SMB.CONF(5)
NAME
smb.conf - configuration file for smbd
SYNOPSIS
smb.conf
DESCRIPTION
The smb.conf file is a configuration file for the Samba
suite.
smb.conf contains runtime configuration information for
the smbd program. The smbd program provides LanManager-
like services to clients using the SMB protocol.
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 is ignored, as are
lines containing only whitespace.
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.
SERVICE DESCRIPTIONS
Each section in the configuration file describes a ser-
vice. The section name is the service name and the parame-
ters within the section define the service's attributes.
There are three special sections, [global], [homes] and
[printers], which are described under 'special sections'.
The following notes apply to ordinary service descrip-
tions.
A service 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.
Services are either filespace 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).
Services may be guest services, in which case no password
is required to access them. A specified guest account is
used to define access privileges in this case.
Services other than guest services will require a password
to access them. The client provides the username. As many
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 service definition.
Note that the access rights granted by the server are
masked by the access rights granted to the specified or
guest 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 service.
The user has write access to the path /home/bar. The ser-
vice is accessed via the service name "foo":
[foo]
path = /home/bar
writable = true
The following sample section defines a printable service.
The service 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
read only = true
printable = true
public = true
SPECIAL SECTIONS
The [global] section
Parameters in this section apply to the server as a
whole, or are defaults for services 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 configu-
ration file, services connecting clients to their home
directories can be created on the fly by the server.
When the connection request is made, the existing ser-
vices are scanned. If a match is found, it is used. If
no match is found, the requested service name is
treated as a user name and looked up in the local pass-
words file. If the name exists and the correct password
has been given, a service is created by cloning the
[homes] section.
Some modifications are then made to the newly created
section:
The service name is changed from 'homes' to the
located username
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] sec-
tion then you may find it useful to use the %S macro.
For example 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 service name
is "homes", except that the service 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.
The [homes] section can specify all the parameters a
normal service section can specify, though some make
more sense than others. The following is a typical and
suitable [homes] section:
[homes]
writable = yes
An important point:
If guest access is specified in the [homes] section,
all home directories will be accessible 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] service but make any auto home directories visi-
ble.
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 speci-
fied in the local host's printcap file.
When a connection request is made, the existing ser-
vices 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 ser-
vice name is treated as a printer name and the appro-
priate printcap file is scanned to see if the requested
service name is a valid printer name. If a match is
found, a new service is created by cloning the [print-
ers] section.
A few modifications are then made to the newly created
section:
The service name is set to the located printer name
If no printer name was given, the printer name is
set to the located printer name
If the service does not permit guest access and no
username was given, the username is set to the
located printer name.
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-
writable spool directory with the sticky bit set on it.
A typical [printers] entry would look like this:
[printers]
path = /usr/spool/public
writable = no
public = yes
printable = yes
All aliases given for a printer in the printcap file
are legitimate printer names as far as the server is
concerned. 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, spec-
ify the new file as your printcap. The server will
then only recognise names found in your pseudo-print-
cap, 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 sepa-
rated by newlines, components (if there are more than
one) are separated 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 detils.
PARAMETERS
Parameters define the specific attributes of services.
Some parameters are specific to the [global] section (eg.,
security). Some parameters are usable in all sections
(eg., 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 indi-
cates that a parameter is specific to the [global] sec-
tion. 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 behaviour 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 hostname that Samba is running on
%m = the netbios name of the client machine (very useful)
%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
%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 -DAUTOMOUNT then this value will be
the same as %L.
%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. As of Samba 1.9.18 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
recognised, and those may not be 100% reliable. It cur-
rently recognises Samba, WfWg, WinNT and Win95. Anything
else will be known as "UNKNOWN". If it gets it wrong then
sending me a level 3 log should allow me to fix it.
%I = The IP address of the client machine
%T = the current date and time
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 charac-
ters that aren't of the "default" case are mangled. For
example, if this is yes then a name like "Mail" would be
mangled. Default no.
"case sensitive = yes/no" controls whether filenames are
case sensitive. If they aren't then Samba must do a file-
name search and match on passed names. Default no.
"default case = upper/lower" controls what the default
case is for new filenames. 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 no.
"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 lowered. Default
no.
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.
announce as
announce version
auto services
bind interfaces only
browse list
character set
client code page
config file
deadtime
debuglevel
default
default service
dfree command
dns proxy
domain controller
domain logons
domain master
encrypt passwords
getwd cache
hide files
hide dot files
homedir map
hosts equiv
include
interfaces
keepalive
lm announce
lm interval
lock dir
load printers
local master
lock directory
log file
log level
logon drive
logon home
logon path
logon script
lpq cache time
mangled stack
max log size
max mux
max packet
max ttl
max xmit
max wins ttl
message command
min wins ttl
name resolve order
netbios aliases
netbios name
nis homedir
null passwords
os level
packet size
passwd chat
passwd chat debug
passwd program
password level
password server
preferred master
preload
printcap name
printer driver file
protocol
read bmpx
read prediction
read raw
read size
remote announce
remote browse sync
root
root dir
root directory
security
server string
shared file entries
shared mem size
smb passwd file
smbrun
socket address
socket options
status
strip dot
syslog
syslog only
time offset
time server
unix password sync
unix realname
update encrypted
username level
username map
use rhosts
valid chars
wins proxy
wins server
wins support
workgroup
write raw
COMPLETE LIST OF SERVICE PARAMETERS
Here is a list of all service parameters. See the section
of each parameter for details. Note that some are syn-
onyms.
admin users
allow hosts
alternate permissions
available
browseable
case sensitive
case sig names
copy
create mask
create mode
comment
default case
delete readonly
delete veto files
deny hosts
directory
directory mask
directory mode
dont descend
dos filetimes
dos filetime resolution
exec
fake directory create times
fake oplocks
follow symlinks
force create mode
force directory mode
force group
force user
guest account
guest ok
guest only
hide dot files
hosts allow
hosts deny
invalid users
locking
lppause command
lpq command
lpresume command
lprm command
magic output
magic script
mangle case
mangled names
mangling char
map archive
map hidden
map system
max connections
min print space
networkstation user login
only guest
only user
oplocks
path
postexec
postscript
preserve case
print command
printer driver
printer driver location
printing
print ok
printable
printer
printer name
public
read only
read list
revalidate
root postexec
root preexec
set directory
share modes
short preserve case
strict locking
sync always
user
username
users
valid users
veto files
veto oplock files
volume
wide links
writable
write ok
writeable
write list
EXPLANATION OF EACH PARAMETER
admin users (S)
This is a list of users who will be granted administrative
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 permissions.
Default: no admin users
Example: admin users = jason
announce as (G)
This specifies what type of server nmbd will announce
itself as in browse lists. By default this is set to Win-
dows NT. The valid options are "NT", "Win95" or "WfW"
meaining Windows NT, 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
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 down-
level server.
Default:
announce version = 4.2
Example:
announce version = 2.0
auto services (G)
This is a list of services that you want to be automati-
cally 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 auto services
Example: auto services = fred lp colorlp
allow hosts (S)
A synonym for this parameter is 'hosts allow'.
This parameter is a comma delimited set of hosts which are
permitted to access a service.
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 exam-
ple, 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).
You can also specify hosts by network/netmask pairs and by
netgroup names if your system supports netgroups. 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 network/net-
mask
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 netgroup "foonet" or local-
host, but deny access from one particular host
hosts allow = @foonet, localhost
hosts deny = pirate
Note that access still requires suitable user-level pass-
words.
