameter co-operates with the valid chars parameter
in determining what characters are valid in filenames and
how capitalization is done. If you set both this parameter
and the valid chars parameter the client code page parame-
ter MUST be set before the valid chars parameter in the
smb.conf file. The valid chars string will then augment
the character settings in the client code page parameter.
If not set, client code page defaults to 850.
09 July 2001 28
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
See also : valid chars, code page directory
Default: client code page = 850
Example: client code page = 936
code page directory (G)
Define the location of the various client code page
files.
See also client code page
Default: code page directory = ${prefix}/lib/code-
pages
Example: code page directory =
/usr/share/samba/codepages
codingsystem (G)
This parameter is used to determine how incoming
Shift-JIS Japanese characters are mapped from the
incoming client code page used by the client, into
file names in the UNIX filesystem. Only useful if
client code page is set to 932 (Japanese Shift-
JIS). The options are :
o SJIS - Shift-JIS. Does no conversion of the
incoming filename.
o JIS8, J8BB, J8BH, J8@B, J8@J, J8@H - Convert
from incoming Shift-JIS to eight bit JIS code
with different shift-in, shift out codes.
o JIS7, J7BB, J7BH, J7@B, J7@J, J7@H - Convert
from incoming Shift-JIS to seven bit JIS code
with different shift-in, shift out codes.
o JUNET, JUBB, JUBH, JU@B, JU@J, JU@H - Convert
from incoming Shift-JIS to JUNET code with dif-
ferent shift-in, shift out codes.
o EUC - Convert an incoming Shift-JIS character to
EUC code.
o HEX - Convert an incoming Shift-JIS character to
a 3 byte hex representation, i.e. :AB.
o CAP - Convert an incoming Shift-JIS character to
the 3 byte hex representation used by the
Columbia AppleTalk Program (CAP), i.e. :AB. This
is used for compatibility between Samba and CAP.
09 July 2001 29
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
Default: coding system = <empty value>
comment (S)
This is a text field that is seen next to a share
when a client does a queries the server, either via
the network neighborhood or via net view to list
what shares are available.
If you want to set the string that is displayed
next to the machine name then see the server
string parameter.
Default: No comment string
Example: comment = Fred's Files
config file (G)
This allows you to override the config file to use,
instead of the default (usually smb.conf). There
is a chicken and egg problem here as this option is
set in the config file!
For this reason, if the name of the config file has
changed when the parameters are loaded then it will
reload them from the new config file.
This option takes the usual substitutions, which
can be very useful.
If the config file doesn't exist then it won't be
loaded (allowing you to special case the config
files of just a few clients).
Example: config file =
/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf.%m
copy (S)
This parameter allows you to "clone" service
entries. The specified service is simply duplicated
under the current service's name. Any parameters
specified in the current section will override
those in the section being copied.
This feature lets you set up a 'template' service
and create similar services easily. Note that the
service being copied must occur earlier in the con-
figuration file than the service doing the copying.
Default: no value
Example: copy = otherservice
09 July 2001 30
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
create mask (S)
A synonym for this parameter is create mode .
When a file is created, the necessary permissions
are calculated according to the mapping from DOS
modes to UNIX permissions, and the resulting UNIX
mode is then bit-wise 'AND'ed with this parameter.
This parameter may be thought of as a bit-wise MASK
for the UNIX modes of a file. Any bit not set here
will be removed from the modes set on a file when
it is created.
The default value of this parameter removes the
'group' and 'other' write and execute bits from the
UNIX modes.
Following this Samba will bit-wise 'OR' the UNIX
mode created from this parameter with the value of
the force create mode parameter which is set to 000
by default.
This parameter does not affect directory modes. See
the parameter directory mode for details.
See also the force create mode parameter for forc-
ing particular mode bits to be set on created
files. See also the directory mode" parameter for
masking mode bits on created directories. See also
the inherit permissions parameter.
Note that this parameter does not apply to permis-
sions set by Windows NT/2000 ACL editors. If the
administrator wishes to enforce a mask on access
control lists also, they need to set the security
mask.
Default: create mask = 0744
Example: create mask = 0775
create mode (S)
This is a synonym for create mask.
deadtime (G)
The value of the parameter (a decimal integer) rep-
resents the number of minutes of inactivity before
a connection is considered dead, and it is discon-
nected. The deadtime only takes effect if the num-
ber of open files is zero.
This is useful to stop a server's resources being
exhausted by a large number of inactive connec-
tions.
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SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
Most clients have an auto-reconnect feature when a
connection is broken so in most cases this parame-
ter should be transparent to users.
Using this parameter with a timeout of a few min-
utes is recommended for most systems.
A deadtime of zero indicates that no auto-discon-
nection should be performed.
Default: deadtime = 0
Example: deadtime = 15
debug hires timestamp (G)
Sometimes the timestamps in the log messages are
needed with a resolution of higher that seconds,
this boolean parameter adds microsecond resolution
to the timestamp message header when turned on.
Note that the parameter debug timestamp must be on
for this to have an effect.
Default: debug hires timestamp = no
debug pid (G)
When using only one log file for more then one
forked smbd-process there may be hard to follow
which process outputs which message. This boolean
parameter is adds the process-id to the timestamp
message headers in the logfile when turned on.
Note that the parameter debug timestamp must be on
for this to have an effect.
Default: debug pid = no
debug timestamp (G)
Samba 2.2 debug log messages are timestamped by
default. If you are running at a high debug level
these timestamps can be distracting. This boolean
parameter allows timestamping to be turned off.
Default: debug timestamp = yes
debug uid (G)
Samba is sometimes run as root and sometime run as
the connected user, this boolean parameter inserts
the current euid, egid, uid and gid to the times-
tamp message headers in the log file if turned on.
Note that the parameter debug timestamp must be on
for this to have an effect.
09 July 2001 32
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
Default: debug uid = no
debuglevel (G)
Synonym for log level.
default (G)
A synonym for default service.
default case (S)
See the section on NAME MANGLING. Also note the
short preserve case" parameter.
Default: default case = lower
default service (G)
This parameter specifies the name of a service
which will be connected to if the service actually
requested cannot be found. Note that the square
brackets are NOT given in the parameter value (see
example below).
There is no default value for this parameter. If
this parameter is not given, attempting to connect
to a nonexistent service results in an error.
Typically the default service would be a guest ok,
read-only service.
Also note that the apparent service name will be
changed to equal that of the requested service,
this is very useful as it allows you to use macros
like %S to make a wildcard service.
Note also that any "_" characters in the name of
the service used in the default service will get
mapped to a "/". This allows for interesting
things.
Example:
[global]
default service = pub
[pub]
path = /%S
delete printer command (G)
With the introduction of MS-RPC based printer sup-
port for Windows NT/2000 clients in Samba 2.2, it
is now possible to delete printer at run time by
issuing the DeletePrinter() RPC call.
09 July 2001 33
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
For a Samba host this means that the printer must
be physically deleted from underlying printing sys-
tem. The deleteprinter command defines a script to
be run which will perform the necessary operations
for removing the printer from the print system and
from smb.conf.
The delete printer command is automatically called
with only one parameter: "printer name".
Once the delete printer command has been executed,
smbd will reparse the smb.conf to associated
printer no longer exists. If the sharename is
still valid, then smbd will return an ACCESS_DENIED
error to the client.
See also add printer command, printing, show add
printer wizard
Default: none
Example: deleteprinter command =
/usr/bin/removeprinter
delete readonly (S)
This parameter allows readonly files to be deleted.
This is not normal DOS semantics, but is allowed by
UNIX.
This option may be useful for running applications
such as rcs, where UNIX file ownership prevents
changing file permissions, and DOS semantics pre-
vent deletion of a read only file.
Default: delete readonly = no
delete share command (G)
Samba 2.2.0 introduced the ability to dynamically
add and delete shares via the Windows NT 4.0 Server
Manager. The delete share command is used to define
an external program or script which will remove an
existing service definition from smb.conf. In order
to successfully execute the delete share command,
smbd requires that the administrator be connected
using a root account (i.e. uid == 0).
When executed, smbd will automatically invoke the
delete share command with two parameters.
o configFile - the location of the global smb.conf
file.
o shareName - the name of the existing service.
09 July 2001 34
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
This parameter is only used to remove file shares. To
delete printer shares, see the delete printer command.
See also delete share command, change share.
Default: none
Example: delete share command = /usr/local/bin/delshare
delete user script (G)
This is the full pathname to a script that will be
run AS ROOT by smbd(8)under special circumstances
described below.
Normally, a Samba server requires that UNIX users
are created for all users accessing files on this
server. For sites that use Windows NT account
databases as their primary user database creating
these users and keeping the user list in sync with
the Windows NT PDC is an onerous task. This option
allows smbd to delete the required UNIX users ON
DEMAND when a user accesses the Samba server and
the Windows NT user no longer exists.
In order to use this option, smbd must be set to
security=domain and delete user script must be set
to a full pathname for a script that will delete a
UNIX user given one argument of %u , which expands
into the UNIX user name to delete. NOTE that this
is different to the add user script which will work
with the security=server option as well as secu-
rity=domain. The reason for this is only when Samba
is a domain member does it get the information on
an attempted user logon that a user no longer
exists. In the security=server mode a missing user
is treated the same as an invalid password logon
attempt. Deleting the user in this circumstance
would not be a good idea.
When the Windows user attempts to access the Samba
server, at login (session setup in the SMB proto-
col) time, smbd contacts the password server and
attempts to authenticate the given user with the
given password. If the authentication fails with
the specific Domain error code meaning that the
user no longer exists then smbd attempts to find a
UNIX user in the UNIX password database that
matches the Windows user account. If this lookup
succeeds, and delete user script is set then smbd
will all the specified script AS ROOT, expanding
09 July 2001 35
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
any %u argument to be the user name to delete.
This script should delete the given UNIX username.
In this way, UNIX users are dynamically deleted to
match existing Windows NT accounts.
See also security=domain, password server , add
user script .
Default: delete user script = <empty string>
Example: delete user script =
/usr/local/samba/bin/del_user %u
delete veto files (S)
This option is used when Samba is attempting to
delete a directory that contains one or more vetoed
directories (see the veto files option). If this
option is set to false (the default) then if a
vetoed directory contains any non-vetoed files or
directories then the directory delete will fail.
This is usually what you want.
If this option is set to true, then Samba will
attempt to recursively delete any files and direc-
tories within the vetoed directory. This can be
useful for integration with file serving systems
such as NetAtalk which create meta-files within
directories you might normally veto DOS/Windows
users from seeing (e.g. .AppleDouble)
Setting delete veto files = yes allows these direc-
tories to be transparently deleted when the parent
directory is deleted (so long as the user has per-
missions to do so).
See also the veto files parameter.
Default: delete veto files = no
deny hosts (S)
Synonym for hosts deny.
dfree command (G)
The dfree command setting should only be used on
systems where a problem occurs with the internal
disk space calculations. This has been known to
happen with Ultrix, but may occur with other oper-
ating systems. The symptom that was seen was an
error of "Abort Retry Ignore" at the end of each
directory listing.
This setting allows the replacement of the internal
routines to calculate the total disk space and
09 July 2001 36
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
amount available with an external routine. The
example below gives a possible script that might
fulfill this function.
The external program will be passed a single param-
eter indicating a directory in the filesystem being
queried. This will typically consist of the string
./. The script should return two integers in ASCII.
The first should be the total disk space in blocks,
and the second should be the number of available
blocks. An optional third return value can give the
block size in bytes. The default blocksize is 1024
bytes.
Note: Your script should NOT be setuid or setgid
and should be owned by (and writeable only by)
root!
Default: By default internal routines for determin-
ing the disk capacity and remaining space will be
used.
Example: dfree command = /usr/local/samba/bin/dfree
Where the script dfree (which must be made exe-
cutable) could be:
#!/bin/sh
df $1 | tail -1 | awk '{print $2" "$4}'
or perhaps (on Sys V based systems):
#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/df -k $1 | tail -1 | awk '{print $3" "$5}'
Note that you may have to replace the command names
with full path names on some systems.
directory (S)
Synonym for path .
directory mask (S)
This parameter is the octal modes which are used
when converting DOS modes to UNIX modes when creat-
ing UNIX directories.
09 July 2001 37
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
When a directory is created, the necessary permis-
sions are calculated according to the mapping from
DOS modes to UNIX permissions, and the resulting
UNIX mode is then bit-wise 'AND'ed with this param-
eter. This parameter may be thought of as a bit-
wise MASK for the UNIX modes of a directory. Any
bit not set here will be removed from the modes set
on a directory when it is created.
The default value of this parameter removes the
'group' and 'other' write bits from the UNIX mode,
allowing only the user who owns the directory to
modify it.
Following this Samba will bit-wise 'OR' the UNIX
mode created from this parameter with the value of
the force directory mode parameter. This parameter
is set to 000 by default (i.e. no extra mode bits
are added).
Note that this parameter does not apply to permis-
sions set by Windows NT/2000 ACL editors. If the
administrator wishes to enforce a mask on access
control lists also, they need to set the directory
security mask.
See the force directory mode parameter to cause
particular mode bits to always be set on created
directories.
See also the create mode parameter for masking mode
bits on created files, and the directory security
mask parameter.
Also refer to the inherit permissions parameter.
Default: directory mask = 0755
Example: directory mask = 0775
directory mode (S)
Synonym for directory mask
directory security mask (S)
This parameter controls what UNIX permission bits
can be modified when a Windows NT client is manipu-
lating the UNIX permission on a directory using the
native NT security dialog box.
This parameter is applied as a mask (AND'ed with)
to the changed permission bits, thus preventing any
bits not in this mask from being modified. Essen-
tially, zero bits in this mask may be treated as a
set of bits the user is not allowed to change.
09 July 2001 38
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
If not set explicitly this parameter is set to 0777
meaning a user is allowed to modify all the
user/group/world permissions on a directory.
Note that users who can access the Samba server
through other means can easily bypass this restric-
tion, so it is primarily useful for standalone
"appliance" systems. Administrators of most normal
systems will probably want to leave it as the
default of 0777.
See also the force directory security mode, secu-
rity mask, force security mode parameters.
Default: directory security mask = 0777
Example: directory security mask = 0700
dns proxy (G)
Specifies that nmbd(8) when acting as a WINS server
and finding that a NetBIOS name has not been regis-
tered, should treat the NetBIOS name word-for-word
as a DNS name and do a lookup with the DNS server
for that name on behalf of the name-querying
client.
Note that the maximum length for a NetBIOS name is
15 characters, so the DNS name (or DNS alias) can
likewise only be 15 characters, maximum.
nmbd spawns a second copy of itself to do the DNS
name lookup requests, as doing a name lookup is a
blocking action.
See also the parameter wins support.
Default: dns proxy = yes
domain admin group (G)
This parameter is intended as a temporary solution
to enable users to be a member of the "Domain
Admins" group when a Samba host is acting as a PDC.
A complete solution will be provided by a system
for mapping Windows NT/2000 groups onto UNIX
groups. Please note that this parameter has a
somewhat confusing name. It accepts a list of user-
names and of group names in standard smb.conf nota-
tion.
See also domain guest group, domain logons
Default: no domain administrators
Example: domain admin group = root @wheel
09 July 2001 39
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
domain guest group (G)
This parameter is intended as a temporary solution
to enable users to be a member of the "Domain
Guests" group when a Samba host is acting as a PDC.
A complete solution will be provided by a system
for mapping Windows NT/2000 groups onto UNIX
groups. Please note that this parameter has a
somewhat confusing name. It accepts a list of user-
names and of group names in standard smb.conf nota-
tion.
See also domain admin group, domain logons
Default: no domain guests
Example: domain guest group = nobody @guest
domain logons (G)
If set to true, the Samba server will serve Windows
95/98 Domain logons for the workgroup it is in.
Samba 2.2 also has limited capability to act as a
domain controller for Windows NT 4 Domains. For
more details on setting up this feature see the
file DOMAINS.txt in the Samba documentation direc-
tory docs/ shipped with the source code.
Default: domain logons = no
domain master (G)
Tell nmbd(8)to enable WAN-wide browse list colla-
tion. Setting this option causes nmbd to claim a
special domain specific NetBIOS name that identi-
fies it as a domain master browser for its given
workgroup. Local master browsers in the same work-
group on broadcast-isolated subnets will give this
nmbd their local browse lists, and then ask smbd(8)
for a complete copy of the browse list for the
whole wide area network. Browser clients will then
contact their local master browser, and will
receive the domain-wide browse list, instead of
just the list for their broadcast-isolated subnet.
Note that Windows NT Primary Domain Controllers
expect to be able to claim this workgroup specific
special NetBIOS name that identifies them as domain
master browsers for that workgroup by default (i.e.
there is no way to prevent a Windows NT PDC from
attempting to do this). This means that if this
parameter is set and nmbd claims the special name
for a workgroup before a Windows NT PDC is able to
do so then cross subnet browsing will behave
strangely and may fail.
If domain logons = yes , then the default behavior
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is to enable the domain master parameter. If domain
logons is not enabled (the default setting), then
neither will domain master be enabled by default.
Default: domain master = auto
dont descend (S)
There are certain directories on some systems
(e.g., the /proc tree under Linux) that are either
not of interest to clients or are infinitely deep
(recursive). This parameter allows you to specify a
comma-delimited list of directories that the server
should always show as empty.
