SAMBA(7)

📦
version 4.24.7 · 27 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 SAMBA(7) 💖

ok so you opened the samba manual page and honestly? slay. welcome to the whole vibe. this is the miscellanea page, which is fancy speak for "the group chat intro to the entire Samba universe." buckle up bestie 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

samba — a Windows AD and SMB/CIFS fileserver for UNIX 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

samba

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so here's the tea ☕ The Samba software suite is a whole collection of programs that implements the Server Message Block protocol (everyone calls it SMB, you'll see it everywhere) for UNIX systems, and it also provides Active Directory services. The very first version of the SMB protocol is sometimes also called the Common Internet File System (CIFS). if you want a more thorough description, go read http://www.ubiqx.org/cifs/. Samba also implements the NetBIOS protocol in nmbd. no cap, it does a LOT.

Now let's meet the cast 👑 — every one of these has its own manual page, and you should genuinely read them:

  • samba(8) — the samba daemon provides the Active Directory services and the file and print services to SMB clients. its config file is described in smb.conf(5).
  • smbd(8) — the smbd daemon provides the file and print services to SMB clients. config file again: smb.conf(5).
  • nmbd(8) — the nmbd daemon provides NetBIOS nameservice and browsing support. yep, smb.conf(5).
  • winbindd(8) — winbindd is a daemon used for integrating authentication and the user database into unix.
  • smbclient(1) — implements a simple ftp-like client. this is what you want for accessing SMB shares on other compatible SMB servers, and it can also let a UNIX box print to a printer attached to any SMB server. iconic.
  • samba-tool(8) — the main Samba Administration tool regarding Active Directory services. the big one 💅
  • testparm(1) — a simple syntax checker for Samba's smb.conf(5) configuration file. ⚠️ BUT in AD server mode you should use samba-tool testparm instead.
  • smbstatus(1) — gives you access to information about the current connections to smbd.
  • nmblookup(1) — lets you make NetBIOS name queries.
  • smbpasswd(8) — a tool for setting passwords on local Samba, and also on remote SMB servers.
  • smbcacls(1) — a tool to set ACL's on remote SMB servers.
  • smbtree(1) — a text-based network neighborhood tool.
  • smbtar(1) — can make backups of data directly from SMB servers.
  • smbspool(8) — a helper utility for printing on printers connected to SMB servers.
  • smbcontrol(1) — a utility that can change the behaviour of running samba, smbd, nmbd and winbindd daemons.
  • rpcclient(1) — a utility you can use to execute RPC commands on remote SMB servers.
  • pdbedit(8) — can be used to maintain the local user database on a Samba server.
  • net(8) — the main administration tool for Samba member and standalone servers.
  • wbinfo(1) — a utility that retrieves and stores information related to winbind.
  • profiles(1) — a command-line utility that can be used to replace all occurrences of a certain SID with another SID.
  • log2pcap(1) — a utility for generating pcap trace files from Samba log files.
  • vfstest(1) — a utility that can be used to test vfs modules.
  • ntlm_auth(1) — a helper-utility for external programs wanting to do NTLM-authentication.
  • smbcquotas(1) — a tool to manage quotas on remote SMB servers.

✨ COMPONENTS ✨

The Samba suite is made up of several components, and each one gets its own manual page. strongly recommended: read the documentation that comes with Samba and the manual pages of those components that you actually use. fr fr.

if the manual pages and documents aren't clear enough for you, then please visit https://devel.samba.org for info on how to file a bug report or submit a patch. we love a contributor 🫶

if you require help, visit the Samba webpage at https://www.samba.org/ and explore the many option available to you. 🌈

✨ AVAILABILITY ✨

The Samba software suite is licensed under the GNU Public License(GPL). a copy of that license should have come with the package in the file COPYING. you are encouraged to distribute copies of the Samba suite, but please obey the terms of this license bestie, it's not optional 💀

The latest version of the Samba suite can be obtained from https://download.samba.org/pub/samba/. go get it ✨

The Samba Wiki at https://wiki.samba.org also has a lot of useful information. and on the Samba mailing list at https://lists.samba.org you can find a lot of information in the archives, and you can subscribe to the samba list and ask for help or discuss things. very main character of you.

✨ VERSION ✨

This man page is part of version 4.24.7 of the Samba suite. ⭐

✨ CONTRIBUTIONS ✨

If you wish to contribute to the Samba project, then I suggest you join the Samba mailing list at https://lists.samba.org. 🎀

If you have patches to submit, visit https://devel.samba.org/ for information on how to do it properly. we prefer patches in git format-patch format. periodt.

✨ CONTRIBUTORS ✨

Contributors to the project are now too numerous to mention here, but all deserve the thanks of all Samba users. 😭💖 To see a full list, look at the change-log in the source package for the pre-CVS changes, and at https://git.samba.org/ for the contributors to Samba post-GIT. GIT is the Open Source source code control system used by the Samba Team to develop Samba. The project would have been unmanageable without it. no exaggeration, literally unmanageable.

✨ AUTHOR ✨

The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed by the Samba Team as an Open Source project, similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed. legends only 👑

okay that's the whole page bestie, go forth and share your files responsibly 🦋💅

Samba 4.24.7, dated 09/09/2026 — and that's the SAMBA(7) page, wrapped with love 🌸

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