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
alternate permissions (S)
This option affects the way the "read only" DOS attribute
is produced for UNIX files. If this is false then the read
only bit is set for files on writeable shares which the
user cannot write to.
If this is true then it is set for files whos user write
bit is not set.
The latter behaviour is useful for when users copy files
from each others directories, and use a file manager that
preserves permissions. Without this option they may get
annoyed as all copied files will have the "read only" bit
set.
Default: alternate permissions = no
Example: alternate permissions = yes
available (S)
This parameter lets you 'turn off' a service. If 'avail-
able = no', then ALL attempts to connect to the service
will fail. Such failures are logged.
Default:
available = yes
Example:
available = no
bind interfaces only (G)
This global parameter (new for 1.9.18) allows the Samba
admin to limit what interfaces on a machine will serve smb
requests. If affects file service (smbd) and name service
(nmbd) in slightly different ways.
For name service it causes nmbd to bind to ports 137 and
138 on the interfaces listed in the 'interfaces' parame-
ter. 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 interfaces 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 broadcast
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
seriously as a security feature for nmbd.
For file service it causes smbd to bind only to the inter-
face list given in the 'interfaces' parameter. 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
intermittant or non-broadcast network interfaces as it
will not cope with non-permanent interfaces.
Default:
bind interfaces only = False
Example:
bind interfaces only = True
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
Example: browseable = No
browse list(G)
This controls whether the smbd will serve a browse list to
a client doing a NetServerEnum call. Normally set to true.
You should never need to change this.
Default: browse list = Yes
case sensitive (G)
See the discussion on NAME MANGLING.
case sig names (G)
See "case sensitive"
character set (G)
This allows a smbd to map incoming characters from a DOS
850 Code page to either a Western European (ISO8859-1) or
Easter European (ISO8859-2) code page. Normally not set,
meaning no filename translation is done.
Default
character set =
Example
character set = iso8859-1
client code page (G)
Currently (Samba 1.9.17 and above) this may be set to one
of two values, 850 or 437. It specifies the base DOS code
page that the clients accessing Samba are using. To deter-
mine this, open a DOS command prompt and type the command
"chcp". This will output the code page. The default 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 co-operates with the "valid chars" parame-
ter in determining what characters are valid in filenames
and how capitalization is done. It has been added as a
convenience for clients whose code page is either 437 or
850 so a convoluted "valid chars" string does not have to
be determined. If you set both this parameter and the
"valid chars" parameter the "client code page" parameter
MUST be set before the "valid chars" in the smb.conf file.
The "valid chars" string will then augment the character
settings in the "client code page" parameter.
If "client code page" is set to a value other than 850 or
437 it will default to 850.
See also : "valid chars".
Default
client code page = 850
Example
client code page = 437
comment (S)
This is a text field that is seen next to a share when a
client does a 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 command.
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 cre-
ate similar services easily. Note that the service being
copied must occur earlier in the configuration file than
the service doing the copying.
Default:
none
Example:
copy = otherservice
create mask (S)
A synonym for this parameter is 'create mode'.
When a file is created, the neccessary 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 cre-
ated from this parameter with the value of the "force cre-
ate mode" parameter which is set to 000 by default.
For Samba 1.9.17 and above this parameter no longer
affects directory modes. See the parameter 'directory
mode' for details.
See also the "force create mode" parameter for forcing
particular mode bits to be set on created files. See also
the "directory mode" parameter for masking mode bits on
created directories.
Default:
create mask = 0744
Example:
create mask = 0775
create mode (S)
See create mask.
deadtime (G)
The value of the parameter (a decimal integer) represents
the number of minutes of inactivity before a connection is
considered dead, and it is disconnected. The deadtime only
takes effect if the number of open files is zero.
This is useful to stop a server's resources being
exhausted by a large number of inactive connections.
Most clients have an auto-reconnect feature when a connec-
tion is broken so in most cases this parameter should be
transparent to users.
Using this parameter with a timeout of a few minutes is
recommended for most systems.
A deadtime of zero indicates that no auto-disconnection
should be performed.
Default:
deadtime = 0
Example:
deadtime = 15
debug 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 configu-
ration of the system.
The default will be the debug level specified on the com-
mand line.
Example:
debug level = 3
default (G)
See default service.
default case (S)
See the section on "NAME MANGLING" Also note the addition
of "short preserve case"
default service (G)
A synonym for this parameter is 'default'.
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 nonex-
istent service results in an error.
Typically the default service would be a public, read-only
service.
Also note that as of 1.9.14 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:
default service = pub
[pub]
path = /%S
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 per-
missions, and DOS semantics prevent deletion of a read
only file.
Default:
delete readonly = No
Example:
delete readonly = Yes
deny hosts (S)
A synonym for this parameter is 'hosts deny'.
The opposite of 'allow hosts' - hosts listed here are NOT
permitted access to services unless the specific 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)
Example:
deny hosts = 150.203.4. badhost.mynet.edu.au
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 directories 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/Win-
dows users from seeing (eg. .AppleDouble)
Setting 'delete veto files = True' allows these directo-
ries to be transparently deleted when the parent directory
is deleted (so long as the user has permissions to do so).
Default:
delete veto files = False
Example:
delete veto files = True
See veto files
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 operating 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 rou-
tines to calculate the total disk space and amount avail-
able with an external routine. The example below gives a
possible script that might fulfill this function.
The external program will be passed a single parameter
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 block-
size is 1024 bytes.
Note: Your script should NOT be setuid or setgid and
should be owned by (and writable only by) root!
Default:
By default internal routines for determining 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)
#!/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)
See path.
directory mask (S)
A synonym for this parameter is 'directory mode'.
This parameter is the octal modes which are used when con-
verting DOS modes to UNIX modes when creating UNIX direc-
tories.
When a directory is created, the neccessary 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
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 cre-
ated from this parameter with the value of the "force
directory mode" parameter. This parameter is set to 000
by default (ie. no extra mode bits are added).
See the "force directory mode" parameter to cause particu-
lar mode bits to always be set on created directories.
See also the "create mode" parameter for masking mode bits
on created files.
Default:
directory mask = 0755
Example:
directory mask = 0775
directory mode (S)
See directory mask.
dns proxy (G)
Specifies that nmbd should (as a WINS server), on finding
that a NetBIOS name has not been registered, treat the
NetBIOS name word-for-word as a DNS name.
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.
Note also that nmbd will block completely until the DNS
name is resolved. This will result in temporary loss of
browsing and WINS services. Enable this option only if
you are certain that DNS resolution is fast, or you can
live with the consequences of periodic pauses in nmbd ser-
vice.
Default: dns proxy = yes
domain controller (G)
Specifies the DNS name or IP address of the machine to
refer domain logons from Win95 machines to. You should
never need to set this parameter.
Default: domain controller = no
domain logons (G)
If set to true, the Samba server will serve Windows 95
domain logons for the workgroup it is in. For more details
on setting up this feature see the file DOMAINS.txt in the
Samba source documentation directory.
Default: domain logons = no
domain master (G)
Enable WAN-wide browse list collation. Local master
browsers on broadcast-isolated subnets will give samba
their local browse lists, and ask 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.