Note that Samba can be very fussy about the exact
format of the "dont descend" entries. For example
you may need ./proc instead of just /proc. Exper-
imentation is the best policy :-)
Default: none (i.e., all directories are OK to
descend)
Example: dont descend = /proc,/dev
dos filemode (S)
The default behavior in Samba is to provide UNIX-
like behavior where only the owner of a file/direc-
tory is able to change the permissions on it. How-
ever, this behavior is often confusing to DOS/Win-
dows users. Enabling this parameter allows a user
who has write access to the file (by whatever
means) to modify the permissions on it. Note that a
user belonging to the group owning the file will
not be allowed to change permissions if the group
is only granted read access. Ownership of the
file/directory is not changed, only the permissions
are modified.
Default: dos filemode = no
dos filetime resolution (S)
Under the DOS and Windows FAT filesystem, the
finest granularity on time resolution is two sec-
onds. Setting this parameter for a share causes
Samba to round the reported time down to the near-
est two second boundary when a query call that
requires one second resolution is made to smbd(8)
This option is mainly used as a compatibility
option for Visual C++ when used against Samba
shares. If oplocks are enabled on a share, Visual
C++ uses two different time reading calls to check
if a file has changed since it was last read. One
of these calls uses a one-second granularity, the
09 July 2001 41
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other uses a two second granularity. As the two
second call rounds any odd second down, then if the
file has a timestamp of an odd number of seconds
then the two timestamps will not match and Visual
C++ will keep reporting the file has changed. Set-
ting this option causes the two timestamps to
match, and Visual C++ is happy.
Default: dos filetime resolution = no
dos filetimes (S)
Under DOS and Windows, if a user can write to a
file they can change the timestamp on it. Under
POSIX semantics, only the owner of the file or root
may change the timestamp. By default, Samba runs
with POSIX semantics and refuses to change the
timestamp on a file if the user smbd is acting on
behalf of is not the file owner. Setting this
option to true allows DOS semantics and smbdwill
change the file timestamp as DOS requires.
Default: dos filetimes = no
encrypt passwords (G)
This boolean controls whether encrypted passwords
will be negotiated with the client. Note that Win-
dows NT 4.0 SP3 and above and also Windows 98 will
by default expect encrypted passwords unless a reg-
istry entry is changed. To use encrypted passwords
in Samba see the file ENCRYPTION.txt in the Samba
documentation directory docs/ shipped with the
source code.
In order for encrypted passwords to work correctly
smbd(8)must either have access to a local smb-
passwd(5) program for information on how to set up
and maintain this file), or set the secu-
rity=[server|domain] parameter which causes smbd to
authenticate against another server.
Default: encrypt passwords = no
enhanced browsing (G)
This option enables a couple of enhancements to
cross-subnet browse propagation that have been
added in Samba but which are not standard in
Microsoft implementations. These enhancements are
currently only available in the HEAD Samba CVS tree
(not Samba 2.2.x).
The first enhancement to browse propagation con-
sists of a regular wildcard query to a Samba WINS
server for all Domain Master Browsers, followed by
a browse synchronization with each of the returned
09 July 2001 42
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
DMBs. The second enhancement consists of a regular
randomised browse synchronization with all cur-
rently known DMBs.
You may wish to disable this option if you have a
problem with empty workgroups not disappearing from
browse lists. Due to the restrictions of the browse
protocols these enhancements can cause a empty
workgroup to stay around forever which can be
annoying.
In general you should leave this option enabled as
it makes cross-subnet browse propagation much more
reliable.
Default: enhanced browsing = yes
enumports command (G)
The concept of a "port" is fairly foreign to UNIX
hosts. Under Windows NT/2000 print servers, a port
is associated with a port monitor and generally
takes the form of a local port (i.e. LPT1:, COM1:,
FILE:) or a remote port (i.e. LPD Port Monitor,
etc...). By default, Samba has only one port
defined--"Samba Printer Port". Under Windows
NT/2000, all printers must have a valid port name.
If you wish to have a list of ports displayed (smbd
does not use a port name for anything) other than
the default "Samba Printer Port", you can define
enumports command to point to a program which
should generate a list of ports, one per line, to
standard output. This listing will then be used in
response to the level 1 and 2 EnumPorts() RPC.
Default: no enumports command
Example: enumports command = /usr/bin/listports
exec (S)
This is a synonym for preexec.
fake directory create times (S)
NTFS and Windows VFAT file systems keep a create
time for all files and directories. This is not the
same as the ctime - status change time - that Unix
keeps, so Samba by default reports the earliest of
the various times Unix does keep. Setting this
parameter for a share causes Samba to always report
midnight 1-1-1980 as the create time for directo-
ries.
This option is mainly used as a compatibility
option for Visual C++ when used against Samba
shares. Visual C++ generated makefiles have the
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SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
object directory as a dependency for each object
file, and a make rule to create the directory.
Also, when NMAKE compares timestamps it uses the
creation time when examining a directory. Thus the
object directory will be created if it does not
exist, but once it does exist it will always have
an earlier timestamp than the object files it con-
tains.
However, Unix time semantics mean that the create
time reported by Samba will be updated whenever a
file is created or or deleted in the directory.
NMAKE finds all object files in the object direc-
tory. The timestamp of the last one built is then
compared to the timestamp of the object directory.
If the directory's timestamp if newer, then all
object files will be rebuilt. Enabling this option
ensures directories always predate their contents
and an NMAKE build will proceed as expected.
Default: fake directory create times = no
fake oplocks (S)
Oplocks are the way that SMB clients get permission
from a server to locally cache file operations. If
a server grants an oplock (opportunistic lock) then
the client is free to assume that it is the only
one accessing the file and it will aggressively
cache file data. With some oplock types the client
may even cache file open/close operations. This can
give enormous performance benefits.
When you set fake oplocks = yes, smbd(8)will always
grant oplock requests no matter how many clients
are using the file.
It is generally much better to use the real oplocks
support rather than this parameter.
If you enable this option on all read-only shares
or shares that you know will only be accessed from
one client at a time such as physically read-only
media like CDROMs, you will see a big performance
improvement on many operations. If you enable this
option on shares where multiple clients may be
accessing the files read-write at the same time you
can get data corruption. Use this option carefully!
Default: fake oplocks = no
follow symlinks (S)
This parameter allows the Samba administrator to
stop smbd(8) from following symbolic links in a
particular share. Setting this parameter to no
09 July 2001 44
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prevents any file or directory that is a symbolic
link from being followed (the user will get an
error). This option is very useful to stop users
from adding a symbolic link to /etc/passwd in their
home directory for instance. However it will slow
filename lookups down slightly.
This option is enabled (i.e. smbd will follow sym-
bolic links) by default.
Default: follow symlinks = yes
force create mode (S)
This parameter specifies a set of UNIX mode bit
permissions that will always be set on a file cre-
ated by Samba. This is done by bitwise 'OR'ing
these bits onto the mode bits of a file that is
being created or having its permissions changed.
The default for this parameter is (in octal) 000.
The modes in this parameter are bitwise 'OR'ed onto
the file mode after the mask set in the create mask
parameter is applied.
Note that by default this parameter does not apply
to permissions set by Windows NT/2000 ACL editors.
If the administrator wishes to enforce this mask on
access control lists also, they need to set the
restrict acl with mask to true.
See also the parameter create mask for details on
masking mode bits on files.
See also the inherit permissions parameter.
Default: force create mode = 000
Example: force create mode = 0755
would force all created files to have read and exe-
cute permissions set for 'group' and 'other' as
well as the read/write/execute bits set for the
'user'.
force directory mode (S)
This parameter specifies a set of UNIX mode bit
permissions that will always be set on a directory
created by Samba. This is done by bitwise 'OR'ing
these bits onto the mode bits of a directory that
is being created. The default for this parameter is
(in octal) 0000 which will not add any extra per-
mission bits to a created directory. This operation
is done after the mode mask in the parameter direc-
tory mask is applied.
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Note that by default this parameter does not apply
to permissions set by Windows NT/2000 ACL editors.
If the administrator wishes to enforce this mask on
access control lists also, they need to set the
restrict acl with mask to true.
See also the parameter directory mask for details
on masking mode bits on created directories.
See also the inherit permissions parameter.
Default: force directory mode = 000
Example: force directory mode = 0755
would force all created directories to have read
and execute permissions set for 'group' and 'other'
as well as the read/write/execute bits set for the
'user'.
force directory
This parameter controls what UNIX permission bits
can be modified when a Windows NT client is manipu-
lating the UNIX permission on a directory using the
native NT security dialog box.
This parameter is applied as a mask (OR'ed with) to
the changed permission bits, thus forcing any bits
in this mask that the user may have modified to be
on. Essentially, one bits in this mask may be
treated as a set of bits that, when modifying secu-
rity on a directory, the user has always set to be
'on'.
If not set explicitly this parameter is 000, which
allows a user to modify all the user/group/world
permissions on a directory without restrictions.
Note that users who can access the Samba server
through other means can easily bypass this restric-
tion, so it is primarily useful for standalone
"appliance" systems. Administrators of most normal
systems will probably want to leave it set as 0000.
See also the directory security mask, security
mask, force security mode parameters.
Default: force directory security mode = 0
Example: force directory security mode = 700
force group (S)
This specifies a UNIX group name that will be
assigned as the default primary group for all users
09 July 2001 46
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
connecting to this service. This is useful for
sharing files by ensuring that all access to files
on service will use the named group for their per-
missions checking. Thus, by assigning permissions
for this group to the files and directories within
this service the Samba administrator can restrict
or allow sharing of these files.
In Samba 2.0.5 and above this parameter has
extended functionality in the following way. If the
group name listed here has a '+' character
prepended to it then the current user accessing the
share only has the primary group default assigned
to this group if they are already assigned as a
member of that group. This allows an administrator
to decide that only users who are already in a par-
ticular group will create files with group owner-
ship set to that group. This gives a finer granu-
larity of ownership assignment. For example, the
setting force group = +sys means that only users
who are already in group sys will have their
default primary group assigned to sys when access-
ing this Samba share. All other users will retain
their ordinary primary group.
If the force user parameter is also set the group
specified in force group will override the primary
group set in force user.
See also force user.
Default: no forced group
Example: force group = agroup
force security mode (S)
This parameter controls what UNIX permission bits
can be modified when a Windows NT client is manipu-
lating the UNIX permission on a file using the
native NT security dialog box.
This parameter is applied as a mask (OR'ed with) to
the changed permission bits, thus forcing any bits
in this mask that the user may have modified to be
on. Essentially, one bits in this mask may be
treated as a set of bits that, when modifying secu-
rity on a file, the user has always set to be 'on'.
If not set explicitly this parameter is set to 0,
and allows a user to modify all the
user/group/world permissions on a file, with no
restrictions.
Note that users who can access the Samba server
09 July 2001 47
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
through other means can easily bypass this restric-
tion, so it is primarily useful for standalone
"appliance" systems. Administrators of most normal
systems will probably want to leave this set to
0000.
See also the force directory security mode, direc-
tory security mask, security mask parameters.
Default: force security mode = 0
Example: force security mode = 700
force user (S)
This specifies a UNIX user name that will be
assigned as the default user for all users connect-
ing to this service. This is useful for sharing
files. You should also use it carefully as using it
incorrectly can cause security problems.
This user name only gets used once a connection is
established. Thus clients still need to connect as
a valid user and supply a valid password. Once con-
nected, all file operations will be performed as
the "forced user", no matter what username the
client connected as. This can be very useful.
In Samba 2.0.5 and above this parameter also causes
the primary group of the forced user to be used as
the primary group for all file activity. Prior to
2.0.5 the primary group was left as the primary
group of the connecting user (this was a bug).
See also force group
Default: no forced user
Example: force user = auser
fstype (S)
This parameter allows the administrator to config-
ure the string that specifies the type of filesys-
tem a share is using that is reported by smbd(8)
when a client queries the filesystem type for a
share. The default type is NTFS for compatibility
with Windows NT but this can be changed to other
strings such as Samba or FAT if required.
Default: fstype = NTFS
Example: fstype = Samba
getwd cache (G)
This is a tuning option. When this is enabled a
09 July 2001 48
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
caching algorithm will be used to reduce the time
taken for getwd() calls. This can have a signifi-
cant impact on performance, especially when the
wide links parameter is set to false.
Default: getwd cache = yes
group (S)
Synonym for force group.
guest account (S)
This is a username which will be used for access to
services which are specified as guest ok (see
below). Whatever privileges this user has will be
available to any client connecting to the guest
service. Typically this user will exist in the
password file, but will not have a valid login. The
user account "ftp" is often a good choice for this
parameter. If a username is specified in a given
service, the specified username overrides this one.
One some systems the default guest account "nobody"
may not be able to print. Use another account in
this case. You should test this by trying to log in
as your guest user (perhaps by using the su - com-
mand) and trying to print using the system print
command such as lpr(1) or lp(1).
Default: specified at compile time, usually
"nobody"
Example: guest account = ftp
guest ok (S)
If this parameter is yes for a service, then no
password is required to connect to the service.
Privileges will be those of the guest account.
See the section below on security for more infor-
mation about this option.
Default: guest ok = no
guest only (S)
If this parameter is yes for a service, then only
guest connections to the service are permitted.
This parameter will have no effect if guest ok is
not set for the service.
See the section below on security for more infor-
mation about this option.
Default: guest only = no
09 July 2001 49
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hide dot files (S)
This is a boolean parameter that controls whether
files starting with a dot appear as hidden files.
Default: hide dot files = yes
hide files(S)
This is a list of files or directories that are not
visible but are accessible. The DOS 'hidden'
attribute is applied to any files or directories
that match.
Each entry in the list must be separated by a '/',
which allows spaces to be included in the entry.
'*' and '?' can be used to specify multiple files
or directories as in DOS wildcards.
Each entry must be a Unix path, not a DOS path and
must not include the Unix directory separator '/'.
Note that the case sensitivity option is applicable
in hiding files.
Setting this parameter will affect the performance
of Samba, as it will be forced to check all files
and directories for a match as they are scanned.
See also hide dot files, veto files and case sen-
sitive.
Default: no file are hidden
Example: hide files = /.*/DesktopFolderDB/Trash-
For%m/resource.frk/
The above example is based on files that the Macin-
tosh SMB client (DAVE) available from Thursby
<URL:http://www.thursby.com> creates for internal
use, and also still hides all files beginning with
a dot.
hide local users(G)
This parameter toggles the hiding of local UNIX
users (root, wheel, floppy, etc) from remote
clients.
Default: hide local users = no
hide unreadable(G)
This parameter prevents clients from seeing the
existance of files that cannot be read. Defaults to
off.
Default: hide unreadable = no
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homedir map (G)
Ifnis homedir is true, and smbd(8)is also acting as
a Win95/98 logon server then this parameter speci-
fies the NIS (or YP) map from which the server for
the user's home directory should be extracted. At
present, only the Sun auto.home map format is
understood. The form of the map is:
username server:/some/file/system
and the program will extract the servername from
before the first ':'. There should probably be a
better parsing system that copes with different map
formats and also Amd (another automounter) maps.
NOTE :A working NIS client is required on the sys-
tem for this option to work.
See also nis homedir , domain logons .
Default: homedir map = <empty string>
Example: homedir map = amd.homedir
host msdfs (G)
This boolean parameter is only available if Samba
has been configured and compiled with the --with-
msdfs option. If set to yes, Samba will act as a
Dfs server, and allow Dfs-aware clients to browse
Dfs trees hosted on the server.
See also the msdfs root share level parameter. For
more information on setting up a Dfs tree on Samba,
refer to msdfs_setup.html.
Default: host msdfs = no
hosts allow (S)
A synonym for this parameter is allow hosts.
This parameter is a comma, space, or tab delimited
set of hosts which are permitted to access a ser-
vice.
If specified in the [global] section then it will
apply to all services, regardless of whether the
individual service has a different setting.
You can specify the hosts by name or IP number. For
example, you could restrict access to only the
hosts on a Class C subnet with something like allow
hosts = 150.203.5. . The full syntax of the list
is described in the man page hosts_access(5). Note
that this man page may not be present on your
09 July 2001 51
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
system, so a brief description will be given here
also.
Note that the localhost address 127.0.0.1 will
always be allowed access unless specifically denied
by a hosts deny option.
You can also specify hosts by network/netmask pairs
and by netgroup names if your system supports net-
groups. The EXCEPT keyword can also be used to
limit a wildcard list. The following examples may
provide some help:
Example 1: allow all IPs in 150.203.*.*; except one
hosts allow = 150.203. EXCEPT 150.203.6.66
Example 2: allow hosts that match the given net-
work/netmask
hosts allow = 150.203.15.0/255.255.255.0
Example 3: allow a couple of hosts
hosts allow = lapland, arvidsjaur
Example 4: allow only hosts in NIS netgroup
"foonet", but deny access from one particular host
hosts allow = @foonet
hosts deny = pirate
Note that access still requires suitable user-level
passwords.
See testparm(1) for a way of testing your host
access to see if it does what you expect.
Default: none (i.e., all hosts permitted access)
Example: allow hosts = 150.203.5.
myhost.mynet.edu.au
hosts deny (S)
The opposite of hosts allow - hosts listed here are
NOT permitted access to services unless the spe-
cific services have their own lists to override
this one. Where the lists conflict, the allow list
takes precedence.
