5. General Configuration (/etc/smb.conf)

Samba configuration on a linux (or other UNIX machine) is controlled by a single file, /etc/smb.conf. This file determines which system resources you want to share with the outside world and what restrictions you wish to place on them.

Since the following sections will address sharing linux drives and printers with Windows machines, the smb.conf file shown in this section is as simple as you can get, just for introductory purposes.

Don't worry about the details, yet. Later sections will introduce the major concepts.

Each section of the file starts with a section header such as global, homes, printers, etc.

The global section defines a few variables that Samba will use to define sharing for all resources.

The homes section allows a remote users to access their (and only their) home directory on the local (linux) machine). That is, if a Windows user trys to connect to this share from their Windows machines, they will be connected to their personal home directory. Note that to do this, they must have an account on the linux box.

The sample smb.conf file below allows remote users to get to their home directories on the local machine and to write to a temporary directory. For a Windows user to see these shares, the linux box has to be on the local network. Then the user simply connects a network drive from the Windows File Manager or Windows Explorer.

Note that in the following sections, additional entries for this file will be given to allow more resources to be shared.

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; /etc/smb.conf
;
; Make sure and restart the server after making changes to this file, ex:
; /etc/rc.d/init.d/smb stop
; /etc/rc.d/init.d/smb start

[global]
; Uncomment this if you want a guest account
; guest account = nobody
   log file = /var/log/samba-log.%m
   lock directory = /var/lock/samba
   share modes = yes

[homes]
   comment = Home Directories
   browseable = no
   read only = no
   create mode = 0750

[tmp]
   comment = Temporary file space
   path = /tmp
   read only = no
   public = yes

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