Default:
domain master = no
dont descend (S)
There are certain directories on some systems (eg., 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 directo-
ries 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". Experimentation is the
best policy :-)
Default:
none (i.e., all directories are OK to descend)
Example:
dont descend = /proc,/dev
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 times-
tamp. 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 smbd will change
the file timstamp as DOS requires. This is a correct
implementation of a previous compile-time options
(UTIME_WORKAROUND) which was broken and is now removed.
Default:
dos filetimes = False
Example:
dos filetimes = True
dos filetime resolution (S)
Under the DOS and Windows FAT filesystem, the finest gran-
ulatity on time resolution is two seconds. Setting this
parameter for a share causes Samba to round the reported
time down to the nearest two second boundary when a query
call that requires one second resolution is made to smbd.
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 granular-
ity, the 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 report-
ing the file has changed. Setting this option causes the
two timestamps to match, and Visual C++ is happy.
Default:
dos filetime resolution = False
Example:
dos filetime resolution = True
encrypt passwords (G)
This boolean controls whether encrypted passwords will be
negotiated with the client. Note that Windows NT 4.0 SP3
and above will by default expect encrypted passwords
unless a registry entry is changed. To use encrypted pass-
words in Samba see the file docs/ENCRYPTION.txt.
exec (S)
This is an alias 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
directories.
This option is mainly used as a compatibility option for
Visual C++ when used against Samba shares. Visual C++ gen-
erated makefiles have the object directory as a dependency
for each object file, and a make rule to create the direc-
tory. 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 contains.
However, Unix time semantics mean that the create time
reported by Samba will be updated whenever a file is cre-
ated or deleted in the directory. NMAKE therefore finds
all object files in the object directory bar the last one
built are out of date compared to the directory and
rebuilds them. Enabling this option ensures directories
always predate their contents and an NMAKE build will pro-
ceed as expected.
Default:
fake directory create times = False
Example:
fake directory create times = True
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 opera-
tions. This can give enormous performance benefits.
When you set "fake oplocks = yes" Samba will always grant
oplock requests no matter how many clients are using the
file.
By enabling this option on all read-only shares or shares
that you know will only be accessed from one client at a
time you will see a big performance improvement on many
operations. If you enable this option on shares where mul-
tiple clients may be accessing the files read-write at the
same time you can get data corruption. Use this option
carefully!
It is generally much better to use the real oplock support
except for physically read-only media such as CDROMs.
This option is disabled by default.
follow symlinks (S)
This parameter allows the Samba administrator to stop smbd
from following symbolic links in a particular share. Set-
ting this parameter to "No" 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/pasword in their home
directory for instance. However it will slow filename
lookups down slightly.
This option is enabled (ie. smbd will follow symbolic
links) by default.
force create mode (S)
This parameter specifies a set of UNIX mode bit permis-
sions that will *always* be set on a file created by
Samba. This is done by bitwise 'OR'ing these bits onto the
mode bits of a file that is being created. The default for
this parameter is (in octel) 000. The modes in this param-
eter are bitwise 'OR'ed onto the file mode after the mask
set in the "create mask" parameter is applied.
See also the parameter "create mask" for details on mask-
ing mode bits on created files.
Default:
force create mode = 000
Example:
force create mode = 0755
would force all created files 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 mode (S)
This parameter specifies a set of UNIX mode bit permis-
sions 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 octel) 0000 which will
not add any extra permission bits to a created directory.
This operation is done after the mode mask in the parame-
ter "directory mask" is applied.
See also the parameter "directory mask" for details on
masking mode bits on created directories.
Default:
force directory mode = 000
Example:
force directory mode = 0755
would force all created directories 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 group (S)
This specifies a group name that all connections to this
service should be made as. This may be useful for sharing
files.
Default:
no forced group
Example:
force group = agroup
force user (S)
This specifies a user name that all connections to this
service should be made as. This may be useful for sharing
files. You should also use it carefully as using it incor-
rectly can cause security problems.
This user name only gets used once a connection is estab-
lished. Thus clients still need to connect as a valid user
and supply a valid password. Once connected, all file
operations will be performed as the "forced user", not
matter what username the client connected as.
Default:
no forced user
Example:
force user = auser
getwd cache (G)
This is a tuning option. When this is enabled a cacheing
algorithm will be used to reduce the time taken for
getwd() calls. This can have a significant impact on per-
formance, especially when widelinks is False.
Default:
getwd cache = No
Example:
getwd cache = Yes
group (S)
This is an alias for "force group" and is only kept for
compatibility with old versions of Samba. It may be
removed in future versions.
guest account (S)
This is a username which will be used for access to ser-
vices which are specified as 'guest ok' (see below). What-
ever 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. If a username is specified in a given ser-
vice, the specified username overrides this one.
One some systems the 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 -" command) and trying to print using lpr.
Note that as of version 1.9 of Samba this option may be
set differently for each service.
Default:
specified at compile time
Example:
guest account = nobody
guest ok (S)
See public.
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 affect if "guest ok" or "public" is not set
for the service.
See the section below on user/password validation for more
information about this option.
Default:
guest only = no
Example:
guest only = yes
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
Example: hide dot files = no
hide files(S)
This is a list of files or directories that are not visi-
ble 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 direc-
tories for a match as they are scanned.
See also "hide dot files", "veto files" and "case sensi-
tive"
Default No files or directories are hidden by this
option (dot files are
hidden by default because of the "hide dot files"
option).
Example hide files = /.*/DesktopFolderDB/Trash-
For%m/resource.frk/
The above example is based on files that the Macintosh
client (DAVE) creates for internal use, and also still
hides all files beginning with a dot.
homedir map (G)
If "nis homedir" is true, this parameter specifies 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.
NB: The -DNETGROUP option is required in the Makefile for
option to work and on some architectures the line -lrpcsvc
needs to be added to the LIBSM variable. This is required
for Solaris 2, FreeBSD and HPUX.
See also "nis homedir"
Default: homedir map = auto.home
Example: homedir map = amd.homedir
hosts allow (S)
See allow hosts.
hosts deny (S)
See deny hosts.
hosts equiv (G)
If this global parameter is a non-null string, it speci-
fies the name of a file to read for the names of hosts and
users who will be allowed access without specifying a
password.
This is not be confused with allow hosts which is about
hosts access to services and is more useful for guest ser-
vices. 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 security hole.
This is because you are trusting the PC to supply the cor-
rect 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 per-
haps on a home network where you trust your wife and kids
:-)
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
interfaces (G)
This option allows you to setup multiple network inter-
faces, so that Samba can properly handle browsing on all
interfaces.
The option takes a list of ip/netmask pairs. The netmask
may either be a bitmask, or a bitlength.
For example, the following line:
interfaces = 192.168.2.10/24 192.168.3.10/24
would configure two network interfaces with IP addresses
192.168.2.10 and 192.168.3.10. The netmasks of both inter-
faces would be set to 255.255.255.0.
You could produce an equivalent result by using:
interfaces = 192.168.2.10/255.255.255.0
192.168.3.10/255.255.255.0
if you prefer that format.
If this option is not set then Samba will attempt to find
a primary interface, but won't attempt to configure more
than one interface.
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 @ is interpreted as a UNIX group.
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 socket
being used has the SO_KEEPALIVE attribute set on it (see
"socket options"). Basically you should only use this
option if you strike difficulties.
Default:
keep alive = 0
Example:
keep alive = 60
lm announce (G)
This parameter determines if Samba 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 Lanman 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 parame-
ter
See also "lm interval".