Default: none (i.e., no hosts specifically
excluded)
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SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
Example: hosts deny = 150.203.4. bad-
host.mynet.edu.au
hosts equiv (G)
If this global parameter is a non-null string, it
specifies the name of a file to read for the names
of hosts and users who will be allowed access with-
out specifying a password.
This is not be confused with hosts allow which is
about hosts access to services and is more useful
for guest services. hosts equiv may be useful for
NT clients which will not supply passwords to
Samba.
NOTE : The use of hosts equiv can be a major secu-
rity hole. This is because you are trusting the PC
to supply the correct username. It is very easy to
get a PC to supply a false username. I recommend
that the hosts equiv option be only used if you
really know what you are doing, or perhaps on a
home network where you trust your spouse and kids.
And only if you really trust them :-).
Default: no host equivalences
Example: hosts equiv = /etc/hosts.equiv
include (G)
This allows you to include one config file inside
another. The file is included literally, as though
typed in place.
It takes the standard substitutions, except %u , %P
and %S.
Default: no file included
Example: include =
/usr/local/samba/lib/admin_smb.conf
inherit permissions (S)
The permissions on new files and directories are
normally governed by create mask, directory mask,
force create mode and force directory mode but the
boolean inherit permissions parameter overrides
this.
New directories inherit the mode of the parent
directory, including bits such as setgid.
New files inherit their read/write bits from the
parent directory. Their execute bits continue to be
determined by map archive , map hidden and map
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SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
system as usual.
Note that the setuid bit is never set via inheri-
tance (the code explicitly prohibits this).
This can be particularly useful on large systems
with many users, perhaps several thousand, to allow
a single [homes] share to be used flexibly by each
user.
See also create mask , directory mask, force cre-
ate mode and force directory mode .
Default: inherit permissions = no
interfaces (G)
This option allows you to override the default net-
work interfaces list that Samba will use for brows-
ing, name registration and other NBT traffic. By
default Samba will query the kernel for the list of
all active interfaces and use any interfaces except
127.0.0.1 that are broadcast capable.
The option takes a list of interface strings. Each
string can be in any of the following forms:
o a network interface name (such as eth0). This
may include shell-like wildcards so eth* will
match any interface starting with the substring
"eth"
o an IP address. In this case the netmask is deter-
mined from the list of interfaces obtained from
the kernel
o an IP/mask pair.
o a broadcast/mask pair.
The "mask" parameters can either be a bit length (such as
24 for a C class network) or a full netmask in dotted dec-
imal form.
The "IP" parameters above can either be a full dotted dec-
imal IP address or a hostname which will be looked up via
the OS's normal hostname resolution mechanisms.
For example, the following line:
interfaces = eth0 192.168.2.10/24
192.168.3.10/255.255.255.0
09 July 2001 54
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
would configure three network interfaces corresponding to
the eth0 device and IP addresses 192.168.2.10 and
192.168.3.10. The netmasks of the latter two interfaces
would be set to 255.255.255.0.
See also bind interfaces only.
Default: all active interfaces except 127.0.0.1 that are
broadcast capable
invalid users (S)
This is a list of users that should not be allowed
to login to this service. This is really a paranoid
check to absolutely ensure an improper setting does
not breach your security.
A name starting with a '@' is interpreted as an NIS
netgroup first (if your system supports NIS), and
then as a UNIX group if the name was not found in
the NIS netgroup database.
A name starting with '+' is interpreted only by
looking in the UNIX group database. A name starting
with '&' is interpreted only by looking in the NIS
netgroup database (this requires NIS to be working
on your system). The characters '+' and '&' may be
used at the start of the name in either order so
the value +&group means check the UNIX group
database, followed by the NIS netgroup database,
and the value &+group" means check the NIS netgroup
database, followed by the UNIX group database (the
same as the '@' prefix).
The current servicename is substituted for %S.
This is useful in the [homes] section.
See also valid users .
Default: no invalid users
Example: invalid users = root fred admin @wheel
keepalive (G)
The value of the parameter (an integer) represents
the number of seconds between keepalive packets. If
this parameter is zero, no keepalive packets will
be sent. Keepalive packets, if sent, allow the
server to tell whether a client is still present
and responding.
Keepalives should, in general, not be needed if the
09 July 2001 55
SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
socket being used has the SO_KEEPALIVE attribute
set on it (see socket options). Basically you
should only use this option if you strike difficul-
ties.
Default: keepalive = 300
Example: keepalive = 600
kernel oplocks (G)
For UNIXes that support kernel based oplocks (cur-
rently only IRIX and the Linux 2.4 kernel), this
parameter allows the use of them to be turned on or
off.
Kernel oplocks support allows Samba oplocks to be
broken whenever a local UNIX process or NFS opera-
tion accesses a file that smbd(8) has oplocked.
This allows complete data consistency between
SMB/CIFS, NFS and local file access (and is a very
cool feature :-).
This parameter defaults to on on systems that have
the support, and off on systems that don't. You
should never need to touch this parameter.
See also the oplocks and level2 oplocks parameters.
Default: kernel oplocks = yes
lanman auth (G)
This parameter determines whether or not smbdwill
attempt to authenticate users using the LANMAN
password hash. If disabled, only clients which
support NT password hashes (e.g. Windows NT/2000
clients, smbclient, etc... but not Windows 95/98 or
the MS DOS network client) will be able to connect
to the Samba host.
Default : lanman auth = yes
large readwrite(G)
This parameter determines whether or not smbd sup-
ports the new 64k streaming read and write varient
SMB requests introduced with Windows 2000. Note
that due to Windows 2000 client redirector bugs
this requires Samba to be running on a 64-bit capa-
ble operating system such as IRIX, Solaris or a
Linux 2.4 kernel. Can improve performance by 10%
with Windows 2000 clients. Defaults to off. Not as
tested as some other Samba code paths.
Default : large readwrite = no
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level2 oplocks (S)
This parameter controls whether Samba supports
level2 (read-only) oplocks on a share.
Level2, or read-only oplocks allow Windows NT
clients that have an oplock on a file to downgrade
from a read-write oplock to a read-only oplock once
a second client opens the file (instead of releas-
ing all oplocks on a second open, as in tradi-
tional, exclusive oplocks). This allows all openers
of the file that support level2 oplocks to cache
the file for read-ahead only (ie. they may not
cache writes or lock requests) and increases per-
formance for many accesses of files that are not
commonly written (such as application .EXE files).
Once one of the clients which have a read-only
oplock writes to the file all clients are notified
(no reply is needed or waited for) and told to
break their oplocks to "none" and delete any read-
ahead caches.
It is recommended that this parameter be turned on
to speed access to shared executables.
For more discussions on level2 oplocks see the CIFS
spec.
Currently, if kernel oplocks are supported then
level2 oplocks are not granted (even if this param-
eter is set to yes). Note also, the oplocks param-
eter must be set to true on this share in order for
this parameter to have any effect.
See also the oplocks and kernel oplocks parameters.
Default: level2 oplocks = yes
lm announce (G)
This parameter determines if nmbd(8)will produce
Lanman announce broadcasts that are needed by OS/2
clients in order for them to see the Samba server
in their browse list. This parameter can have three
values, true, false, or auto. The default is auto.
If set to false Samba will never produce these
broadcasts. If set to true Samba will produce Lan-
man announce broadcasts at a frequency set by the
parameter lm interval. If set to auto Samba will
not send Lanman announce broadcasts by default but
will listen for them. If it hears such a broadcast
on the wire it will then start sending them at a
frequency set by the parameter lm interval.
See also lm interval .
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Default: lm announce = auto
Example: lm announce = yes
lm interval (G)
If Samba is set to produce Lanman announce broad-
casts needed by OS/2 clients (see the lm announce
parameter) then this parameter defines the fre-
quency in seconds with which they will be made. If
this is set to zero then no Lanman announcements
will be made despite the setting of the lm announce
parameter.
See also lm announce.
Default: lm interval = 60
Example: lm interval = 120
load printers (G)
A boolean variable that controls whether all print-
ers in the printcap will be loaded for browsing by
default. See the printers section for more
details.
Default: load printers = yes
local master (G)
This option allows nmbd(8)to try and become a
local master browser on a subnet. If set to false
then nmbd will not attempt to become a local mas-
ter browser on a subnet and will also lose in all
browsing elections. By default this value is set to
true. Setting this value to true doesn't mean that
Samba will become the local master browser on a
subnet, just that nmbd will participate in elec-
tions for local master browser.
Setting this value to false will cause nmbd never
to become a local master browser.
Default: local master = yes
lock dir (G)
Synonym for lock directory.
lock directory (G)
This option specifies the directory where lock
files will be placed. The lock files are used to
implement the max connections option.
Default: lock directory = ${prefix}/var/locks
Example: lock directory = /var/run/samba/locks
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locking (S)
This controls whether or not locking will be per-
formed by the server in response to lock requests
from the client.
If locking = no, all lock and unlock requests will
appear to succeed and all lock queries will report
that the file in question is available for locking.
If locking = yes, real locking will be performed by
the server.
This option may be useful for read-only filesystems
which may not need locking (such as CDROM drives),
although setting this parameter of no is not really
recommended even in this case.
Be careful about disabling locking either globally
or in a specific service, as lack of locking may
result in data corruption. You should never need
to set this parameter.
Default: locking = yes
log file (G)
This option allows you to override the name of the
Samba log file (also known as the debug file).
This option takes the standard substitutions,
allowing you to have separate log files for each
user or machine.
Example: log file = /usr/local/samba/var/log.%m
log level (G)
The value of the parameter (an integer) allows the
debug level (logging level) to be specified in the
smb.conf file. This is to give greater flexibility
in the configuration of the system.
The default will be the log level specified on the
command line or level zero if none was specified.
Example: log level = 3
logon drive (G)
This parameter specifies the local path to which
the home directory will be connected (see logon
home) and is only used by NT Workstations.
Note that this option is only useful if Samba is
set up as a logon server.
Default: logon drive = z:
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Example: logon drive = h:
logon home (G)
This parameter specifies the home directory loca-
tion when a Win95/98 or NT Workstation logs into a
Samba PDC. It allows you to do
C:\> NET USE H: /HOME
from a command prompt, for example.
This option takes the standard substitutions,
allowing you to have separate logon scripts for
each user or machine.
This parameter can be used with Win9X workstations
to ensure that roaming profiles are stored in a
subdirectory of the user's home directory. This is
done in the following way:
logon home = \\%N\%U\profile
This tells Samba to return the above string, with
substitutions made when a client requests the info,
generally in a NetUserGetInfo request. Win9X
clients truncate the info to \\server\share when a
user does net use /home" but use the whole string
when dealing with profiles.
Note that in prior versions of Samba, the logon
path was returned rather than logon home. This
broke net use /home but allowed profiles outside
the home directory. The current implementation is
correct, and can be used for profiles if you use
the above trick.
This option is only useful if Samba is set up as a
logon server.
Default: logon home = "\\%N\%U"
Example: logon home = "\\remote_smb_server\%U"
logon path (G)
This parameter specifies the home directory where
roaming profiles (NTuser.dat etc files for Windows
NT) are stored. Contrary to previous versions of
these manual pages, it has nothing to do with Win
9X roaming profiles. To find out how to handle
roaming profiles for Win 9X system, see the logon
home parameter.
This option takes the standard substitutions,
allowing you to have separate logon scripts for
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each user or machine. It also specifies the direc-
tory from which the "Application Data", (desktop,
start menu, network neighborhood, programs and
other folders, and their contents, are loaded and
displayed on your Windows NT client.
The share and the path must be readable by the user
for the preferences and directories to be loaded
onto the Windows NT client. The share must be
writeable when the user logs in for the first time,
in order that the Windows NT client can create the
NTuser.dat and other directories.
Thereafter, the directories and any of the contents
can, if required, be made read-only. It is not
advisable that the NTuser.dat file be made read-
only - rename it to NTuser.man to achieve the
desired effect (a MANdatory profile).
Windows clients can sometimes maintain a connection
to the [homes] share, even though there is no user
logged in. Therefore, it is vital that the logon
path does not include a reference to the homes
share (i.e. setting this parameter to \%N\%U\pro-
file_path will cause problems).
This option takes the standard substitutions,
allowing you to have separate logon scripts for
each user or machine.
Note that this option is only useful if Samba is
set up as a logon server.
Default: logon path = \\%N\%U\profile
Example: logon path = \\PROFILESERVER\PROFILE\%U
logon script (G)
This parameter specifies the batch file (.bat) or
NT command file (.cmd) to be downloaded and run on
a machine when a user successfully logs in. The
file must contain the DOS style CR/LF line endings.
Using a DOS-style editor to create the file is rec-
ommended.
The script must be a relative path to the [netlo-
gon] service. If the [netlogon] service specifies a
path of /usr/local/samba/netlogon , and logon
script = STARTUP.BAT, then the file that will be
downloaded is:
/usr/local/samba/netlogon/STARTUP.BAT
The contents of the batch file are entirely your
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choice. A suggested command would be to add NET
TIME \\SERVER /SET /YES, to force every machine to
synchronize clocks with the same time server.
Another use would be to add NET USE U:
\\SERVER\UTILS for commonly used utilities, or NET
USE Q: \\SERVER\ISO9001_QA for example.
Note that it is particularly important not to allow
write access to the [netlogon] share, or to grant
users write permission on the batch files in a
secure environment, as this would allow the batch
files to be arbitrarily modified and security to be
breached.
This option takes the standard substitutions,
allowing you to have separate logon scripts for
each user or machine.
This option is only useful if Samba is set up as a
logon server.
Default: no logon script defined
Example: logon script = scripts\%U.bat
lppause command (S)
This parameter specifies the command to be executed
on the server host in order to stop printing or
spooling a specific print job.
This command should be a program or script which
takes a printer name and job number to pause the
print job. One way of implementing this is by using
job priorities, where jobs having a too low prior-
ity won't be sent to the printer.
If a %p is given then the printer name is put in
its place. A %j is replaced with the job number (an
integer). On HPUX (see printing=hpux ), if the -p%p
option is added to the lpq command, the job will
show up with the correct status, i.e. if the job
priority is lower than the set fence priority it
will have the PAUSED status, whereas if the prior-
ity is equal or higher it will have the SPOOLED or
PRINTING status.
Note that it is good practice to include the abso-
lute path in the lppause command as the PATH may
not be available to the server.
See also the printing parameter.
Default: Currently no default value is given to
this string, unless the value of the printing
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parameter is SYSV, in which case the default is :
lp -i %p-%j -H hold
or if the value of the printing parameter is SOFTQ,
then the default is:
qstat -s -j%j -h
Example for HPUX: lppause command = /usr/bin/lpalt
%p-%j -p0
lpq cache time (G)
This controls how long lpq info will be cached for
to prevent the lpq command being called too often.
A separate cache is kept for each variation of the
lpq command used by the system, so if you use dif-
ferent lpq commands for different users then they
won't share cache information.
The cache files are stored in /tmp/lpq.xxxx where
xxxx is a hash of the lpq command in use.
The default is 10 seconds, meaning that the cached
results of a previous identical lpq command will be
used if the cached data is less than 10 seconds
old. A large value may be advisable if your lpq
command is very slow.
A value of 0 will disable caching completely.
See also the printing parameter.
Default: lpq cache time = 10
Example: lpq cache time = 30
lpq command (S)
This parameter specifies the command to be executed
on the server host in order to obtain lpq -style
printer status information.
This command should be a program or script which
takes a printer name as its only parameter and out-
puts printer status information.
Currently eight styles of printer status informa-
tion are supported; BSD, AIX, LPRNG, PLP, SYSV,
HPUX, QNX and SOFTQ. This covers most UNIX sys-
tems. You control which type is expected using the
printing = option.
Some clients (notably Windows for Workgroups) may
not correctly send the connection number for the
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printer they are requesting status information
about. To get around this, the server reports on
the first printer service connected to by the
client. This only happens if the connection number
sent is invalid.
If a %p is given then the printer name is put in
its place. Otherwise it is placed at the end of the
command.
Note that it is good practice to include the abso-
lute path in the lpq command as the $PATH may not
be available to the server.
See also the printing parameter.
Default: depends on the setting of printing
Example: lpq command = /usr/bin/lpq -P%p
lpresume command (S)
This parameter specifies the command to be executed
on the server host in order to restart or continue
printing or spooling a specific print job.
This command should be a program or script which
takes a printer name and job number to resume the
print job. See also the lppause command parameter.
If a %p is given then the printer name is put in
its place. A %j is replaced with the job number (an
integer).
Note that it is good practice to include the abso-
lute path in the lpresume command as the PATH may
not be available to the server.
See also the printing parameter.
Default: Currently no default value is given to
this string, unless the value of the printing
parameter is SYSV, in which case the default is :
lp -i %p-%j -H resume
or if the value of the printing parameter is SOFTQ,
then the default is:
qstat -s -j%j -r
Example for HPUX: lpresume command = /usr/bin/lpalt
%p-%j -p2
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lprm command (S)
This parameter specifies the command to be executed
on the server host in order to delete a print job.
This command should be a program or script which
takes a printer name and job number, and deletes
the print job.
If a %p is given then the printer name is put in
its place. A %j is replaced with the job number (an
integer).
Note that it is good practice to include the abso-
lute path in the lprm command as the PATH may not
be available to the server.