Default:
lm announce = auto
Example:
lm announce = true
lm interval (G)
If Samba is set to produce Lanman announce broadcasts
needed by OS/2 clients (see the "lm announce" parameter)
this parameter defines the frequency 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 printers in
the printcap will be loaded for browsing by default.
Default: load printers = yes
Example: load printers = no
local master (G)
This option allows the nmbd to become a local master
browser on a subnet. If set to False then nmbd will not
attempt to become a local master 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 the nmbd will participate in elections
for local master browser.
Default: local master = yes
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 = /tmp/samba
Example: lock directory = /usr/local/samba/var/locks
locking (S)
This controls whether or not locking will be performed 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 indicate that
the queried lock is clear.
If "locking = yes", real locking will be performed by the
server.
This option may be particularly useful for read-only
filesystems which do not need locking (such as cdrom
drives).
Be careful about disabling locking either globally or in a
specific service, as lack of locking may result in data
corruption.
Default:
locking = yes
Example:
locking = no
log file (G)
This options 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)
see "debug level"
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.
Example: logon drive = h:
logon home (G)
This parameter specifies the home directory location when
a Win95 or NT Workstation logs into a Samba PDC. It
allows you to do "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.
Example: logon home = "\\remote_smb_server\%U"
Default: logon home = "\\%N\%U"
logon path (G)
This parameter specifies the home directory where roaming
profiles (USER.DAT / USER.MAN files for Windows 95) are
stored.
This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you
to have separate logon scripts for each user or machine.
It also specifies the directory from which the "desktop",
"start menu", "nethood" and "programs" folders, and their
contents, are loaded and displayed on your Windows 95
client.
The share and the path must be readable by the user for
the preferences and directories to be loaded onto the Win-
dows 95 client. The share must be writeable when the logs
in for the first time, in order that the Windows 95 client
can create the user.dat and other directories.
Thereafter, the directories and any of contents can, if
required, be made read-only. It is not adviseable that
the USER.DAT file be made read-only - rename it to
USER.MAN to achieve the desired effect (a MANdatory pro-
file).
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 \\%N\HOMESro-
file_path
will cause problems).
This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you
to have separate logon scripts for each user or machine.
Default:
logon path = \\%N\%U\profile
Example: logon path = \\PROFILE-
SERVER\HOME_DIR\%U\PROFILE
logon script (G)
This parameter specifies the batch file (.bat) or NT com-
mand 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 edi-
tor to create the file is recommended.
The script must be a relative path to the [netlogon] ser-
vice. If the [netlogon] service specifies a path of
/usr/local/samba/netlogon, and logon script = STARTUP.BAT,
then file that will be downloaded is:
/usr/local/samba/netlogon/STARTUP.BAT
The contents of the batch file is entirely your choice. A
suggested command would be to add NET TIME \\SERVER /SET
/YES, to force every machine to synchronise 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.
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 modi-
fied.
This option takes the standard substitutions, allowing you
to have separate logon scripts for each user or machine.
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 spe-
cific print job.
This command should be a program or script which takes a
printer name and job number to pause the print job. Cur-
rently I don't know of any print spooler system that can
do this with a simple option, except for the PPR system
from Trinity College (ppr-dist.trincoll.edu/pub/ppr). One
way of implementing this is by using job priorities, where
jobs having a too low priority won't be sent to the
printer. See also the lppause command.
If a %p is given then the printername 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 priority is equal or higher it will have the SPOOLED
or PRINTING status.
Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path
in the lppause command as the PATH may not be available to
the server.
Default:
Currently no default value is given to this string
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 pre-
vent 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 different 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 cacheing completely.
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 outputs printer
status information.
Currently six styles of printer status information are
supported; BSD, SYSV, AIX, HPUX, QNX, LPRNG and PLP. This
covers most UNIX systems. You control which type is
expected using the "printing =" option.
Some clients (notably Windows for Workgroups) may not cor-
rectly send the connection number for the 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 num-
ber sent is invalid.
If a %p is given then the printername is put in its place.
Otherwise it is placed at the end of the command.
Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path
in the lpq command as the PATH may not be available to the
server.
Default:
depends on the setting of "printing ="
Example:
lpq command = /usr/bin/lpq %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.
If a %p is given then the printername is put in its place.
A %j is replaced with the job number (an integer).
Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path
in the lpresume command as the PATH may not be available
to the server.
Default:
Currently no default value is given to this string
Example for HPUX:
lpresume command = /usr/bin/lpalt %p-%j -p2
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.
Currently seven styles of printer control are supported;
BSD, SYSV, AIX HPUX, QNX, LPRNG and PLP. This covers most
UNIX systems. You control which type is expected using the
"printing =" option.
If a %p is given then the printername is put in its place.
A %j is replaced with the job number (an integer).
Note that it is good practice to include the absolute path
in the lprm command as the PATH may not be available to
the server.
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
magic output (S)
This parameter specifies the name of a file which will
contain output created by a magic script (see magic script
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
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 comple-
tion, permissions permitting.
If the script generates output, output will be sent to the
file specified by the magic output parameter (see above).
Note that some shells are unable to interpret scripts con-
taining carriage-return-linefeed instead of linefeed 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"
mangled map (S)
This is for those who want to directly map UNIX file names
which are not representable on 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 DOS .htm is more commonly
used.
So to map 'html' to 'htm' you put:
mangled map = (*.html *.htm)
One very useful case is to remove the annoying ;1 off the
ends of filenames on some CDROMS (only visible under some
UNIXes). To do this use a map of (*;1 *)
default: no mangled map
Example: mangled map = (*;1 *)
mangled names (S)
This controls whether non-DOS names under UNIX should be
mapped to DOS-compatible names ("mangled") and made visi-
ble, 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 fol-
lows:
- the first (up to) five alphanumeric characters
before the rightmost dot of the filename are
preserved, forced to upper case, and appear as the
first (up to) five characters of the mangled name.
- 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 exten-
sion). The final extension is included in the hash
calculation only if it contains any upper case
characters 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
~.
- 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).
- 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 extension
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 charac-
ters. The probability of such a clash is 1/1300.
The name mangling (if enabled) allows a file to be copied
between UNIX directories from DOS while retaining the long
UNIX filename. UNIX files can be renamed to a new exten-
sion from DOS and will retain the same basename. Mangled
names do not change between sessions.
Default:
mangled names = yes
Example:
mangled names = no
mangling char (S)
This controls what character is used as the "magic" char-
acter 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 = ^
mangled stack (G)
This parameter controls the number of mangled names that
should be cached in the Samba server.
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 characters).
The larger this value, the more likely it is that mangled
names can be successfully converted to correct long UNIX
names. However, large stack sizes will slow most directory
access. Smaller stacks save memory in the server (each
stack element costs 256 bytes).
It is not possible to absolutely guarantee correct long
file names, so be prepared for some surprises!
Default:
mangled stack = 50
Example:
mangled stack = 100
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 modified since its last
backup. One motivation for this option it to keep
Samba/your PC from making any file it touches from becom-
ing executable under UNIX. This can be quite annoying for
shared source code, documents, etc...
Note that this requires the 'create mask' to be set such
that owner execute bit is not masked out (ie. it must
include 100). See the parameter "create mask" for details.
Default:
map archive = yes
Example:
map archive = no
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 (ie. it must
include 001). See the parameter "create mask" for
details.
Default:
map hidden = no
Example:
map hidden = yes
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 (ie. it must
include 010). See the parameter "create mask" for details.
Default:
map system = no
Example:
map system = yes
max connections (S)
This option allows the number of simultaneous connections
to a service to be limited. If "max connections" is
greater than 0 then connections will be refused if this
number of connections to the service are already open. A
value of zero mean an unlimited number of connections may
be made.
Record lock files are used to implement this feature. The
lock files will be stored in the directory 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 appar-
ent 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 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 periodically
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 outstanding
simultaneous SMB operations that samba tells the client it
will allow. You should never need to set this parameter.
Default: max mux = 50
max packet (G)
A synonym for this parameter is 'packet size'.
max ttl (G)
This option tells nmbd what the default 'time to live' of
NetBIOS names should be (in seconds) when nmbd is request-
ing a name using either a broadcast or from a WINS server.
You should never need to change this parameter.
Default: max ttl = 14400
max wins ttl (G)
This option tells nmbd when acting as a WINS server (wins
support = true) 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 3 days (259200 seconds).
Default:
max wins ttl = 259200
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 perfor-
mance 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.
What I use 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 COM-
MAND RETURN IMMEDIATELY. That's why I have the & on the
end. If it doesn't return immediately then your PCs may
freeze when sending messages (they should recover after
30secs, hopefully).
All messages are delivered as the global guest user. The
command takes the standard substitutions, although %u
won't work (%U may be better in this case).
Apart from the standard substitutions, some additional
ones apply. In particular:
%s = the filename containing the message
%t = the destination that the message was sent to (proba-
bly the server name)
%f = who the message is from
You could make this command send mail, or whatever else
takes your fancy. Please let me 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 com-
mand = rm %s".
For the really adventurous, try something like this:
message command = csh -c 'csh < %s |&
/usr/local/samba/bin/smbclient \
-M %m; rm %s' &
this would execute the command as a script on the server,
then give them the result in a WinPopup message. Note that
this could cause a loop if you send a message from the
server using smbclient! You better wrap the above in a
script that checks for this :-)
Default: no message command
Example:
message command = csh -c 'xedit %s;rm %s' &
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 no limit.
Default: min print space = 0
Example: min print space = 2000
min wins ttl (G)
This option tells nmbd when acting as a WINS server (wins
support = true) 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 seconds).
Default:
min wins ttl = 21600
name resolve order (G)
This option is used by the programs smbd, nmbd and smb-
client to determine what naming services and in what order
to resolve host names to IP addresses. This option is
most useful in smbclient. The option takes a space sepa-
rated string of different name resolution options. These
are "lmhosts", "host", "wins" and "bcast". They cause
names to be resolved as follows :
lmhosts : Lookup an IP address in the Samba lmhosts file.
host : Do a standard host name to IP address resolu-
tion, using the
system /etc/hosts, NIS, or DNS lookups. This
method of name
resolution is operating system depended (for
instance on Solaris
this may be controlled by the /etc/nsswitch.conf
file). 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. 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.
The default order is lmhosts, host, wins, bcast and these
name resolution methods will be attempted in this order.
This option was first introduced in Samba 1.9.18p4.
Default:
name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast
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 names that nmbd will advertise as addi-
tional names by which the Samba server is known. This
allows one machine to appear in browse lists under multi-
ple 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 capabil-
ities.
See also 'netbios name'.
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'.
Example:
netbios name = MYNAME
nis homedir (G)
Get the home share server from a NIS (or YP) 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, two network hops are
required to access the home directory and this can be very
slow especially with writing via Samba to an NFS mounted
directory. 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 return-
ing the home share to the client, it will consult the NIS
(or YP) map specified in "homedir map" and return the
server listed there.
Default: nis homedir = false
Example: nis homedir = true
networkstation user login (G)
This global parameter (new for 1.9.18p3) affects server
level security. With this set (recommended) samba will do
a full NetWkstaUserLogon to confirm that the client really
should have login rights. This can cause problems with
machines in trust relationships in which case you can dis-
able it here, but be warned, we have heard that some NT
machines will then allow anyone in with any password! Make
sure you test it.
In Samba 1.9.18p5 this parameter is of limited use, as
smbd now explicitly tests for this NT bug and will refuse
to use a password server that has the problem. The parame-
ter still defaults to on, for compatibility, but it is now
probably safe to set this to off without testing the NT
server being used as a password server.
Default: networkstation user login = yes
Example: networkstation user login = no
null passwords (G)
Allow or disallow access to accounts that have null pass-
words.
Default: null passwords = no
Example: null passwords = yes
only guest (S)
A synonym for this command is 'guest only'.
only user (S)
This is a boolean option that controls whether connections
with usernames not in the user= list will be allowed. By
default this option is disabled so a client can supply a
username to be used by the server.
Note that this also means Samba won't try to deduce user-
names from the service name. This can be annoying 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 directories is the name of the user.
Default: only user = False
Example: only user = True
oplocks (S)
This boolean option tells smbd whether to issue oplocks
(opportunistic locks) to file open requests on this share.
The oplock code was introduced in Samba 1.9.18 and can
dramatically (approx 30% or more) improve the speed of
access to files on Samba servers. It allows the clients to
agressively cache files locally and you may want to dis-
able this option for unreliable network environments (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 on
a per share basis. See the 'veto oplock files' parameter.
Default:
oplocks = True
Example:
oplocks = False
os level (G)
This integer value controls what level Samba advertises
itself as for browse elections. See BROWSING.txt for
details.
packet size (G)
The maximum transmit packet size during a raw read. This
option is no longer implemented as of version 1.7.00, and
is kept only so old configuration files do not become
invalid.
passwd chat (G)
This string controls the "chat" conversation that takes
places between smbd and the local password changing pro-
gram to change the users password. The string describes a
sequence of response-receive pairs that smbd uses to
determine what to send to the passwd program and what to
expect back. If the expected output is not received then
the password is not changed.
This chat sequence is often quite site specific, depending
on what local methods are used for password control (such
as NIS+ etc).
The string can contain the macros %o and %n which are sub-
stituted for the old and new passwords respectively. It
can also contain the standard macros \n \r \t and \s to
give line-feed, carriage-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
fullstop "." then no string is sent. Similarly, is the
expect string is a fullstop 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).
See also 'unix password sync' and 'passwd chat debug'
Example:
passwd chat = "*Enter OLD password*" %o\n "*Enter
NEW password*" %n\n \
"*Reenter NEW password*" %n\n
"*Password changed*"
Default:
passwd chat = *old*password* %o\n *new*password*
%n\n *new*password* %n\n *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
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 and should be turned off after this
has been done. This parameter is off by default.
Example:
passwd chat debug = True
Default:
passwd chat debug = False
passwd program (G)
The name of a program that can be used to set user pass-
words.
This is only available if you have enabled remote password
changing at compile time (see the comments in the Makefile
for details). Any occurrences of %u will be replaced with
the user name. The user name is checked for existance
before calling the password changing program.
Also note that many passwd programs insist in "reasonable"
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 sequence is called *AS ROOT* when the SMB
password in the smbpasswd file is being changed. If the
'unix passwd sync' parameter is set this parameter MUST
USE ABSOLUTE PATHS for ALL programs called, and must be
examined for security implications. Note that by default
See also 'unix password sync'
Default: passwd program = /bin/passwd
Example: passwd program = /sbin/passwd %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 LANMAN1 protocol, but leaves
them alone when using COREPLUS!
This parameter defines the maximum number of characters
that may be upper case in passwords.