See also the printing parameter.
Default: depends on the setting of printing
Example 1: lprm command = /usr/bin/lprm -P%p %j
Example 2: lprm command = /usr/bin/cancel %p-%j
machine password timeout (G)
If a Samba server is a member of a Windows NT
Domain (see the security=domain) parameter) then
periodically a running smbd(8)process will try and
change the MACHINE ACCOUNT PASSWORD stored in the
TDB called private/secrets.tdb . This parameter
specifies how often this password will be changed,
in seconds. The default is one week (expressed in
seconds), the same as a Windows NT Domain member
server.
See also smbpasswd(8) , and the security=domain)
parameter.
Default: machine password timeout = 604800
magic output (S)
This parameter specifies the name of a file which
will contain output created by a magic script (see
the magic script parameter below).
Warning: If two clients use the same magic script
in the same directory the output file content is
undefined.
Default: magic output = <magic script name>.out
Example: magic output = myfile.txt
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magic script (S)
This parameter specifies the name of a file which,
if opened, will be executed by the server when the
file is closed. This allows a UNIX script to be
sent to the Samba host and executed on behalf of
the connected user.
Scripts executed in this way will be deleted upon
completion assuming that the user has the appropri-
ate level of privilege and the file permissions
allow the deletion.
If the script generates output, output will be sent
to the file specified by the magic output parame-
ter (see above).
Note that some shells are unable to interpret
scripts containing CR/LF instead of CR as the end-
of-line marker. Magic scripts must be executable as
is on the host, which for some hosts and some
shells will require filtering at the DOS end.
Magic scripts are EXPERIMENTAL and should NOT be
relied upon.
Default: None. Magic scripts disabled.
Example: magic script = user.csh
mangle case (S)
See the section on NAME MANGLING
Default: mangle case = no
mangled map (S)
This is for those who want to directly map UNIX
file names which cannot be represented on Win-
dows/DOS. The mangling of names is not always what
is needed. In particular you may have documents
with file extensions that differ between DOS and
UNIX. For example, under UNIX it is common to use
.html for HTML files, whereas under Windows/DOS
.htm is more commonly used.
So to map html to htm you would use:
mangled map = (*.html *.htm)
One very useful case is to remove the annoying ;1
off the ends of filenames on some CDROMs (only vis-
ible under some UNIXes). To do this use a map of
(*;1 *;).
Default: no mangled map
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Example: mangled map = (*;1 *;)
mangled names (S)
This controls whether non-DOS names under UNIX
should be mapped to DOS-compatible names ("man-
gled") and made visible, or whether non-DOS names
should simply be ignored.
See the section on NAME MANGLING for details on
how to control the mangling process.
If mangling is used then the mangling algorithm is
as follows:
o The first (up to) five alphanumeric characters
before the rightmost dot of the filename are pre-
served, forced to upper case, and appear as the
first (up to) five characters of the mangled
name.
o A tilde "~" is appended to the first part of the
mangled name, followed by a two-character unique
sequence, based on the original root name (i.e.,
the original filename minus its final extension).
The final extension is included in the hash cal-
culation only if it contains any upper case char-
acters or is longer than three characters.
Note that the character to use may be specified
using the mangling char option, if you don't like
'~'.
o The first three alphanumeric characters of the
final extension are preserved, forced to upper
case and appear as the extension of the mangled
name. The final extension is defined as that part
of the original filename after the rightmost dot.
If there are no dots in the filename, the mangled
name will have no extension (except in the case
of "hidden files" - see below).
o Files whose UNIX name begins with a dot will be
presented as DOS hidden files. The mangled name
will be created as for other filenames, but with
the leading dot removed and "___" as its exten-
sion regardless of actual original extension
(that's three underscores).
The two-digit hash value consists of upper case alphanu-
meric characters.
This algorithm can cause name collisions only if files in
a directory share the same first five alphanumeric
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characters. The probability of such a clash is 1/1300.
The name mangling (if enabled) allows a file to be copied
between UNIX directories from Windows/DOS while retaining
the long UNIX filename. UNIX files can be renamed to a new
extension from Windows/DOS and will retain the same base-
name. Mangled names do not change between sessions.
Default: mangled names = yes
mangled stack (G)
This parameter controls the number of mangled names
that should be cached in the Samba server smbd(8).
This stack is a list of recently mangled base names
(extensions are only maintained if they are longer
than 3 characters or contains upper case charac-
ters).
The larger this value, the more likely it is that
mangled names can be successfully converted to cor-
rect long UNIX names. However, large stack sizes
will slow most directory accesses. Smaller stacks
save memory in the server (each stack element costs
256 bytes).
It is not possible to absolutely guarantee correct
long filenames, so be prepared for some surprises!
Default: mangled stack = 50
Example: mangled stack = 100
mangling char (S)
This controls what character is used as the magic
character in name mangling. The default is a '~'
but this may interfere with some software. Use this
option to set it to whatever you prefer.
Default: mangling char = ~
Example: mangling char = ^
map archive (S)
This controls whether the DOS archive attribute
should be mapped to the UNIX owner execute bit. The
DOS archive bit is set when a file has been modi-
fied since its last backup. One motivation for this
option it to keep Samba/your PC from making any
file it touches from becoming executable under
UNIX. This can be quite annoying for shared source
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code, documents, etc...
Note that this requires the create mask parameter
to be set such that owner execute bit is not masked
out (i.e. it must include 100). See the parameter
create mask for details.
Default: map archive = yes
map hidden (S)
This controls whether DOS style hidden files should
be mapped to the UNIX world execute bit.
Note that this requires the create mask to be set
such that the world execute bit is not masked out
(i.e. it must include 001). See the parameter
create mask for details.
Default: map hidden = no
map system (S)
This controls whether DOS style system files should
be mapped to the UNIX group execute bit.
Note that this requires the create mask to be set
such that the group execute bit is not masked out
(i.e. it must include 010). See the parameter
create mask for details.
Default: map system = no
map to guest (G)
This parameter is only useful in security modes
other than security=share - i.e. user, server, and
domain.
This parameter can take three different values,
which tell smbd(8)what to do with user login
requests that don't match a valid UNIX user in some
way.
The three settings are :
o Never - Means user login requests with an invalid
password are rejected. This is the default.
o Bad User - Means user logins with an invalid
password are rejected, unless the username does
not exist, in which case it is treated as a guest
login and mapped into the guest account.
o Bad Password - Means user logins with an invalid
password are treated as a guest login and mapped
into the guest account. Note that this can cause
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problems as it means that any user incorrectly
typing their password will be silently logged on
as "guest" - and will not know the reason they
cannot access files they think they should -
there will have been no message given to them
that they got their password wrong. Helpdesk ser-
vices will hate you if you set the map to guest
parameter this way :-).
Note that this parameter is needed to set up "Guest" share
services when using security modes other than share. This
is because in these modes the name of the resource being
requested is not sent to the server until after the server
has successfully authenticated the client so the server
cannot make authentication decisions at the correct time
(connection to the share) for "Guest" shares.
For people familiar with the older Samba releases, this
parameter maps to the old compile-time setting of the
GUEST_SESSSETUP value in local.h.
Default: map to guest = Never
Example: map to guest = Bad User
max connections (S)
This option allows the number of simultaneous con-
nections to a service to be limited. If max connec-
tions is greater than 0 then connections will be
refused if this number of connections to the ser-
vice are already open. A value of zero mean an
unlimited number of connections may be made.
Record lock files are used to implement this fea-
ture. The lock files will be stored in the direc-
tory specified by the lock directory option.
Default: max connections = 0
Example: max connections = 10
max disk size (G)
This option allows you to put an upper limit on the
apparent size of disks. If you set this option to
100 then all shares will appear to be not larger
than 100 MB in size.
Note that this option does not limit the amount of
data you can put on the disk. In the above case you
could still store much more than 100 MB on the
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disk, but if a client ever asks for the amount of
free disk space or the total disk size then the
result will be bounded by the amount specified in
max disk size.
This option is primarily useful to work around bugs
in some pieces of software that can't handle very
large disks, particularly disks over 1GB in size.
A max disk size of 0 means no limit.
Default: max disk size = 0
Example: max disk size = 1000
max log size (G)
This option (an integer in kilobytes) specifies the
max size the log file should grow to. Samba period-
ically checks the size and if it is exceeded it
will rename the file, adding a .old extension.
A size of 0 means no limit.
Default: max log size = 5000
Example: max log size = 1000
max mux (G)
This option controls the maximum number of out-
standing simultaneous SMB operations that Samba
tells the client it will allow. You should never
need to set this parameter.
Default: max mux = 50
max open files (G)
This parameter limits the maximum number of open
files that one smbd(8)file serving process may have
open for a client at any one time. The default for
this parameter is set very high (10,000) as Samba
uses only one bit per unopened file.
The limit of the number of open files is usually
set by the UNIX per-process file descriptor limit
rather than this parameter so you should never need
to touch this parameter.
Default: max open files = 10000
max print jobs (S)
This parameter limits the maximum number of jobs
allowable in a Samba printer queue at any given
moment. If this number is exceeded, smbd(8)will
remote "Out of Space" to the client. See all total
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print jobs.
Default: max print jobs = 1000
Example: max print jobs = 5000
max protocol (G)
The value of the parameter (a string) is the high-
est protocol level that will be supported by the
server.
Possible values are :
o CORE: Earliest version. No concept of user names.
o COREPLUS: Slight improvements on CORE for effi-
ciency.
o LANMAN1: First modern version of the protocol.
Long filename support.
o LANMAN2: Updates to Lanman1 protocol.
o NT1: Current up to date version of the protocol.
Used by Windows NT. Known as CIFS.
Normally this option should not be set as the automatic
negotiation phase in the SMB protocol takes care of choos-
ing the appropriate protocol.
See also min protocol
Default: max protocol = NT1
Example: max protocol = LANMAN1
max smbd processes (G)
This parameter limits the maximum number of smbd(8)
processes concurrently running on a system and is
intended as a stopgap to prevent degrading service
to clients in the event that the server has insuf-
ficient resources to handle more than this number
of connections. Remember that under normal operat-
ing conditions, each user will have an smbdassoci-
ated with him or her to handle connections to all
shares from a given host.
Default: max smbd processes = 0 ## no limit
Example: max smbd processes = 1000
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max ttl (G)
This option tells nmbd(8) what the default 'time to
live' of NetBIOS names should be (in seconds) when
nmbd is requesting a name using either a broadcast
packet or from a WINS server. You should never need
to change this parameter. The default is 3 days.
Default: max ttl = 259200
max wins ttl (G)
This option tells nmbd(8) when acting as a WINS
server ( wins support=yes) what the maximum 'time
to live' of NetBIOS names that nmbd will grant will
be (in seconds). You should never need to change
this parameter. The default is 6 days (518400 sec-
onds).
See also the min wins ttl" parameter.
Default: max wins ttl = 518400
max xmit (G)
This option controls the maximum packet size that
will be negotiated by Samba. The default is 65535,
which is the maximum. In some cases you may find
you get better performance with a smaller value. A
value below 2048 is likely to cause problems.
Default: max xmit = 65535
Example: max xmit = 8192
message command (G)
This specifies what command to run when the server
receives a WinPopup style message.
This would normally be a command that would deliver
the message somehow. How this is to be done is up
to your imagination.
An example is:
message command = csh -c 'xedit %s;rm %s' &
This delivers the message using xedit, then removes
it afterwards. NOTE THAT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT
THIS COMMAND RETURN IMMEDIATELY. That's why I have
the '&' on the end. If it doesn't return immedi-
ately then your PCs may freeze when sending mes-
sages (they should recover after 30 seconds, hope-
fully).
All messages are delivered as the global guest
user. The command takes the standard
09 July 2001 73
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substitutions, although %u won't work (%U may be
better in this case).
Apart from the standard substitutions, some addi-
tional ones apply. In particular:
o %s = the filename containing the message.
o %t = the destination that the message was sent to
(probably the server name).
o %f = who the message is from.
You could make this command send mail, or whatever else
takes your fancy. Please let us know of any really inter-
esting ideas you have.
Here's a way of sending the messages as mail to root:
message command = /bin/mail -s 'message from %f on %m'
root < %s; rm %s
If you don't have a message command then the message won't
be delivered and Samba will tell the sender there was an
error. Unfortunately WfWg totally ignores the error code
and carries on regardless, saying that the message was
delivered.
If you want to silently delete it then try:
message command = rm %s
Default: no message command
Example: message command = csh -c 'xedit %s; rm %s' &
min passwd length (G)
Synonym for min password length.
min password length (G)
This option sets the minimum length in characters
of a plaintext password that smbd will accept when
performing UNIX password changing.
See also unix password sync, passwd program and
passwd chat debug .
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Default: min password length = 5
min print space (S)
This sets the minimum amount of free disk space
that must be available before a user will be able
to spool a print job. It is specified in kilobytes.
The default is 0, which means a user can always
spool a print job.
See also the printing parameter.
Default: min print space = 0
Example: min print space = 2000
min protocol (G)
The value of the parameter (a string) is the lowest
SMB protocol dialect than Samba will support.
Please refer to the max protocol parameter for a
list of valid protocol names and a brief descrip-
tion of each. You may also wish to refer to the C
source code in source/smbd/negprot.c for a listing
of known protocol dialects supported by clients.
If you are viewing this parameter as a security
measure, you should also refer to the lanman auth
parameter. Otherwise, you should never need to
change this parameter.
Default : min protocol = CORE
Example : min protocol = NT1 # disable DOS clients
min wins ttl (G)
This option tells nmbd(8) when acting as a WINS
server ( wins support = yes) what the minimum 'time
to live' of NetBIOS names that nmbd will grant will
be (in seconds). You should never need to change
this parameter. The default is 6 hours (21600 sec-
onds).
Default: min wins ttl = 21600
msdfs root (S)
This boolean parameter is only available if Samba
is configured and compiled with the --with-msdfs
option. If set to yes>, Samba treats the share as a
Dfs root and allows clients to browse the dis-
tributed file system tree rooted at the share
directory. Dfs links are specified in the share
directory by symbolic links of the form
msdfs:serverA\shareA,serverB\shareB and so on. For
more information on setting up a Dfs tree on Samba,
refer to msdfs_setup.html
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See also host msdfs
Default: msdfs root = no
name resolve order (G)
This option is used by the programs in the Samba
suite to determine what naming services to use and
in what order to resolve host names to IP
addresses. The option takes a space separated
string of name resolution options.
The options are :"lmhosts", "host", "wins" and
"bcast". They cause names to be resolved as follows
:
o lmhosts : Lookup an IP address in the Samba
lmhosts file. If the line in lmhosts has no name
type attached to the NetBIOS name (see the
lmhosts(5)for details) then any name type matches
for lookup.
o host : Do a standard host name to IP address res-
olution, using the system /etc/hosts , NIS, or
DNS lookups. This method of name resolution is
operating system depended for instance on IRIX or
Solaris this may be controlled by the /etc/nss-
witch.conf file). Note that this method is only
used if the NetBIOS name type being queried is
the 0x20 (server) name type, otherwise it is
ignored.
o wins : Query a name with the IP address listed in
the wins server parameter. If no WINS server has
been specified this method will be ignored.
o bcast : Do a broadcast on each of the known local
interfaces listed in the interfaces parameter.
This is the least reliable of the name resolution
methods as it depends on the target host being on
a locally connected subnet.
Default: name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast
Example: name resolve order = lmhosts bcast host
This will cause the local lmhosts file to be examined
first, followed by a broadcast attempt, followed by a nor-
mal system hostname lookup.
netbios aliases (G)
This is a list of NetBIOS names that nmbd(8)will
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advertise as additional names by which the Samba
server is known. This allows one machine to appear
in browse lists under multiple names. If a machine
is acting as a browse server or logon server none
of these names will be advertised as either browse
server or logon servers, only the primary name of
the machine will be advertised with these capabili-
ties.
See also netbios name.
Default: empty string (no additional names)
Example: netbios aliases = TEST TEST1 TEST2
netbios name (G)
This sets the NetBIOS name by which a Samba server
is known. By default it is the same as the first
component of the host's DNS name. If a machine is a
browse server or logon server this name (or the
first component of the hosts DNS name) will be the
name that these services are advertised under.
See also netbios aliases.
Default: machine DNS name
Example: netbios name = MYNAME
netbios scope (G)
This sets the NetBIOS scope that Samba will operate
under. This should not be set unless every machine
on your LAN also sets this value.
nis homedir (G)
Get the home share server from a NIS map. For UNIX
systems that use an automounter, the user's home
directory will often be mounted on a workstation on
demand from a remote server.
When the Samba logon server is not the actual home
directory server, but is mounting the home directo-
ries via NFS then two network hops would be
required to access the users home directory if the
logon server told the client to use itself as the
SMB server for home directories (one over SMB and
one over NFS). This can be very slow.
This option allows Samba to return the home share
as being on a different server to the logon server
and as long as a Samba daemon is running on the
home directory server, it will be mounted on the
Samba client directly from the directory server.
When Samba is returning the home share to the
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client, it will consult the NIS map specified in
homedir map and return the server listed there.
Note that for this option to work there must be a
working NIS system and the Samba server with this
option must also be a logon server.