For example, say the password given was "FRED". If pass-
word level is set to 1 (one), the following combinations
would be tried if "FRED" failed: "Fred", "fred", "fRed",
"frEd", "freD". If password level was set to 2 (two), the
following combinations 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.
If you find the connections are taking too long with this
option then you probably have a slow crypt() routine.
Samba now comes with a fast "ufc crypt" that you can
select in the Makefile. You should also make sure the
PASSWORD_LENGTH option is correct for your system in
local.h and includes.h. On most systems only the first 8
chars of a password are significant so PASSWORD_LENGTH
should be 8, but on some longer passwords are significant.
The includes.h file tries to select the right length for
your system.
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 "security = server"
you can get Samba to do all its username/password valida-
tion via a remote server.
This options 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 internet name then you may have
to add its netbios name to /etc/hosts.
Note that with Samba 1.9.18p4 and above 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 "LM NT 0.12" protocol, and it must be
in user level security mode.
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 substi-
tutions, 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 better restrict them with hosts
allow!
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 you are using a WindowsNT server as your password
server then you will have to ensure that your users are
able to login from the Samba server, as the network logon
will appear to come from there rather than from the users
workstation.
path (S)
A synonym for this parameter is 'directory'.
This parameter specifies a directory to which the user of
the service is to be given access. In the case of print-
able 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-writable
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 username that the client is connecting as. Any occur-
rences of %m will be replaced by the name of the machine
they are connecting from. These replacements are very use-
ful 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+
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 do 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 = False
Example: postscript = True
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 welcome mes-
sage every time they log in. Maybe a message 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 postexec
Default: none (no command executed)
Example:
preexec = echo \"%u connected to %S from %m (%I)\"
>> /tmp/log
preferred master (G)
This boolean parameter controls if Samba is a preferred
master browser for its workgroup. If this is set to true,
on startup, samba will force an election, and it will have
a slight advantage in winning the election. It is recom-
mended that this parameter is used in conjunction with
domain master = yes, so that samba 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 continuously attempt to become the
local master browser. This will result in unnecessary
broadcast traffic and reduced browsing capabilities.
See os level = nn
Default:
preferred master = no
preload
This is an alias for "auto services"
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 = no
See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for a fuller discus-
sion.
print command (S)
After a print job has finished spooling to a service, 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 processed,
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 occurrences of "%s"
will be replaced by the appropriate spool file name, and
all occurrences of "%p" will be replaced by the appropri-
ate printer name. The spool file name is generated auto-
matically by the server, the printer name is discussed
below.
The full path name will be used for the filename if %s is
not preceded by a /. If you don't like this (it can stuff
up some lpq output) then use %f instead. Any occurrences
of %f get replaced by the spool filename without the full
path at the front.
The print command MUST contain at least one occurrence 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 service that does not
have its own print command specified.
If there is neither a specified print command for a print-
able 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 alterna-
tive guest account that can print and set the "guest
account" in the [global] section.
You can form quite complex print commands by realising
that they are just passed to a shell. For example the fol-
lowing 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.
Default: print command = lpr -r -P %p %s
Example:
print command = /usr/local/samba/bin/myprintscript %p
%s
print ok (S)
See printable.
printable (S)
A synonym for this parameter is 'print ok'.
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 permitting) via the
spooling of print data. The 'read only' parameter controls
only non-printing access to the resource.
Default:
printable = no
Example:
printable = yes
printcap name (G)
This parameter may be used to override the compiled-in
default printcap name used by the server (usually
/etc/printcap). See the discussion of the [printers] sec-
tion above for reasons why you might want to do this.
On SystemV systems that use lpstat to list available
printers you can use "printcap name = lpstat" to automati-
cally obtain lists of available printers. This is the
default for systems that define SYSV at compile time in
Samba (this includes most SystemV 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.
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/qcon-
fig". Samba will assume the file is in AIX "qconfig" for-
mat if the string "/qconfig" appears in the printcap file-
name.
Default:
printcap name = /etc/printcap
Example:
printcap name = /etc/myprintcap
printer (S)
A synonym for this parameter is 'printer name'.
This parameter specifies the name of the printer to which
print jobs spooled through a printable service 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 driver (S)
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
WindowsNT then you can use this to automate the setup of
printers on your system.
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 with no "printer driver"
option set and the client will give you a list of printer
drivers. The appropriate strings are shown in a scrollbox
after you have chosen the printer manufacturer.
Example: printer driver = HP LaserJet 4L
printer name (S)
See printer.
printer driver file (G)
This parameter tells Samba where the printer driver defi-
nition file, used when serving drivers to Windows 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.def' files
found on the Windows 95 client system. For more details on
setting up serving of printer drivers to Windows 95
clients, see the documentation file
docs/PRINTER_DRIVER.txt.
Default:
None (set in compile).
Example:
printer driver file = /usr/local/samba/print-
ers/drivers.def
Related parameters. printer driver location
printer driver location (S)
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$
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
documentation file docs/PRINTER_DRIVER.txt.
Default:
None
Example:
printer driver location = \\MACHINE\PRINTER$
Related paramerers. printer driver file
printing (S)
This parameters controls how printer status information is
interpreted on your system, and also affects the default
values for the "print command", "lpq command" and "lprm
command".
Currently six printing styles are supported. They are
"printing = bsd", "printing = sysv", "printing = hpux",
"printing = aix", "printing = qnx" and "printing = plp".
To see what the defaults are for the other print commands
when using these three options use the "testparm" program.
As of version 1.9.18 of Samba this option can be set on a
per printer basis
protocol (G)
The value of the parameter (a string) is the highest pro-
tocol level that will be supported by the server.
Possible values are CORE, COREPLUS, LANMAN1, LANMAN2 and
NT1. The relative merits of each are discussed in the
README file.
Normally this option should not be set as the automatic
negotiation phase in the SMB protocol takes care of choos-
ing the appropriate protocol.
Default: protocol = NT1
Example: protocol = LANMAN1
public (S)
A synonym for this parameter is 'guest ok'.
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 user/password validation for more
information about this option.
Default:
public = no
Example:
public = yes
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
"read only" option is set to. The list can include group
names using the @group syntax.
See also the "write list" option
Default:
read list =
Example:
read list = mary, @students
read only (S)
See writable and write ok. Note that this is an inverted
synonym for writable and write ok.
read prediction (G)
This options enables or disables the read prediction code
used to speed up reads from the server. When enabled the
server will try to pre-read data from the last accessed
file that was opened read-only while waiting for packets.
Default:
read prediction = False
Example:
read prediction = True
read raw (G)
This parameter controls whether or not the server will
support raw reads when transferring data to clients.
If enabled, raw reads allow reads of 65535 bytes in one
packet. This typically provides a major performance bene-
fit.
However, some clients either negotiate the allowable 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
Example:
read raw = no
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 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 2048, but very little experimentation
has been done yet to determine the optimal 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 allocate memory unnecessarily.
Default: read size = 2048
Example: read size = 8192
remote announce (G)
This option allows you to setup nmbd to periodically
announce itself to arbitrary IP addresses with an arbi-
trary 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 workgroup names. If
you leave out the workgroup name then the one given in the
"workgroup" option is used instead.
The IP addresses you choose would normally be the broad-
cast addresses of the remote networks, but can also be the
IP addresses of known browse masters if your network con-
fig is that stable.