Default: nis homedir = no
nt acl support (G)
This boolean parameter controls whether smbd(8)will
attempt to map UNIX permissions into Windows NT
access control lists.
Default: nt acl support = yes
nt pipe support (G)
This boolean parameter controls whether smbd(8)will
allow Windows NT clients to connect to the NT SMB
specific IPC$ pipes. This is a developer debugging
option and can be left alone.
Default: nt pipe support = yes
nt smb support (G)
This boolean parameter controls whether smbd(8)will
negotiate NT specific SMB support with Windows NT
clients. Although this is a developer debugging
option and should be left alone, benchmarking has
discovered that Windows NT clients give faster per-
formance with this option set to no. This is still
being investigated. If this option is set to no
then Samba offers exactly the same SMB calls that
versions prior to Samba 2.0 offered. This informa-
tion may be of use if any users are having problems
with NT SMB support.
You should not need to ever disable this parameter.
Default: nt smb support = yes
null passwords (G)
Allow or disallow client access to accounts that
have null passwords.
See also smbpasswd (5).
Default: null passwords = no
obey pam restrictions (G)
When Samba 2.2 is configured to enable PAM support
(i.e. --with-pam), this parameter will control
whether or not Samba should obey PAM's account and
session management directives. The default behavior
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SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
is to use PAM for clear text authentication only
and to ignore any account or session management.
Note that Samba always ignores PAM for authentica-
tion in the case of encrypt passwords = yes . The
reason is that PAM modules cannot support the chal-
lenge/response authentication mechanism needed in
the presence of SMB password encryption.
Default: obey pam restrictions = no
only user (S)
This is a boolean option that controls whether con-
nections with usernames not in the user list will
be allowed. By default this option is disabled so
that a client can supply a username to be used by
the server. Enabling this parameter will force the
server to only user the login names from the user
list and is only really useful in shave level secu-
rity.
Note that this also means Samba won't try to deduce
usernames from the service name. This can be annoy-
ing for the [homes] section. To get around this you
could use user = %S which means your user list will
be just the service name, which for home directo-
ries is the name of the user.
See also the user parameter.
Default: only user = no
only guest (S)
A synonym for guest only.
oplock break wait time (G)
This is a tuning parameter added due to bugs in
both Windows 9x and WinNT. If Samba responds to a
client too quickly when that client issues an SMB
that can cause an oplock break request, then the
network client can fail and not respond to the
break request. This tuning parameter (which is set
in milliseconds) is the amount of time Samba will
wait before sending an oplock break request to such
(broken) clients.
DO NOT CHANGE THIS PARAMETER UNLESS YOU HAVE READ
AND UNDERSTOOD THE SAMBA OPLOCK CODE.
Default: oplock break wait time = 0
oplock contention limit (S)
This is a very advanced smbd(8)tuning option to
improve the efficiency of the granting of oplocks
under multiple client contention for the same file.
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In brief it specifies a number, which causes smbd-
not to grant an oplock even when requested if the
approximate number of clients contending for an
oplock on the same file goes over this limit. This
causes smbd to behave in a similar way to Windows
NT.
DO NOT CHANGE THIS PARAMETER UNLESS YOU HAVE READ
AND UNDERSTOOD THE SAMBA OPLOCK CODE.
Default: oplock contention limit = 2
oplocks (S)
This boolean option tells smbd whether to issue
oplocks (opportunistic locks) to file open requests
on this share. The oplock code can dramatically
(approx. 30% or more) improve the speed of access
to files on Samba servers. It allows the clients to
aggressively cache files locally and you may want
to disable this option for unreliable network envi-
ronments (it is turned on by default in Windows NT
Servers). For more information see the file
Speed.txt in the Samba docs/ directory.
Oplocks may be selectively turned off on certain
files with a share. See the veto oplock files
parameter. On some systems oplocks are recognized
by the underlying operating system. This allows
data synchronization between all access to oplocked
files, whether it be via Samba or NFS or a local
UNIX process. See the kernel oplocks parameter for
details.
See also the kernel oplocks and level2 oplocks
parameters.
Default: oplocks = yes
os level (G)
This integer value controls what level Samba adver-
tises itself as for browse elections. The value of
this parameter determines whether nmbd(8) has a
chance of becoming a local master browser for the
WORKGROUP in the local broadcast area.
Note :By default, Samba will win a local master
browsing election over all Microsoft operating sys-
tems except a Windows NT 4.0/2000 Domain Con-
troller. This means that a misconfigured Samba host
can effectively isolate a subnet for browsing pur-
poses. See BROWSING.txt in the Samba docs/ direc-
tory for details.
Default: os level = 20
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Example: os level = 65
os2 driver map (G)
The parameter is used to define the absolute path
to a file containing a mapping of Windows NT
printer driver names to OS/2 printer driver names.
The format is:
<nt driver name> = <os2 driver name>.<device name>
For example, a valid entry using the HP LaserJet 5
printer driver would appear as HP LaserJet 5L =
LASERJET.HP LaserJet 5L.
The need for the file is due to the printer driver
namespace problem described in the Samba Printing
HOWTO. For more details on OS/2 clients, please
refer to the OS2-Client-HOWTO containing in the
Samba documentation.
Default: os2 driver map = <empty string>
pam password change (G)
With the addition of better PAM support in Samba
2.2, this parameter, it is possible to use PAM's
password change control flag for Samba. If enabled,
then PAM will be used for password changes when
requested by an SMB client insted of the program
listed in passwd program. It should be possible to
enable this without changing your passwd chat para-
mater for most setups.
Default: pam password change = no
panic action (G)
This is a Samba developer option that allows a sys-
tem command to be called when either smbd(8)
crashes. This is usually used to draw attention to
the fact that a problem occurred.
Default: panic action = <empty string>
Example: panic action = "/bin/sleep 90000"
passwd chat (G)
This string controls the "chat" conversation that
takes places between smbdand the local password
changing program to change the user's password. The
string describes a sequence of response-receive
pairs that smbd(8)uses to determine what to send
to the passwd program and what to expect back. If
the expected output is not received then the pass-
word is not changed.
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This chat sequence is often quite site specific,
depending on what local methods are used for pass-
word control (such as NIS etc).
The string can contain the macros %o and %n which
are substituted for the old and new passwords
respectively. It can also contain the standard
macros \n, \r, \t and %s to give line-feed, car-
riage-return, tab and space.
The string can also contain a '*' which matches any
sequence of characters.
Double quotes can be used to collect strings with
spaces in them into a single string.
If the send string in any part of the chat sequence
is a full stop ".", then no string is sent. Simi-
larly, if the expect string is a full stop then no
string is expected.
Note that if the unix password sync parameter is
set to true, then this sequence is called AS ROOT
when the SMB password in the smbpasswd file is
being changed, without access to the old password
cleartext. In this case the old password cleartext
is set to "" (the empty string).
Also, if the pam password change parameter is set
to true, the chat pairs may be matched in any
order, and sucess is determined by the PAM result,
not any particular output. The \n macro is ignored
for PAM conversions.
See also unix password sync, passwd program ,
passwd chat debug and pam password change.
Default: passwd chat = *new*password* %n\n
*new*password* %n\n *changed*
Example: passwd chat = "*Enter OLD password*" %o\n
"*Enter NEW password*" %n\n "*Reenter NEW pass-
word*" %n\n "*Password changed*"
passwd chat debug (G)
This boolean specifies if the passwd chat script
parameter is run in debug mode. In this mode the
strings passed to and received from the passwd chat
are printed in the smbd(8)log with a debug level of
100. This is a dangerous option as it will allow
plaintext passwords to be seen in the smbd log. It
is available to help Samba admins debug their
passwd chat scripts when calling the passwd program
and should be turned off after this has been done.
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This option has no effect if the pam password
change paramter is set. This parameter is off by
default.
See also passwd chat , pam password change , passwd
program .
Default: passwd chat debug = no
passwd program (G)
The name of a program that can be used to set UNIX
user passwords. Any occurrences of %u will be
replaced with the user name. The user name is
checked for existence before calling the password
changing program.
Also note that many passwd programs insist in rea-
sonable passwords, such as a minimum length, or the
inclusion of mixed case chars and digits. This can
pose a problem as some clients (such as Windows for
Workgroups) uppercase the password before sending
it.
Note that if the unix password sync parameter is
set to true then this program is called AS ROOT
before the SMB password in the smbpasswd(5) file is
changed. If this UNIX password change fails, then
smbd will fail to change the SMB password also
(this is by design).
If the unix password sync parameter is set this
parameter MUST USE ABSOLUTE PATHS for ALL programs
called, and must be examined for security implica-
tions. Note that by default unix password sync is
set to false.
See also unix password sync.
Default: passwd program = /bin/passwd
Example: passwd program = /sbin/npasswd %u
password level (G)
Some client/server combinations have difficulty
with mixed-case passwords. One offending client is
Windows for Workgroups, which for some reason
forces passwords to upper case when using the LAN-
MAN1 protocol, but leaves them alone when using
COREPLUS! Another problem child is the Windows
95/98 family of operating systems. These clients
upper case clear text passwords even when NT LM
0.12 selected by the protocol negotiation
request/response.
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This parameter defines the maximum number of char-
acters that may be upper case in passwords.
For example, say the password given was "FRED". If
password level is set to 1, the following combina-
tions would be tried if "FRED" failed:
"Fred", "fred", "fRed", "frEd","freD"
If password level was set to 2, the following com-
binations would also be tried:
"FRed", "FrEd", "FreD", "fREd", "fReD", "frED", ..
And so on.
The higher value this parameter is set to the more
likely it is that a mixed case password will be
matched against a single case password. However,
you should be aware that use of this parameter
reduces security and increases the time taken to
process a new connection.
A value of zero will cause only two attempts to be
made - the password as is and the password in all-
lower case.
Default: password level = 0
Example: password level = 4
password server (G)
By specifying the name of another SMB server (such
as a WinNT box) with this option, and using secu-
rity = domain or security = server you can get
Samba to do all its username/password validation
via a remote server.
This option sets the name of the password server to
use. It must be a NetBIOS name, so if the
machine's NetBIOS name is different from its Inter-
net name then you may have to add its NetBIOS name
to the lmhosts file which is stored in the same
directory as the smb.conf file.
The name of the password server is looked up using
the parameter name resolve order and so may
resolved by any method and order described in that
parameter.
The password server much be a machine capable of
using the "LM1.2X002" or the "NT LM 0.12" protocol,
and it must be in user level security mode.
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NOTE: Using a password server means your UNIX box
(running Samba) is only as secure as your password
server. DO NOT CHOOSE A PASSWORD SERVER THAT YOU
DON'T COMPLETELY TRUST.
Never point a Samba server at itself for password
serving. This will cause a loop and could lock up
your Samba server!
The name of the password server takes the standard
substitutions, but probably the only useful one is
%m , which means the Samba server will use the
incoming client as the password server. If you use
this then you better trust your clients, and you
had better restrict them with hosts allow!
If the security parameter is set to domain, then
the list of machines in this option must be a list
of Primary or Backup Domain controllers for the
Domain or the character '*', as the Samba server is
effectively in that domain, and will use crypto-
graphically authenticated RPC calls to authenticate
the user logging on. The advantage of using secu-
rity = domain is that if you list several hosts in
the password server option then smbd will try each
in turn till it finds one that responds. This is
useful in case your primary server goes down.
If the password server option is set to the charac-
ter '*', then Samba will attempt to auto-locate the
Primary or Backup Domain controllers to authenti-
cate against by doing a query for the name WORK-
GROUP<1C> and then contacting each server returned
in the list of IP addresses from the name resolu-
tion source.
If the security parameter is set to server, then
there are different restrictions that security =
domain doesn't suffer from:
o You may list several password servers in the
password server parameter, however if an smbd
makes a connection to a password server, and then
the password server fails, no more users will be
able to be authenticated from this smbd. This is
a restriction of the SMB/CIFS protocol when in
security=server mode and cannot be fixed in
Samba.
o If you are using a Windows NT server as your
password server then you will have to ensure that
your users are able to login from the Samba
server, as when in security=server mode the net-
work logon will appear to come from there rather
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SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
than from the user's workstation.
See also the security parameter.
Default: password server = <empty string>
Example: password server = NT-PDC, NT-BDC1, NT-BDC2
Example: password server = *
path (S)
This parameter specifies a directory to which the
user of the service is to be given access. In the
case of printable services, this is where print
data will spool prior to being submitted to the
host for printing.
For a printable service offering guest access, the
service should be readonly and the path should be
world-writeable and have the sticky bit set. This
is not mandatory of course, but you probably won't
get the results you expect if you do otherwise.
Any occurrences of %u in the path will be replaced
with the UNIX username that the client is using on
this connection. Any occurrences of %m will be
replaced by the NetBIOS name of the machine they
are connecting from. These replacements are very
useful for setting up pseudo home directories for
users.
Note that this path will be based on root dir if
one was specified.
Default: none
Example: path = /home/fred
posix locking (S)
The smbd(8) daemon maintains an database of file
locks obtained by SMB clients. The default behav-
ior is to map this internal database to POSIX
locks. This means that file locks obtained by SMB
clients are consistent with those seen by POSIX
compliant applications accessing the files via a
non-SMB method (e.g. NFS or local file access).
You should never need to disable this parameter.
Default: posix locking = yes
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postexec (S)
This option specifies a command to be run whenever
the service is disconnected. It takes the usual
substitutions. The command may be run as the root
on some systems.
An interesting example may be to unmount server
resources:
postexec = /etc/umount /cdrom
See also preexec .
Default: none (no command executed)
Example: postexec = echo \"%u disconnected from %S
from %m (%I)\" >> /tmp/log
postscript (S)
This parameter forces a printer to interpret the
print files as PostScript. This is done by adding a
%! to the start of print output.
This is most useful when you have lots of PCs that
persist in putting a control-D at the start of
print jobs, which then confuses your printer.
Default: postscript = no
preexec (S)
This option specifies a command to be run whenever
the service is connected to. It takes the usual
substitutions.
An interesting example is to send the users a wel-
come message every time they log in. Maybe a mes-
sage of the day? Here is an example:
preexec = csh -c 'echo \"Welcome to %S!\" |
/usr/local/samba/bin/smbclient -M %m -I %I' &
Of course, this could get annoying after a while
:-)
See also preexec close and postexec .
Default: none (no command executed)
Example: preexec = echo \"%u connected to %S from
%m (%I)\" >> /tmp/log
preexec close (S)
This boolean option controls whether a non-zero
return code from preexec should close the service
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SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
being connected to.
Default: preexec close = no
preferred master (G)
This boolean parameter controls if nmbd(8)is a pre-
ferred master browser for its workgroup.
If this is set to true, on startup, nmbd will force
an election, and it will have a slight advantage in
winning the election. It is recommended that this
parameter is used in conjunction with domain mas-
ter = yes, so that nmbd can guarantee becoming a
domain master.
Use this option with caution, because if there are
several hosts (whether Samba servers, Windows 95 or
NT) that are preferred master browsers on the same
subnet, they will each periodically and continu-
ously attempt to become the local master browser.
This will result in unnecessary broadcast traffic
and reduced browsing capabilities.
See also os level .
Default: preferred master = auto
prefered master (G)
Synonym for preferred master for people who cannot
spell :-).
preload
This is a list of services that you want to be
automatically added to the browse lists. This is
most useful for homes and printers services that
would otherwise not be visible.
Note that if you just want all printers in your
printcap file loaded then the load printers option
is easier.
Default: no preloaded services
Example: preload = fred lp colorlp
preserve case (S)
This controls if new filenames are created with the
case that the client passes, or if they are forced
to be the default case .
Default: preserve case = yes
See the section on NAME MANGLING for a fuller dis-
cussion.
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print command (S)
After a print job has finished spooling to a ser-
vice, this command will be used via a system() call
to process the spool file. Typically the command
specified will submit the spool file to the host's
printing subsystem, but there is no requirement
that this be the case. The server will not remove
the spool file, so whatever command you specify
should remove the spool file when it has been pro-
cessed, otherwise you will need to manually remove
old spool files.
The print command is simply a text string. It will
be used verbatim, with two exceptions: All occur-
rences of %s and %f will be replaced by the appro-
priate spool file name, and all occurrences of %p
will be replaced by the appropriate printer name.
The spool file name is generated automatically by
the server, the printer name is discussed below.
The print command MUST contain at least one occur-
rence of %s or %f - the %p is optional. At the time
a job is submitted, if no printer name is supplied
the %p will be silently removed from the printer
command.
If specified in the [global] section, the print
command given will be used for any printable ser-
vice that does not have its own print command spec-
ified.
If there is neither a specified print command for a
printable service nor a global print command, spool
files will be created but not processed and (most
importantly) not removed.
Note that printing may fail on some UNIXes from the
nobody account. If this happens then create an
alternative guest account that can print and set
the guest account in the [global] section.
You can form quite complex print commands by real-
izing that they are just passed to a shell. For
example the following will log a print job, print
the file, then remove it. Note that ';' is the
usual separator for command in shell scripts.
print command = echo Printing %s >> /tmp/print.log;
lpr -P %p %s; rm %s
You may have to vary this command considerably
depending on how you normally print files on your
system. The default for the parameter varies
depending on the setting of the printing
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parameter.
Default: For printing= BSD, AIX, QNX, LPRNG or PLP
:
print command = lpr -r -P%p %s
For printing= SYS or HPUX :
print command = lp -c -d%p %s; rm %s
For printing=SOFTQ :
print command = lp -d%p -s %s; rm %s
Example: print command =
/usr/local/samba/bin/myprintscript %p %s
print ok (S)
Synonym for printable.
printable (S)
If this parameter is yes, then clients may open,
write to and submit spool files on the directory
specified for the service.
Note that a printable service will ALWAYS allow
writing to the service path (user privileges per-
mitting) via the spooling of print data. The write-
able parameter controls only non-printing access to
the resource.
Default: printable = no
printcap (G)
Synonym for printcap name.
printcap name (G)
This parameter may be used to override the com-
piled-in default printcap name used by the server
(usually /etc/printcap). See the discussion of the
[printers] section above for reasons why you might
want to do this.
On System V systems that use lpstat to list avail-
able printers you can use printcap name = lpstat to
automatically obtain lists of available printers.
This is the default for systems that define SYSV at
configure time in Samba (this includes most System
V based systems). If printcap name is set to
lpstat on these systems then Samba will launch
lpstat -v and attempt to parse the output to obtain
a printer list.
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A minimal printcap file would look something like
this:
print1|My Printer 1
print2|My Printer 2
print3|My Printer 3
print4|My Printer 4
print5|My Printer 5
where the '|' separates aliases of a printer. The
fact that the second alias has a space in it gives
a hint to Samba that it's a comment.
NOTE: Under AIX the default printcap name is
/etc/qconfig. Samba will assume the file is in AIX
qconfig format if the string qconfig appears in the
printcap filename.
Default: printcap name = /etc/printcap
Example: printcap name = /etc/myprintcap
printer admin (S)
This is a list of users that can do anything to
printers via the remote administration interfaces
offered by MS-RPC (usually using a NT workstation).
Note that the root user always has admin rights.
Default: printer admin = <empty string>
Example: printer admin = admin, @staff
printer driver (S)
Note :This is a deprecated parameter and will be
removed in the next major release following version
2.2. Please see the instructions in the Samba 2.2.
Printing HOWTOfor more information on the new
method of loading printer drivers onto a Samba
server.
This option allows you to control the string that
clients receive when they ask the server for the
printer driver associated with a printer. If you
are using Windows95 or Windows NT then you can use
this to automate the setup of printers on your sys-
tem.
You need to set this parameter to the exact string
(case sensitive) that describes the appropriate
printer driver for your system. If you don't know
the exact string to use then you should first try
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with no printer driver option set and the client
will give you a list of printer drivers. The appro-
priate strings are shown in a scroll box after you
have chosen the printer manufacturer.
See also printer driver file.
Example: printer driver = HP LaserJet 4L
printer driver file (G)
Note :This is a deprecated parameter and will be
removed in the next major release following version
2.2. Please see the instructions in the Samba 2.2.
Printing HOWTOfor more information on the new
method of loading printer drivers onto a Samba
server.
This parameter tells Samba where the printer driver
definition file, used when serving drivers to Win-
dows 95 clients, is to be found. If this is not
set, the default is :
SAMBA_INSTALL_DIRECTORY /lib/printers.def
This file is created from Windows 95 msprint.inf
files found on the Windows 95 client system. For
more details on setting up serving of printer
drivers to Windows 95 clients, see the outdated
documentation file in the docs/ directory,
PRINTER_DRIVER.txt.
See also printer driver location.
Default: None (set in compile).
Example: printer driver file =
/usr/local/samba/printers/drivers.def
printer driver location (S)
Note :This is a deprecated parameter and will be
removed in the next major release following version
2.2. Please see the instructions in the Samba 2.2.
Printing HOWTOfor more information on the new
method of loading printer drivers onto a Samba
server.
This parameter tells clients of a particular
printer share where to find the printer driver
files for the automatic installation of drivers for
Windows 95 machines. If Samba is set up to serve
printer drivers to Windows 95 machines, this should
be set to
\\MACHINE\PRINTER$
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Where MACHINE is the NetBIOS name of your Samba
server, and PRINTER$ is a share you set up for
serving printer driver files. For more details on
setting this up see the outdated documentation file
in the docs/ directory, PRINTER_DRIVER.txt.
See also printer driver file.
Default: none
Example: printer driver location =
\\MACHINE\PRINTER$
printer name (S)
This parameter specifies the name of the printer to
which print jobs spooled through a printable ser-
vice will be sent.
If specified in the [global] section, the printer
name given will be used for any printable service
that does not have its own printer name specified.
Default: none (but may be lp on many systems)
Example: printer name = laserwriter
printer (S)
Synonym for printer name.
printing (S)
This parameters controls how printer status infor-
mation is interpreted on your system. It also
affects the default values for the print command,
lpq command, lppause command , lpresume command,
and lprm command if specified in the [global] sec-
tion.
Currently eight printing styles are supported. They
are BSD, AIX, LPRNG, PLP, SYSV, HPUX, QNX, SOFTQ,
and CUPS.
To see what the defaults are for the other print
commands when using the various options use the
testparm(1)program.
This option can be set on a per printer basis
See also the discussion in the [printers] section.
protocol (G)
Synonym for max protocol.
public (S)
Synonym for guest ok.
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queuepause command (S)
This parameter specifies the command to be executed
on the server host in order to pause the printer
queue.
This command should be a program or script which
takes a printer name as its only parameter and
stops the printer queue, such that no longer jobs
are submitted to the printer.
This command is not supported by Windows for Work-
groups, but can be issued from the Printers window
under Windows 95 and NT.
If a %p is given then the printer name is put in
its place. Otherwise it is placed at the end of the
command.
Note that it is good practice to include the abso-
lute path in the command as the PATH may not be
available to the server.
Default: depends on the setting of printing
Example: queuepause command = disable %p
queueresume command (S)
This parameter specifies the command to be executed
on the server host in order to resume the printer
queue. It is the command to undo the behavior that
is caused by the previous parameter ( queuepause
command).
This command should be a program or script which
takes a printer name as its only parameter and
resumes the printer queue, such that queued jobs
are resubmitted to the printer.
This command is not supported by Windows for Work-
groups, but can be issued from the Printers window
under Windows 95 and NT.
If a %p is given then the printer name is put in
its place. Otherwise it is placed at the end of the
command.
Note that it is good practice to include the abso-
lute path in the command as the PATH may not be
available to the server.
Default: depends on the setting of printing
Example: queuepause command = enable %p
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read bmpx (G)
This boolean parameter controls whether smbd(8)will
support the "Read Block Multiplex" SMB. This is now
rarely used and defaults to no. You should never
need to set this parameter.
Default: read bmpx = no
read list (S)
This is a list of users that are given read-only
access to a service. If the connecting user is in
this list then they will not be given write access,
no matter what the writeable option is set to. The
list can include group names using the syntax
described in the invalid users parameter.
See also the write list parameter and the invalid
users parameter.
Default: read list = <empty string>
Example: read list = mary, @students
read only (S)
Note that this is an inverted synonym for write-
able.
read raw (G)
This parameter controls whether or not the server
will support the raw read SMB requests when trans-
ferring data to clients.
If enabled, raw reads allow reads of 65535 bytes in
one packet. This typically provides a major perfor-
mance benefit.
However, some clients either negotiate the allow-
able block size incorrectly or are incapable of
supporting larger block sizes, and for these
clients you may need to disable raw reads.
In general this parameter should be viewed as a
system tuning tool and left severely alone. See
also write raw.
Default: read raw = yes
read size (G)
The option read size affects the overlap of disk
reads/writes with network reads/writes. If the
amount of data being transferred in several of the
SMB commands (currently SMBwrite, SMBwriteX and
SMBreadbraw) is larger than this value then the
server begins writing the data before it has
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SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
received the whole packet from the network, or in
the case of SMBreadbraw, it begins writing to the
network before all the data has been read from
disk.
This overlapping works best when the speeds of disk
and network access are similar, having very little
effect when the speed of one is much greater than
the other.
The default value is 16384, but very little experi-
mentation has been done yet to determine the opti-
mal value, and it is likely that the best value
will vary greatly between systems anyway. A value
over 65536 is pointless and will cause you to allo-
cate memory unnecessarily.
Default: read size = 16384
Example: read size = 8192
remote announce (G)
This option allows you to setup nmbd(8)to periodi-
cally announce itself to arbitrary IP addresses
with an arbitrary workgroup name.
This is useful if you want your Samba server to
appear in a remote workgroup for which the normal
browse propagation rules don't work. The remote
workgroup can be anywhere that you can send IP
packets to.
For example:
remote announce = 192.168.2.255/SERVERS
192.168.4.255/STAFF
the above line would cause nmbd to announce itself
to the two given IP addresses using the given work-
group names. If you leave out the workgroup name
then the one given in the workgroup parameter is
used instead.
The IP addresses you choose would normally be the
broadcast addresses of the remote networks, but can
also be the IP addresses of known browse masters if
your network config is that stable.
See the documentation file BROWSING.txt in the
docs/ directory.
Default: remote announce = <empty string>
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remote browse sync (G)
This option allows you to setup nmbd(8)to periodi-
cally request synchronization of browse lists with
the master browser of a Samba server that is on a
remote segment. This option will allow you to gain
browse lists for multiple workgroups across routed
networks. This is done in a manner that does not
work with any non-Samba servers.
This is useful if you want your Samba server and
all local clients to appear in a remote workgroup
for which the normal browse propagation rules don't
work. The remote workgroup can be anywhere that you
can send IP packets to.
For example:
remote browse sync = 192.168.2.255 192.168.4.255
the above line would cause nmbd to request the mas-
ter browser on the specified subnets or addresses
to synchronize their browse lists with the local
server.
The IP addresses you choose would normally be the
broadcast addresses of the remote networks, but can
also be the IP addresses of known browse masters if
your network config is that stable. If a machine IP
address is given Samba makes NO attempt to validate
that the remote machine is available, is listening,
nor that it is in fact the browse master on its
segment.
Default: remote browse sync = <empty string>
restrict acl with mask (S)
This is a boolean parameter. If set to false
(default), then creation of files with access con-
trol lists (ACLS) and modification of ACLs using
the Windows NT/2000 ACL editor will be applied
directly to the file or directory.
If set to true, then all requests to set an ACL on
a file will have the parameters create mask, force
create mode applied before setting the ACL, and all
requests to set an ACL on a directory will have the
parameters directory mask, force directory mode
applied before setting the ACL.
See also create mask, force create mode, directory
mask, force directory mode
Default: restrict acl with mask = no
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restrict anonymous (G)
This is a boolean parameter. If it is true, then
anonymous access to the server will be restricted,
namely in the case where the server is expecting
the client to send a username, but it doesn't. Set-
ting it to true will force these anonymous connec-
tions to be denied, and the client will be required
to always supply a username and password when con-
necting. Use of this parameter is only recommended
for homogeneous NT client environments.
This parameter makes the use of macro expansions
that rely on the username (%U, %G, etc) consistent.
NT 4.0 likes to use anonymous connections when
refreshing the share list, and this is a way to
work around that.
When restrict anonymous is true, all anonymous con-
nections are denied no matter what they are for.
This can effect the ability of a machine to access
the Samba Primary Domain Controller to revalidate
its machine account after someone else has logged
on the client interactively. The NT client will
display a message saying that the machine's account
in the domain doesn't exist or the password is bad.
The best way to deal with this is to reboot NT
client machines between interactive logons, using
"Shutdown and Restart", rather than "Close all pro-
grams and logon as a different user".
Default: restrict anonymous = no
root (G)
Synonym for root directory".
root dir (G)
Synonym for root directory".
root directory (G)
The server will chroot() (i.e. Change its root
directory) to this directory on startup. This is
not strictly necessary for secure operation. Even
without it the server will deny access to files not
in one of the service entries. It may also check
for, and deny access to, soft links to other parts
of the filesystem, or attempts to use ".." in file
names to access other directories (depending on the
setting of the wide links parameter).
Adding a root directory entry other than "/" adds
an extra level of security, but at a price. It
absolutely ensures that no access is given to files
not in the sub-tree specified in the root directory
option, including some files needed for complete
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SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
operation of the server. To maintain full operabil-
ity of the server you will need to mirror some sys-
tem files into the root directory tree. In particu-
lar you will need to mirror /etc/passwd (or a sub-
set of it), and any binaries or configuration files
needed for printing (if required). The set of files
that must be mirrored is operating system depen-
dent.
Default: root directory = /
Example: root directory = /homes/smb
root postexec (S)
This is the same as the postexec parameter except
that the command is run as root. This is useful for
unmounting filesystems (such as CDROMs) after a
connection is closed.
See also postexec.
Default: root postexec = <empty string>
root preexec (S)
This is the same as the preexec parameter except
that the command is run as root. This is useful for
mounting filesystems (such as CDROMs) when a con-
nection is opened.
See also preexec and preexec close.
Default: root preexec = <empty string>
root preexec close (S)
This is the same as the preexec close parameter
except that the command is run as root.
See also preexec and preexec close.
Default: root preexec close = no
security (G)
This option affects how clients respond to Samba
and is one of the most important settings in the
smb.conf file.
The option sets the "security mode bit" in replies
to protocol negotiations with smbd(8) to turn share
level security on or off. Clients decide based on
this bit whether (and how) to transfer user and
password information to the server.
The default is security = user, as this is the most
common setting needed when talking to Windows 98
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SMB.CONF(5)SMB.CONF(5)
and Windows NT.
The alternatives are security = share, security =
server or security=domain .
In versions of Samba prior to 2..0, the default was
security = share mainly because that was the only
option at one stage.
There is a bug in WfWg that has relevance to this
setting. When in user or server level security a
WfWg client will totally ignore the password you
type in the "connect drive" dialog box. This makes
it very difficult (if not impossible) to connect to
a Samba service as anyone except the user that you
are logged into WfWg as.
If your PCs use usernames that are the same as
their usernames on the UNIX machine then you will
want to use security = user. If you mostly use
usernames that don't exist on the UNIX box then use
security = share.
You should also use security = share if you want to
mainly setup shares without a password (guest
shares). This is commonly used for a shared printer
server. It is more difficult to setup guest shares
with security = user, see the map to guest parame-
ter for details.
It is possible to use smbd in a hybrid mode where
it is offers both user and share level security
under different NetBIOS aliases.
The different settings will now be explained.
SECURITY = SHARE
When clients connect to a share level security
server they need not log onto the server with a
valid username and password before attempting to
connect to a shared resource (although modern
clients such as Windows 95/98 and Windows NT will
send a logon request with a username but no pass-
word when talking to a security = share server).
Instead, the clients send authentication informa-
tion (passwords) on a per-share basis, at the time
they attempt to connect to that share.
Note that smbd ALWAYS uses a valid UNIX user to act
on behalf of the client, even in security = share
level security.
As clients are not required to send a username to
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the server in share level security, smbd uses sev-
eral techniques to determine the correct UNIX user
to use on behalf of the client.
A list of possible UNIX usernames to match with the
given client password is constructed using the fol-
lowing methods :
o If the guest only parameter is set, then all the
other stages are missed and only the guest
account username is checked.
o Is a username is sent with the share connection
request, then this username (after mapping - see
username map), is added as a potential username.
o If the client did a previous logon request (the
SessionSetup SMB call) then the username sent in
this SMB will be added as a potential username.
o The name of the service the client requested is
added as a potential username.
o The NetBIOS name of the client is added to the
list as a potential username.
o Any users on the user list are added as poten-
tial usernames.
If the guest only parameter is not set, then this list is
then tried with the supplied password. The first user for
whom the password matches will be used as the UNIX user.
If the guest only parameter is set, or no username can be
determined then if the share is marked as available to the
guest account, then this guest user will be used, other-
wise access is denied.
Note that it can be very confusing in share-level security
as to which UNIX username will eventually be used in
granting access.
See also the section NOTE ABOUT USERNAME/PASSWORD VALIDA-
TION.
SECURITY = USER
This is the default security setting in Samba 2.2. With
user-level security a client must first "log=on" with a
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valid username and password (which can be mapped using the
username map parameter). Encrypted passwords (see the
encrypted passwords parameter) can also be used in this
security mode. Parameters such as user and guest only if
set are then applied and may change the UNIX user to use
on this connection, but only after the user has been suc-
cessfully authenticated.
Note that the name of the resource being requested is not
sent to the server until after the server has successfully
authenticated the client. This is why guest shares don't
work in user level security without allowing the server to
automatically map unknown users into the guest account.
See the map to guest parameter for details on doing this.
See also the section NOTE ABOUT USERNAME/PASSWORD VALIDA-
TION.
SECURITY = SERVER
In this mode Samba will try to validate the username/pass-
word by passing it to another SMB server, such as an NT
box. If this fails it will revert to security = user, but
note that if encrypted passwords have been negotiated then
Samba cannot revert back to checking the UNIX password
file, it must have a valid smbpasswd file to check users
against. See the documentation file in the docs/ directory
ENCRYPTION.txt for details on how to set this up.
Note that from the client's point of view security =
server is the same as security = user. It only affects
how the server deals with the authentication, it does not
in any way affect what the client sees.
Note that the name of the resource being requested is not
sent to the server until after the server has successfully
authenticated the client. This is why guest shares don't
work in user level security without allowing the server to
automatically map unknown users into the guest account.
See the map to guest parameter for details on doing this.