This option replaces similar functionality from the nmbd
lmhosts file.
remote browse sync (G)
This option allows you to setup nmbd to periodically
request synchronisation 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 multi-
ple 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 nor-
mal browse propagation rules don't work. The remote work-
group 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 master
browser on the specified subnets or addresses to synchro-
nise their browse lists with the local server.
The IP addresses you choose would normally be the broad-
cast addresses of the remote networks, but can also be the
IP addresses of known browse masters if your network con-
fig 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 it's segment.
revalidate (S)
This options controls whether Samba will allow a previ-
ously validated username/password pair to be used to
attach to a share. Thus if you connect to \\server\share1
then to \\server\share2 it won't automatically allow the
client to request connection to the second share as the
same username as the first without a password.
If "revalidate" is True then the client will be denied
automatic access as the same username.
Default: revalidate = False
Example: revalidate = True
root (G)
See root directory.
root dir (G)
See root directory.
root directory (G)
Synonyms for this parameter are 'root dir' and 'root'.
The server will chroot() 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 directo-
ries (depending on the setting of the "wide links" parame-
ter).
Adding a "root dir" 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 spec-
ified in the "root dir" option, *including* some files
needed for complete operation of the server. To maintain
full operability of the server you will need to mirror
some system files into the "root dir" tree. In particular
you will need to mirror /etc/passwd (or a subset of it),
and any binaries or configuration files needed for print-
ing (if required). The set of files that must be mirrored
is operating system dependent.
Default:
root directory = /
Example:
root directory = /homes/smb
root postexec (S)
This is the same as postexec except that the command is
run as root. This is useful for unmounting filesystems
(such as cdroms) after a connection is closed.
root preexec (S)
This is the same as preexec except that the command is run
as root. This is useful for mounting filesystems (such as
cdroms) before a connection is finalised.
security (G)
This option affects how clients respond to Samba.
The option sets the "security mode bit" in replies to pro-
tocol negotiations 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=SHARE", mainly because that was
the only option at one stage.
The alternatives are "security = user" or "security =
server".
If your PCs use usernames that are the same as their user-
names 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".
There is a bug in WfWg that may affect your decision. When
in user 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 con-
nect to a Samba service as anyone except the user that you
are logged into WfWg as.
If you use "security = server" then Samba will try to val-
idate the username/password 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 smb-
passwd file to check users against. See the documentation
docs/ENCRYPTION.txt for details on how to set this up.
See the "password server" option for more details.
Default:
security = SHARE
Example:
security = USER
server string (G)
This controls what string will show up in the printer com-
ment 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 number.
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 Digital
Pathworks client. See the Pathworks documentation for
details.
Default:
set directory = no
Example:
set directory = yes
shared file entries (G)
This parameter has been removed (as of Samba 1.9.18 and
above). The new System V shared memory code prohibits the
user from allocating the share hash bucket size directly.
shared mem size (G)
This parameter is only useful when Samba has been compiled
with FAST_SHARE_MODES. It specifies the size of the
shared memory (in bytes) to use between smbd processes.
You should never change this parameter unless you have
studied the source and know what you are doing. This
parameter defaults to 1024 multiplied by the setting of
the maximum number of open files in the file local.h in
the Samba source code. MAX_OPEN_FILES is normally set to
100, so this parameter defaults to 102400 bytes.
Default shared mem size = 102400
smb passwd file (G)
This option sets the path to the encrypted smbpasswd file.
This is a *VERY DANGEROUS OPTION* if the smb.conf is user
writable. By default the path to the smbpasswd file is
compiled into Samba.
smbrun (G)
This sets the full path to the smbrun binary. This
defaults to the value in the Makefile.
You must get this path right for many services to work
correctly.
Default: taken from Makefile
Example: smbrun = /usr/local/samba/bin/smbrun
share modes (S)
This enables or disables the honouring 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 lock files in the "lock direc-
tory". The "lock directory" specified in smb.conf must be
readable by all users.
The share modes that are enabled by this option are
DENY_DOS, DENY_ALL, DENY_READ, DENY_WRITE, DENY_NONE and
DENY_FCB.
Enabling this option gives full share compatibility but
may cost a bit of processing time on the UNIX server. They
are enabled by default.
Default: share modes = yes
Example: share modes = no
short preserve case (S)
This controls if new short filenames are created with the
case that the client passes, or if they are forced to be
the "default" case.
Default:
short preserve case = no
See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for a fuller discus-
sion.
socket address (G)
This option allows you to control what address Samba will
listen for connections on. This is used to support multi-
ple virtual interfaces on the one server, each with a dif-
ferent configuration.
By default samba will accept connections on any address.
Example: socket address = 192.168.2.20
socket options (G)
This option (which can also be invoked with the -O command
line 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. I strongly suggest you read the
appropriate documentation 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 mis-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 me samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au.
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 settable
using this option:
SO_KEEPALIVE
SO_REUSEADDR
SO_BROADCAST
TCP_NODELAY
IPTOS_LOWDELAY
IPTOS_THROUGHPUT
SO_SNDBUF *
SO_RCVBUF *
SO_SNDLOWAT *
SO_RCVLOWAT *
Those marked with a * take an integer argument. The others
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
If you have an almost unloaded local network and you don't
mind a lot of extra CPU usage in the server 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: no socket options
Example: socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY
status (G)
This enables or disables logging of connections to a sta-
tus file that smbstatus can read.
With this disabled smbstatus won't be able to tell you
what connections are active.
Default: status = yes
Example: status = no
strict locking (S)
This is a boolean that controls the handling of file lock-
ing 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 lock-
ing = no" is preferable.
Default: strict locking = no
Example: strict locking = yes
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.
Default: strip dot = no
Example:
strip dot = yes
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 to LOG_NOTICE, debug
level three maps onto LOG_INFO. The paramter sets the
threshold for doing the mapping, all Samba debug messages
above this threashold are mapped to syslog LOG_DEBUG mes-
sages.
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
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
synchronous). If this is true then every write will be
followed by a fsync() call to ensure the data is written
to disk.
Default: sync always = no
Example: sync always = yes
time offset (G)
This parameter is a setting in minutes to add to the nor-
mal GMT to local time conversion. This is useful if you
are serving a lot of PCs that have incorrect daylight sav-
ing time handling.
Default: time offset = 0
Example: time offset = 60
time server (G)
This parameter determines if nmbd advertises itself as a
time server to Windows clients. The default is False.
Default: time server = False
Example: time server = True
unix password sync (G)
This boolean parameter controlls whether Samba attempts to
synchronise 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 'passwd program' pro-
gram is called *AS ROOT* - to allow the new UNIX password
to be set without access to the old UNIX password (as the
SMB password has change code has no access to the old
password cleartext, only the new). By default this is set
to false.
See also 'passwd program', 'passwd chat'
Default:
unix password sync = False
Example:
unix password sync = True
unix realname (G)
This boolean parameter when set causes samba to supply the
real name field from the unix password file to the client.
This is useful for setting up mail clients and WWW
browsers on systems used by more than one person.
Default: unix realname = no
Example: unix realname = yes
update encrypted (G)
This boolean parameter allows a user logging on with a
plaintext password to have their encrypted (hashed) pass-
word 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 authentica-
tion (the SMB challenge/response authentication mechanism)
without forcing all users to re-enter their passwords via
smbpasswd at the time the change is made. This is a conve-
nience option to allow the change over to encrypted pass-
words to be made over a longer period. Once all users have
encrypted representations of their passwords in the smb-
passwd file this parameter should be set to "off".