See also the section NOTE ABOUT USERNAME/PASSWORD VALIDA-
TION.
See also the password server parameter and the encrypted
passwords parameter.
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SECURITY = DOMAIN
This mode will only work correctly if smbpasswd(8)has been
used to add this machine into a Windows NT Domain. It
expects the encrypted passwords parameter to be set to
true. In this mode Samba will try to validate the user-
name/password by passing it to a Windows NT Primary or
Backup Domain Controller, in exactly the same way that a
Windows NT Server would do.
Note that a valid UNIX user must still exist as well as
the account on the Domain Controller to allow Samba to
have a valid UNIX account to map file access to.
Note that from the client's point of view security =
domain is the same as security = user . It only affects
how the server deals with the authentication, it does not
in any way affect what the client sees.
Note that the name of the resource being requested is not
sent to the server until after the server has successfully
authenticated the client. This is why guest shares don't
work in user level security without allowing the server to
automatically map unknown users into the guest account.
See the map to guest parameter for details on doing this.
BUG: There is currently a bug in the implementation of
security = domain with respect to multi-byte character set
usernames. The communication with a Domain Controller must
be done in UNICODE and Samba currently does not widen
multi-byte user names to UNICODE correctly, thus a multi-
byte username will not be recognized correctly at the
Domain Controller. This issue will be addressed in a
future release.
See also the section NOTE ABOUT USERNAME/PASSWORD VALIDA-
TION.
See also the password server parameter and the encrypted
passwords parameter.
Default: security = USER
Example: security = DOMAIN
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security mask (S)
This parameter controls what UNIX permission bits
can be modified when a Windows NT client is manipu-
lating the UNIX permission on a file using the
native NT security dialog box.
This parameter is applied as a mask (AND'ed with)
to the changed permission bits, thus preventing any
bits not in this mask from being modified. Essen-
tially, zero bits in this mask may be treated as a
set of bits the user is not allowed to change.
If not set explicitly this parameter is 0777,
allowing a user to modify all the user/group/world
permissions on a file.
Note that users who can access the Samba server
through other means can easily bypass this restric-
tion, so it is primarily useful for standalone
"appliance" systems. Administrators of most normal
systems will probably want to leave it set to 0777.
See also the force directory security mode, direc-
tory security mask, force security mode parame-
ters.
Default: security mask = 0777
Example: security mask = 0770
server string (G)
This controls what string will show up in the
printer comment box in print manager and next to
the IPC connection in net view. It can be any
string that you wish to show to your users.
It also sets what will appear in browse lists next
to the machine name.
A %v will be replaced with the Samba version num-
ber.
A %h will be replaced with the hostname.
Default: server string = Samba %v
Example: server string = University of GNUs Samba
Server
set directory (S)
If set directory = no, then users of the service
may not use the setdir command to change directory.
The setdir command is only implemented in the
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Digital Pathworks client. See the Pathworks docu-
mentation for details.
Default: set directory = no
share modes (S)
This enables or disables the honoring of the share
modes during a file open. These modes are used by
clients to gain exclusive read or write access to a
file.
These open modes are not directly supported by
UNIX, so they are simulated using shared memory, or
lock files if your UNIX doesn't support shared mem-
ory (almost all do).
The share modes that are enabled by this option are
DENY_DOS, DENY_ALL, DENY_READ, DENY_WRITE,
DENY_NONE and DENY_FCB.
This option gives full share compatibility and
enabled by default.
You should NEVER turn this parameter off as many
Windows applications will break if you do so.
Default: share modes = yes
short preserve case (S)
This boolean parameter controls if new files which
conform to 8.3 syntax, that is all in upper case
and of suitable length, are created upper case, or
if they are forced to be the default case . This
option can be use with preserve case = yes to per-
mit long filenames to retain their case, while
short names are lowered.
See the section on NAME MANGLING.
Default: short preserve case = yes
show add printer wizard (G)
With the introduction of MS-RPC based printing sup-
port for Windows NT/2000 client in Samba 2.2, a
"Printers..." folder will appear on Samba hosts in
the share listing. Normally this folder will con-
tain an icon for the MS Add Printer Wizard (APW).
However, it is possible to disable this feature
regardless of the level of privilege of the con-
nected user.
Under normal circumstances, the Windows NT/2000
client will open a handle on the printer server
with OpenPrinterEx() asking for Administrator
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privileges. If the user does not have administra-
tive access on the print server (i.e is not root or
a member of the printer admin group), the Open-
PrinterEx() call fails and the client makes another
open call with a request for a lower privilege
level. This should succeed, however the APW icon
will not be displayed.
Disabling the show add printer wizard parameter
will always cause the OpenPrinterEx() on the server
to fail. Thus the APW icon will never be displayed.
Note :This does not prevent the same user from hav-
ing administrative privilege on an individual
printer.
See also addprinter command, deleteprinter com-
mand, printer admin
Default :show add printer wizard = yes
smb passwd file (G)
This option sets the path to the encrypted smb-
passwd file. By default the path to the smbpasswd
file is compiled into Samba.
Default: smb passwd file = ${prefix}/private/smb-
passwd
Example: smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd
socket address (G)
This option allows you to control what address
Samba will listen for connections on. This is used
to support multiple virtual interfaces on the one
server, each with a different configuration.
By default Samba will accept connections on any
address.
Example: socket address = 192.168.2.20
socket options (G)
This option allows you to set socket options to be
used when talking with the client.
Socket options are controls on the networking layer
of the operating systems which allow the connection
to be tuned.
This option will typically be used to tune your
Samba server for optimal performance for your local
network. There is no way that Samba can know what
the optimal parameters are for your net, so you
must experiment and choose them yourself. We
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strongly suggest you read the appropriate documen-
tation for your operating system first (perhaps man
setsockopt will help).
You may find that on some systems Samba will say
"Unknown socket option" when you supply an option.
This means you either incorrectly typed it or you
need to add an include file to includes.h for your
OS. If the latter is the case please send the patch
to samba@samba.org <URL:mailto:samba@samba.org>.
Any of the supported socket options may be combined
in any way you like, as long as your OS allows it.
This is the list of socket options currently set-
table using this option:
o SO_KEEPALIVE
o SO_REUSEADDR
o SO_BROADCAST
o TCP_NODELAY
o IPTOS_LOWDELAY
o IPTOS_THROUGHPUT
o SO_SNDBUF *
o SO_RCVBUF *
o SO_SNDLOWAT *
o SO_RCVLOWAT *
Those marked with a '*' take an integer argument. The oth-
ers can optionally take a 1 or 0 argument to enable or
disable the option, by default they will be enabled if you
don't specify 1 or 0.
To specify an argument use the syntax SOME_OPTION=VALUE
for example SO_SNDBUF=8192. Note that you must not have
any spaces before or after the = sign.
If you are on a local network then a sensible option might
be
socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY
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If you have a local network then you could try:
socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY
If you are on a wide area network then perhaps try setting
IPTOS_THROUGHPUT.
Note that several of the options may cause your Samba
server to fail completely. Use these options with caution!
Default: socket options = TCP_NODELAY
Example: socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY
source environment (G)
This parameter causes Samba to set environment
variables as per the content of the file named.
If the value of this parameter starts with a "|"
character then Samba will treat that value as a
pipe command to open and will set the environment
variables from the output of the pipe.
The contents of the file or the output of the pipe
should be formatted as the output of the standard
Unix env(1) command. This is of the form :
Example environment entry:
SAMBA_NETBIOS_NAME=myhostname
Default: No default value
Examples: source environment = |/etc/smb.conf.sh
Example: source environment =
/usr/local/smb_env_vars
ssl (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
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This variable enables or disables the entire SSL
mode. If it is set to no, the SSL-enabled Samba
behaves exactly like the non-SSL Samba. If set to
yes, it depends on the variables ssl hosts and
ssl hosts resign whether an SSL connection will be
required.
Default: ssl=no
ssl CA certDir (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
This variable defines where to look up the Certifi-
cation Authorities. The given directory should con-
tain one file for each CA that Samba will trust.
The file name must be the hash value over the "Dis-
tinguished Name" of the CA. How this directory is
set up is explained later in this document. All
files within the directory that don't fit into this
naming scheme are ignored. You don't need this
variable if you don't verify client certificates.
Default: ssl CA certDir = /usr/local/ssl/certs
ssl CA certFile (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
This variable is a second way to define the trusted
CAs. The certificates of the trusted CAs are col-
lected in one big file and this variable points to
the file. You will probably only use one of the two
ways to define your CAs. The first choice is
preferable if you have many CAs or want to be flex-
ible, the second is preferable if you only have one
CA and want to keep things simple (you won't need
to create the hashed file names). You don't need
this variable if you don't verify client certifi-
cates.
Default: ssl CA certFile =
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/usr/local/ssl/certs/trustedCAs.pem
ssl ciphers (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
This variable defines the ciphers that should be
offered during SSL negotiation. You should not set
this variable unless you know what you are doing.
ssl client cert (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
The certificate in this file is used by smb-
client(1)if it exists. It's needed if the server
requires a client certificate.
Default: ssl client cert =
/usr/local/ssl/certs/smbclient.pem
ssl client key (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
This is the private key for smbclient(1). It's
only needed if the client should have a certifi-
cate.
Default: ssl client key = /usr/local/ssl/pri-
vate/smbclient.pem
ssl compatibility (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
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Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
This variable defines whether SSLeay should be con-
figured for bug compatibility with other SSL imple-
mentations. This is probably not desirable because
currently no clients with SSL implementations other
than SSLeay exist.
Default: ssl compatibility = no
ssl hosts (G)
See ssl hosts resign.
ssl hosts resign (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
These two variables define whether Samba will go
into SSL mode or not. If none of them is defined,
Samba will allow only SSL connections. If the ssl
hosts variable lists hosts (by IP-address, IP-
address range, net group or name), only these hosts
will be forced into SSL mode. If the ssl hosts
resign variable lists hosts, only these hosts will
NOT be forced into SSL mode. The syntax for these
two variables is the same as for the hosts allow
and hosts deny pair of variables, only that the
subject of the decision is different: It's not the
access right but whether SSL is used or not.
The example below requires SSL connections from all
hosts outside the local net (which is 192.168.*.*).
Default: ssl hosts = <empty string>
ssl hosts resign = <empty string>
Example: ssl hosts resign = 192.168.
ssl require clientcert (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
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Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
If this variable is set to yes, the server will not
tolerate connections from clients that don't have a
valid certificate. The directory/file given in ssl
CA certDir and ssl CA certFile will be used to look
up the CAs that issued the client's certificate. If
the certificate can't be verified positively, the
connection will be terminated. If this variable is
set to no, clients don't need certificates. Con-
trary to web applications you really should require
client certificates. In the web environment the
client's data is sensitive (credit card numbers)
and the server must prove to be trustworthy. In a
file server environment the server's data will be
sensitive and the clients must prove to be trust-
worthy.
Default: ssl require clientcert = no
ssl require servercert (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
If this variable is set to yes, the smbclient(1)
will request a certificate from the server. Same as
ssl require clientcert for the server.
Default: ssl require servercert = no
ssl server cert (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
This is the file containing the server's certifi-
cate. The server must have a certificate. The file
may also contain the server's private key. See
later for how certificates and private keys are
created.
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Default: ssl server cert = <empty string>
ssl server key (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
This file contains the private key of the server.
If this variable is not defined, the key is looked
up in the certificate file (it may be appended to
the certificate). The server must have a private
key and the certificate must match this private
key.
Default: ssl server key = <empty string>
ssl version (G)
This variable is part of SSL-enabled Samba. This is
only available if the SSL libraries have been com-
piled on your system and the configure option
--with-ssl was given at configure time.
Note that for export control reasons this code is
NOT enabled by default in any current binary ver-
sion of Samba.
This enumeration variable defines the versions of
the SSL protocol that will be used. ssl2or3 allows
dynamic negotiation of SSL v2 or v3, ssl2 results
in SSL v2, ssl3 results in SSL v3 and tls1 results
in TLS v1. TLS (Transport Layer Security) is the
new standard for SSL.
Default: ssl version = "ssl2or3"
stat cache (G)
This parameter determines if smbd(8)will use a
cache in order to speed up case insensitive name
mappings. You should never need to change this
parameter.
Default: stat cache = yes
stat cache size (G)
This parameter determines the number of entries in
the stat cache. You should never need to change
this parameter.
Default: stat cache size = 50
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status (G)
This enables or disables logging of connections to
a status file that smbstatus(1) can read.
With this disabled smbstatus won't be able to tell
you what connections are active. You should never
need to change this parameter.
Default: status = yes
strict locking (S)
This is a boolean that controls the handling of
file locking in the server. When this is set to yes
the server will check every read and write access
for file locks, and deny access if locks exist.
This can be slow on some systems.
When strict locking is no the server does file lock
checks only when the client explicitly asks for
them.
Well-behaved clients always ask for lock checks
when it is important, so in the vast majority of
cases strict locking = no is preferable.
Default: strict locking = no
strict sync (S)
Many Windows applications (including the Windows 98
explorer shell) seem to confuse flushing buffer
contents to disk with doing a sync to disk. Under
UNIX, a sync call forces the process to be sus-
pended until the kernel has ensured that all out-
standing data in kernel disk buffers has been
safely stored onto stable storage. This is very
slow and should only be done rarely. Setting this
parameter to no (the default) means that smbdig-
nores the Windows applications requests for a sync
call. There is only a possibility of losing data if
the operating system itself that Samba is running
on crashes, so there is little danger in this
default setting. In addition, this fixes many per-
formance problems that people have reported with
the new Windows98 explorer shell file copies.
See also the sync always> parameter.
Default: strict sync = no
strip dot (G)
This is a boolean that controls whether to strip
trailing dots off UNIX filenames. This helps with
some CDROMs that have filenames ending in a single
dot.
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Default: strip dot = no
sync always (S)
This is a boolean parameter that controls whether
writes will always be written to stable storage
before the write call returns. If this is false
then the server will be guided by the client's
request in each write call (clients can set a bit
indicating that a particular write should be syn-
chronous). If this is true then every write will
be followed by a fsync() call to ensure the data is
written to disk. Note that the strict sync parame-
ter must be set to yes in order for this parameter
to have any affect.
See also the strict sync parameter.
Default: sync always = no
syslog (G)
This parameter maps how Samba debug messages are
logged onto the system syslog logging levels. Samba
debug level zero maps onto syslog LOG_ERR, debug
level one maps onto LOG_WARNING, debug level two
maps onto LOG_NOTICE, debug level three maps onto
LOG_INFO. All higher levels are mapped to
LOG_DEBUG.
This parameter sets the threshold for sending mes-
sages to syslog. Only messages with debug level
less than this value will be sent to syslog.
Default: syslog = 1
syslog only (G)
If this parameter is set then Samba debug messages
are logged into the system syslog only, and not to
the debug log files.
Default: syslog only = no
template homedir (G)
NOTE: this parameter is only available in Samba
3.0.
When filling out the user information for a Windows
NT user, the winbindd(8)daemon uses this parameter
to fill in the home directory for that user. If
the string %D is present it is substituted with the
user's Windows NT domain name. If the string %U is
present it is substituted with the user's Windows
NT user name.
Default: template homedir = /home/%D/%U
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template shell (G)
NOTE: this parameter is only available in Samba
3.0.
When filling out the user information for a Windows
NT user, the winbindd(8)daemon uses this parameter
to fill in the login shell for that user.
Default: template shell = /bin/false
time offset (G)
This parameter is a setting in minutes to add to
the normal GMT to local time conversion. This is
useful if you are serving a lot of PCs that have
incorrect daylight saving time handling.
Default: time offset = 0
Example: time offset = 60
time server (G)
This parameter determines if nmbd(8)advertises
itself as a time server to Windows clients.
Default: time server = no
timestamp logs (G)
Synonym for debug timestamp.
total print jobs (G)
This parameter accepts an integer value which
defines a limit on the maximum number of print jobs
that will be accepted system wide at any given
time. If a print job is submitted by a client which
will exceed this number, then smbdwill return an
error indicating that no space is available on the
server. The default value of 0 means that no such
limit exists. This parameter can be used to prevent
a server from exceeding its capacity and is
designed as a printing throttle. See also max print
jobs.
Default: total print jobs = 0
Example: total print jobs = 5000
unix password sync (G)
This boolean parameter controls whether Samba
attempts to synchronize the UNIX password with the
SMB password when the encrypted SMB password in the
smbpasswd file is changed. If this is set to true
the program specified in the passwd programparame-
ter is called AS ROOT - to allow the new UNIX pass-
word to be set without access to the old UNIX
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password (as the SMB password change code has no
access to the old password cleartext, only the
new).
See also passwd program, passwd chat.
Default: unix password sync = no
update encrypted (G)
This boolean parameter allows a user logging on
with a plaintext password to have their encrypted
(hashed) password in the smbpasswd file to be
updated automatically as they log on. This option
allows a site to migrate from plaintext password
authentication (users authenticate with plaintext
password over the wire, and are checked against a
UNIX account database) to encrypted password
authentication (the SMB challenge/response authen-
tication mechanism) without forcing all users to
re-enter their passwords via smbpasswd at the time
the change is made. This is a convenience option to
allow the change over to encrypted passwords to be
made over a longer period. Once all users have
encrypted representations of their passwords in the
smbpasswd file this parameter should be set to no.
In order for this parameter to work correctly the
encrypt passwords parameter must be set to no when
this parameter is set to yes.
Note that even when this parameter is set a user
authenticating to smbd must still enter a valid
password in order to connect correctly, and to
update their hashed (smbpasswd) passwords.
Default: update encrypted = no
use rhosts (G)
If this global parameter is true, it specifies that
the UNIX user's .rhosts file in their home direc-
tory will be read to find the names of hosts and
users who will be allowed access without specifying
a password.
NOTE: The use of use rhosts can be a major security
hole. This is because you are trusting the PC to
supply the correct username. It is very easy to get
a PC to supply a false username. I recommend that
the use rhosts option be only used if you really
know what you are doing.
Default: use rhosts = no
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user (S)
Synonym for username.
users (S)
Synonym for username.
username (S)
Multiple users may be specified in a comma-delim-
ited list, in which case the supplied password will
be tested against each username in turn (left to
right).
The username line is needed only when the PC is
unable to supply its own username. This is the case
for the COREPLUS protocol or where your users have
different WfWg usernames to UNIX usernames. In both
these cases you may also be better using the
\\server\share%user syntax instead.
The username line is not a great solution in many
cases as it means Samba will try to validate the
supplied password against each of the usernames in
the username line in turn. This is slow and a bad
idea for lots of users in case of duplicate pass-
words. You may get timeouts or security breaches
using this parameter unwisely.
Samba relies on the underlying UNIX security. This
parameter does not restrict who can login, it just
offers hints to the Samba server as to what user-
names might correspond to the supplied password.
Users can login as whoever they please and they
will be able to do no more damage than if they
started a telnet session. The daemon runs as the
user that they log in as, so they cannot do any-
thing that user cannot do.
To restrict a service to a particular set of users
you can use the valid users parameter.
If any of the usernames begin with a '@' then the
name will be looked up first in the NIS netgroups
list (if Samba is compiled with netgroup support),
followed by a lookup in the UNIX groups database
and will expand to a list of all users in the group
of that name.
If any of the usernames begin with a '+' then the
name will be looked up only in the UNIX groups
database and will expand to a list of all users in
the group of that name.
If any of the usernames begin with a '&'then the
name will be looked up only in the NIS netgroups
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database (if Samba is compiled with netgroup sup-
port) and will expand to a list of all users in the
netgroup group of that name.
Note that searching though a groups database can
take quite some time, and some clients may time out
during the search.
See the section NOTE ABOUT USERNAME/PASSWORD VALI-
DATION for more information on how this parameter
determines access to the services.
Default: The guest account if a guest service, else
<empty string>.
Examples:username = fred, mary, jack, jane, @users,
@pcgroup
username level (G)
This option helps Samba to try and 'guess' at the
real UNIX username, as many DOS clients send an
all-uppercase username. By default Samba tries all
lowercase, followed by the username with the first
letter capitalized, and fails if the username is
not found on the UNIX machine.
If this parameter is set to non-zero the behavior
changes. This parameter is a number that specifies
the number of uppercase combinations to try while
trying to determine the UNIX user name. The higher
the number the more combinations will be tried, but
the slower the discovery of usernames will be. Use
this parameter when you have strange usernames on
your UNIX machine, such as AstrangeUser .
Default: username level = 0
Example: username level = 5
username map (G)
This option allows you to specify a file containing
a mapping of usernames from the clients to the
server. This can be used for several purposes. The
most common is to map usernames that users use on
DOS or Windows machines to those that the UNIX box
uses. The other is to map multiple users to a sin-
gle username so that they can more easily share
files.
The map file is parsed line by line. Each line
should contain a single UNIX username on the left
then a '=' followed by a list of usernames on the
right. The list of usernames on the right may con-
tain names of the form @group in which case they
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will match any UNIX username in that group. The
special client name '*' is a wildcard and matches
any name. Each line of the map file may be up to
1023 characters long.
The file is processed on each line by taking the
supplied username and comparing it with each user-
name on the right hand side of the '=' signs. If
the supplied name matches any of the names on the
right hand side then it is replaced with the name
on the left. Processing then continues with the
next line.
If any line begins with a '#' or a ';' then it is
ignored
If any line begins with an '!' then the processing
will stop after that line if a mapping was done by
the line. Otherwise mapping continues with every
line being processed. Using '!' is most useful
when you have a wildcard mapping line later in the
file.
For example to map from the name admin or adminis-
trator to the UNIX name root you would use:
root = admin administrator
Or to map anyone in the UNIX group system to the
UNIX name sys you would use:
sys = @system
You can have as many mappings as you like in a
username map file.
If your system supports the NIS NETGROUP option
then the netgroup database is checked before the
/etc/group database for matching groups.
You can map Windows usernames that have spaces in
them by using double quotes around the name. For
example:
tridge = "Andrew Tridgell"
would map the windows username "Andrew Tridgell" to
the unix username "tridge".
The following example would map mary and fred to
the unix user sys, and map the rest to guest. Note
the use of the '!' to tell Samba to stop processing
if it gets a match on that line.
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!sys = mary fred
guest = *
Note that the remapping is applied to all occur-
rences of usernames. Thus if you connect to
\\server\fred and fred is remapped to mary then
you will actually be connecting to \\server\mary
and will need to supply a password suitable for
mary not fred. The only exception to this is the
username passed to the password server (if you
have one). The password server will receive what-
ever username the client supplies without modifica-
tion.
Also note that no reverse mapping is done. The main
effect this has is with printing. Users who have
been mapped may have trouble deleting print jobs as
PrintManager under WfWg will think they don't own
the print job.
Default: no username map
Example: username map =
/usr/local/samba/lib/users.map
utmp (S)
This boolean parameter is only available if Samba
has been configured and compiled with the option
--with-utmp. If set to true then Samba will attempt
to add utmp or utmpx records (depending on the UNIX
system) whenever a connection is made to a Samba
server. Sites may use this to record the user con-
necting to a Samba share.
See also the utmp directory parameter.
Default: utmp = no
utmp directory(G)
This parameter is only available if Samba has been
configured and compiled with the option --with-
utmp. It specifies a directory pathname that is
used to store the utmp or utmpx files (depending on
the UNIX system) that record user connections to a
Samba server. See also the utmp parameter. By
default this is not set, meaning the system will
use whatever utmp file the native system is set to
use (usually /var/run/utmp on Linux).
Default: no utmp directory
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valid chars (G)
The option allows you to specify additional charac-
ters that should be considered valid by the server
in filenames. This is particularly useful for
national character sets, such as adding u-umlaut or
a-ring.
The option takes a list of characters in either
integer or character form with spaces between them.
If you give two characters with a colon between
them then it will be taken as an lowercase:upper-
case pair.
If you have an editor capable of entering the char-
acters into the config file then it is probably
easiest to use this method. Otherwise you can spec-
ify the characters in octal, decimal or hexadecimal
form using the usual C notation.
For example to add the single character 'Z' to the
charset (which is a pointless thing to do as it's
already there) you could do one of the following
valid chars = Z
valid chars = z:Z
valid chars = 0132:0172
The last two examples above actually add two char-
acters, and alter the uppercase and lowercase map-
pings appropriately.
Note that you MUST specify this parameter after the
client code page parameter if you have both set. If
client code page is set after the valid chars
parameter the valid chars settings will be over-
written.
See also the client code page parameter.
Default: Samba defaults to using a reasonable set
of valid characters for English systems
Example: valid chars = 0345:0305 0366:0326
0344:0304
The above example allows filenames to have the
Swedish characters in them.
NOTE: It is actually quite difficult to correctly
produce a valid chars line for a particular system.
To automate the process tino@augsburg.net
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<URL:mailto:tino@augsburg.net> has written a pack-
age called validchars which will automatically pro-
duce a complete valid chars line for a given client
system. Look in the examples/validchars/ subdirec-
tory of your Samba source code distribution for
this package.
valid users (S)
This is a list of users that should be allowed to
login to this service. Names starting with '@', '+'
and '&' are interpreted using the same rules as
described in the invalid users parameter.
If this is empty (the default) then any user can
login. If a username is in both this list and the
invalid users list then access is denied for that
user.
The current servicename is substituted for %S .
This is useful in the [homes] section.
See also invalid users
Default: No valid users list (anyone can login)
Example: valid users = greg, @pcusers
veto files(S)
This is a list of files and directories that are
neither visible nor accessible. Each entry in the
list must be separated by a '/', which allows
spaces to be included in the entry. '*' and '?' can
be used to specify multiple files or directories as
in DOS wildcards.
Each entry must be a unix path, not a DOS path and
must not include the unix directory separator '/'.
Note that the case sensitive option is applicable
in vetoing files.
One feature of the veto files parameter that it is
important to be aware of, is that if a directory
contains nothing but files that match the veto
files parameter (which means that Windows/DOS
clients cannot ever see them) is deleted, the veto
files within that directory are automatically
deleted along with it, if the user has UNIX permis-
sions to do so.
Setting this parameter will affect the performance
of Samba, as it will be forced to check all files
and directories for a match as they are scanned.
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See also hide files and case sensitive.
Default: No files or directories are vetoed.
Examples:
; Veto any files containing the word Security,
; any ending in .tmp, and any directory containing the
; word root.
veto files = /*Security*/*.tmp/*root*/
; Veto the Apple specific files that a NetAtalk server
; creates.
veto files = /.AppleDouble/.bin/.AppleDesktop/Network Trash Folder/
veto oplock files (S)
This parameter is only valid when the oplocks
parameter is turned on for a share. It allows the
Samba administrator to selectively turn off the
granting of oplocks on selected files that match a
wildcarded list, similar to the wildcarded list
used in the veto files parameter.
Default: No files are vetoed for oplock grants
You might want to do this on files that you know
will be heavily contended for by clients. A good
example of this is in the NetBench SMB benchmark
program, which causes heavy client contention for
files ending in .SEM. To cause Samba not to grant
oplocks on these files you would use the line
(either in the [global] section or in the section
for the particular NetBench share :
Example: veto oplock files = /*;.SEM/
vfs object (S)
This parameter specifies a shared object file that
is used for Samba VFS I/O operations. By default,
normal disk I/O operations are used but these can
be overloaded with a VFS object. The Samba VFS
layer is new to Samba 2.2 and must be enabled at
compile time with --with-vfs.
Default : no value
vfs options (S)
This parameter allows parameters to be passed to
the vfs layer at initialization time. The Samba VFS
layer is new to Samba 2.2 and must be enabled at
compile time with --with-vfs. See also vfs object.
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Default : no value
volume (S)
This allows you to override the volume label
returned for a share. Useful for CDROMs with
installation programs that insist on a particular
volume label.
Default: the name of the share
wide links (S)
This parameter controls whether or not links in the
UNIX file system may be followed by the server.
Links that point to areas within the directory tree
exported by the server are always allowed; this
parameter controls access only to areas that are
outside the directory tree being exported.
Note that setting this parameter can have a nega-
tive effect on your server performance due to the
extra system calls that Samba has to do in order to
perform the link checks.
Default: wide links = yes
winbind cache time
NOTE: this parameter is only available in Samba
3.0.
This parameter specifies the number of seconds the
winbindd(8)daemon will cache user and group infor-
mation before querying a Windows NT server again.
Default: winbind cache type = 15
winbind gid
NOTE: this parameter is only available in Samba
3.0.
The winbind gid parameter specifies the range of
group ids that are allocated by the win-
bindd(8)daemon. This range of group ids should have
no existing local or NIS groups within it as
strange conflicts can occur otherwise.
Default: winbind gid = <empty string>
Example: winbind gid = 10000-20000
winbind separator
NOTE: this parameter is only available in Samba
3.0.
This parameter allows an admin to define the
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character used when listing a username of the form
of DOMAIN \user. This parameter is only applicable
when using the pam_winbind.so and nss_winbind.so
modules for UNIX services.
Example: winbind separator = \
Example: winbind separator = +
winbind uid
NOTE: this parameter is only available in Samba
3.0.
The winbind gid parameter specifies the range of
group ids that are allocated by the win-
bindd(8)daemon. This range of ids should have no
existing local or NIS users within it as strange
conflicts can occur otherwise.
Default: winbind uid = <empty string>
Example: winbind uid = 10000-20000
wins hook (G)
When Samba is running as a WINS server this allows
you to call an external program for all changes to
the WINS database. The primary use for this option
is to allow the dynamic update of external name
resolution databases such as dynamic DNS.
The wins hook parameter specifies the name of a
script or executable that will be called as fol-
lows:
wins_hook operation name nametype ttl IP_list
o The first argument is the operation and is one of
"add", "delete", or "refresh". In most cases the
operation can be ignored as the rest of the
parameters provide sufficient information. Note
that "refresh" may sometimes be called when the
name has not previously been added, in that case
it should be treated as an add.
o The second argument is the NetBIOS name. If the
name is not a legal name then the wins hook is
not called. Legal names contain only letters,
digits, hyphens, underscores and periods.
o The third argument is the NetBIOS name type as a
2 digit hexadecimal number.
o The fourth argument is the TTL (time to live) for
the name in seconds.
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o The fifth and subsequent arguments are the IP
addresses currently registered for that name. If
this list is empty then the name should be
deleted.
An example script that calls the BIND dynamic DNS update
program nsupdate is provided in the examples directory of
the Samba source code.
wins proxy (G)
This is a boolean that controls if nmbd(8)will
respond to broadcast name queries on behalf of
other hosts. You may need to set this to yes for
some older clients.
Default: wins proxy = no
wins server (G)
This specifies the IP address (or DNS name: IP
address for preference) of the WINS server that
nmbd(8)should register with. If you have a WINS
server on your network then you should set this to
the WINS server's IP.
You should point this at your WINS server if you
have a multi-subnetted network.
NOTE. You need to set up Samba to point to a WINS
server if you have multiple subnets and wish cross-
subnet browsing to work correctly.
See the documentation file BROWSING.txt in the
docs/ directory of your Samba source distribution.
Default: not enabled
Example: wins server = 192.9.200.1
wins support (G)
This boolean controls if the nmbd(8)process in
Samba will act as a WINS server. You should not set
this to true unless you have a multi-subnetted net-
work and you wish a particular nmbd to be your WINS
server. Note that you should NEVER set this to
true on more than one machine in your network.
Default: wins support = no
workgroup (G)
This controls what workgroup your server will
appear to be in when queried by clients. Note that
this parameter also controls the Domain name used
with the security=domain setting.
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Default: set at compile time to WORKGROUP
Example: workgroup = MYGROUP
writable (S)
Synonym for writeable for people who can't spell
:-).
write cache size (S)
If this integer parameter is set to non-zero value,
Samba will create an in-memory cache for each
oplocked file (it does not do this for non-oplocked
files). All writes that the client does not request
to be flushed directly to disk will be stored in
this cache if possible. The cache is flushed onto
disk when a write comes in whose offset would not
fit into the cache or when the file is closed by
the client. Reads for the file are also served
from this cache if the data is stored within it.
This cache allows Samba to batch client writes into
a more efficient write size for RAID disks (i.e.
writes may be tuned to be the RAID stripe size) and
can improve performance on systems where the disk
subsystem is a bottleneck but there is free memory
for userspace programs.
The integer parameter specifies the size of this
cache (per oplocked file) in bytes.
Default: write cache size = 0
Example: write cache size = 262144
for a 256k cache size per file.
write list (S)
This is a list of users that are given read-write
access to a service. If the connecting user is in
this list then they will be given write access, no
matter what the writeable option is set to. The
list can include group names using the @group syn-
tax.
Note that if a user is in both the read list and
the write list then they will be given write
access.
See also the read list option.
Default: write list = <empty string>
Example: write list = admin, root, @staff
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write ok (S)
Synonym for writeable.
write raw (G)
This parameter controls whether or not the server
will support raw write SMB's when transferring data
from clients. You should never need to change this
parameter.
Default: write raw = yes
writeable (S)
An inverted synonym is read only.
If this parameter is no, then users of a service
may not create or modify files in the service's
directory.
Note that a printable service (printable = yes)
will ALWAYS allow writing to the directory (user
privileges permitting), but only via spooling oper-
ations.
Default: writeable = no
WARNINGS
Although the configuration file permits service names to
contain spaces, your client software may not. Spaces will
be ignored in comparisons anyway, so it shouldn't be a
problem - but be aware of the possibility.
On a similar note, many clients - especially DOS clients -
limit service names to eight characters. smbd(8) has no
such limitation, but attempts to connect from such clients
will fail if they truncate the service names. For this
reason you should probably keep your service names down to
eight characters in length.
Use of the [homes] and [printers] special sections make
life for an administrator easy, but the various combina-
tions of default attributes can be tricky. Take extreme
care when designing these sections. In particular, ensure
that the permissions on spool directories are correct.
VERSION
This man page is correct for version 2.2 of the Samba
suite.
SEE ALSOsamba(7), smbpasswd(8), swat(8), smbd(8), nmbd(8), smb-
client(1), nmblookup(1), testparm(1), testprns(1)AUTHOR
The original Samba software and related utilities were
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created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed by the
Samba Team as an Open Source project similar to the way
the Linux kernel is developed.
The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer.
The man page sources were converted to YODL format
(another excellent piece of Open Source software, avail-
able at ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/
<URL:ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/>) and updated for the
Samba 2.0 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to
DocBook for Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter
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