In order for this parameter to work correctly the "encrypt
passwords" must be set to "no" when this parameter is set
to "yes".
Note that even when this parameter is set a user authenti-
cating to smbd must still enter a valid password in order
to connect correctly, and to update their hashed
(smbpasswd) passwords.
Default: update encrypted = no
Example: update encrypted = yes
user (S)
See username.
username (S)
A synonym for this parameter is 'user'.
Multiple users may be specified in a comma-delimited 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 pass-
word 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 passwords. You may get timeouts or secu-
rity breaches using this parameter unwisely.
Samba relies on the underlying UNIX security. This parame-
ter does not restrict who can login, it just offers hints
to the Samba server as to what usernames 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 anything that user
cannot do.
To restrict a service to a particular set of users you can
use the "valid users=" line.
If any of the usernames begin with a @ then the name will
be looked up in the groups file and will expand to a list
of all users in the group of that name. Note that search-
ing though a groups file can take quite some time, and
some clients may time out during the search.
See the section below on username/password validation for
more information on how this parameter determines access
to the services.
Default:
The guest account if a guest service, else the name
of the service.
Examples:
username = fred
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 behaviour
changes. This parameter is a number that specifies the
number of uppercase combinations to try whilst trying to
determine the UNIX user name. The higher the number the
more combinations will be tried, but the slower the dis-
covery 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 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 single username so that they can more easily
share files.
The map file is parsed line by line. Each line should con-
tain a single UNIX username on the left then a '=' fol-
lowed by a list of usernames on the right. The list of
usernames on the right may contain names of the form
@group in which case they will match any UNIX username in
that group. The special client name '*' is a wildcard and
matches any name.
The file is processed on each line by taking the supplied
username and comparing it with each username 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 con-
tinues 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. Other-
wise 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 "administra-
tor" 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.
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.
!sys = mary fred guest = *
Note that the remapping is applied to all occurrences 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 excep-
tion to this is the username passed to the "password
server" (if you have one). The password server will
receive whatever username the client supplies without mod-
ification.
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
valid chars (S)
The option allows you to specify additional characters
that should be considered valid by the server in file-
names. 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:uppercase pair.
If you have an editor capable of entering the characters
into the config file then it is probably easiest to use
this method. Otherwise you can specify the characters in
octal, decimal or hexadecimal form using the usual C nota-
tion.
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 characters,
and alter the uppercase and lowercase mappings appropri-
ately.
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" parame-
ter the "valid chars" settings will be overwritten.
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 has written a package called
"validchars" which will automatically produce a complete
"valid chars" line for a given client system. Look in the
examples subdirectory for this package.
valid users (S)
This is a list of users that should be allowed to login to
this service. A name starting with @ is interpreted as a
UNIX group.
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 sensitivity option is applicable in
vetoing files.
One feature of the veto files parameter that it is impor-
tant to be aware of, is that if a directory contains noth-
ing 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 auto-
matically deleted* along with it, if the user has UNIX
permissions to do so.
Setting this parameter will affect the performance of
Samba, as it will be forced to check all files and direc-
tories for a match as they are scanned.
See also "hide files" and "case sensitive"
Default No files or directories are vetoed.
Examples
Example 1.
Veto any files containing the word Security,
any ending in .tmp, and any directory containing the
word root.
veto files = /*Security*/*.tmp/*root*/
Example 2.
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 administra-
tor 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.
Examples 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 :
veto oplock files = /*.SEM/
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.
The default is 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.
Default:
wide links = yes
Example:
wide links = no
wins proxy (G)
This is a boolean that controls if nmbd will respond to
broadcast name queries on behalf of other hosts. You may
need to set this to no for some older clients.
Default: wins proxy = no
wins server (G)
This specifies the DNS name (or IP address) of the WINS
server that Samba should register with. If you have a WINS
server on your network then you should set this to the
WINS servers name.
You should point this at your WINS server if you have a
multi-subnetted network. Default: wins server =
wins support (G)
This boolean controls if the nmbd process in Samba will
act as a WINS server. You should not set this to true
unless you have a multi-subnetted network 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.
Default:
set in the Makefile
Example:
workgroup = MYGROUP
writable (S)
A synonym for this parameter is 'write ok'. 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 operations.
Default:
writable = no
Examples:
read only = no
writable = yes
write ok = yes
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 "read
only" option is set to. The list can include group names
using the @group syntax.
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 =
Example:
write list = admin, root, @staff
write ok (S)
See writable and read only.
write raw (G)
This parameter controls whether or not the server will
support raw writes when transferring data from clients.
Default:
write raw = yes
Example:
write raw = no
NOTE ABOUT USERNAME/PASSWORD VALIDATION
There are a number of ways in which a user can connect to
a service. The server follows the following steps in
determining if it will allow a connection to a specified
service. If all the steps fail then the connection request
is rejected. If one of the steps pass then the following
steps are not checked.
If the service is marked "guest only = yes" then steps 1
to 5 are skipped
Step 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\ser-
vice%username method of passing a username.
Step 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.
Step 3: The client's netbios name and any previously used
user names are checked against the supplied password, if
they match then the connection is allowed as the corre-
sponding user.
Step 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.
This step is skipped if "revalidate = yes" for this ser-
vice.
Step 5: If a "user = " field is given in the smb.conf file
for the service and the client has supplied a password,
and that password matches (according to the UNIX system's
password checking) with one of the usernames from the
user= field then the connection 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.
Step 6: If the service is a guest service then a connec-
tion is made as the username given in the "guest account
=" for the service, irrespective of the supplied password.
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 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 (mostly) correct for version 1.9.18 of
the Samba suite, plus some of the recent patches to it.
These notes will necessarily lag behind development of the
software, so it is possible that your version of the
server has extensions or parameter semantics that differ
from or are not covered by this man page. Please notify
these to the address below for rectification.
Prior to version 1.5.21 of the Samba suite, the configura-
tion file was radically different (more primitive). If you
are using a version earlier than 1.8.05, it is STRONGLY
recommended that you upgrade.
OPTIONS
Not applicable.
FILES
Not applicable.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
Not applicable.
SEE ALSO
smbd(8) smbclient(1) nmbd(8) testparm(1) testprns(1)
lpq(1) hosts_access(5)
DIAGNOSTICS
[This section under construction]
Most diagnostics issued by the server are logged in a
specified log file. The log file name is specified at com-
pile time, but may be overridden on the smbd command line
(see smbd(8)).
The number and nature of diagnostics available depends on
the debug level used by the server. If you have problems,
set the debug level to 3 and peruse the log files.
Most messages are reasonably self-explanatory. Unfortu-
nately, at time of creation of this man page the source
code is still too fluid to warrant describing each and
every diagnostic. At this stage your best bet is still to
grep the source code and inspect the conditions that gave
rise to the diagnostics you are seeing.
BUGS
None known.
Please send bug reports, comments and so on to:
samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au (Andrew Tridgell)
or to the mailing list:
samba@listproc.anu.edu.au
You may also like to subscribe to the announcement chan-
nel:
samba-announce@listproc.anu.edu.au
To subscribe to these lists send a message to list-
proc@listproc.anu.edu.au with a body of "subscribe samba
Your Name" or "subscribe samba-announce Your Name".
Errors or suggestions for improvements to the Samba man
pages should be mailed to:
samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au (Andrew Tridgell)