SAMBA(8)

📦
version 4.24.7 · 26 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ SAMBA(8) ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the samba manual page — it's from the System Administration tools fam and it's literally the blueprint for the server that runs your whole AD + file-share + printing life 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

samba — the server that provides AD and SMB/CIFS services to clients. it's giving "backbone of your network" energy, no cap.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

samba [-D|--daemon] [-F|--foreground] [-i|--interactive]
 [-M|--model=MODEL] [--maximum-runtime=seconds] [-b|--show-build]
 [--no-process-group] [-d|--debuglevel=DEBUGLEVEL] [--debug-stdout]
 [--configfile=CONFIGFILE] [--option=name=value]
 [-l|--log-basename=LOGFILEBASE] [--leak-report] [--leak-report-full]
 [-V|--version]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so this program is part of the samba(7) suite, periodt. 🫶

samba is the server daemon that provides Active Directory, filesharing and printing services to clients. the server hands out filespace and directory services to clients using the SMB (or CIFS) protocol plus other related protocols like DCE/RPC, LDAP and Kerberos. iconic behavior fr fr.

the clients it supports include MSCLIENT 3.0 for DOS, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000/XP/2003, OS/2, DAVE for Macintosh, and cifsfs for Linux. talk about range 😭👑

if you want the extensive deets on all the services this server can provide, that lives in the man page for the configuration file that controls the attributes of those services (see smb.conf(5)). this man page is not gonna describe the services themselves — it concentrates on the administrative aspects of running the server. main character energy only.

⚠️ okay important bestie: there are significant security implications to running this server, and the smb.conf(5) manual page should be regarded as mandatory reading before you proceed with installation. not optional. mandatory. don't skip it. 🙈

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -D|--daemon — if you specify this, the server operates as a daemon. that means it detaches itself and runs in the background, fielding requests on the appropriate ports. running the server as a daemon is the recommended way of running samba for servers that provide more than casual use file and print services. this switch is assumed if samba is executed on the command line of a shell.
  • -F|--foreground — if specified, this makes the samba process not daemonize, i.e. it doesn't double-fork and it doesn't disassociate with the terminal.
  • -i|--interactive — if this is specified it causes the server to run "interactively", not as a daemon, even if the server is executed on the command line of a shell. setting this negates the implicit daemon mode when run from the command line. samba also logs to standard output, as if the -S parameter had been given. 💅
  • -M|--model — this one lets you specify the "process model" samba should use, which determines how concurrent clients are handled. the available process models are:
    • single — all Samba services run in a single process. this is not recommended for production configurations. bestie, just don't.
    • standard — a process is created for each Samba service, and for those services that support it (currently only LDAP and NETLOGON) a new process is started for each new client connection. historically, this was the 'standard' way Samba behaved up until v4.10. ngl, note that this model can be resource intensive if you have a large number of client connections. 😭
    • prefork — the default. ✨ a process is started for each Samba service, and a fixed number of worker processes are started for those services that support it (currently LDAP, NETLOGON, and KDC). the client connections are then shared amongst the worker processes. requests for services not supporting prefork are handled by a single process for that service. the number of prefork worker processes started is controlled by the smb.conf(5) parameter prefork children, which defaults to 4.
  • --maximum-runtime=seconds — set maximum runtime of the server process till autotermination, in seconds.
  • -b|--show-build — print information about how Samba was built. yass, receipts.
  • -d|--debuglevel=level — level is an integer from 0 to 10. the default value if this parameter is not specified is 0. the higher this value, the more detail gets logged to the log files about the activities of the server. at level 0, only critical errors and serious warnings get logged. level 1 is a reasonable level for day-to-day running — it generates a small amount of information about operations carried out. levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log data, and should only be used when investigating a problem. levels above 3 are designed for use only by developers and generate HUGE amounts of log data, most of which is extremely cryptic. 💀
note that specifying this parameter here will override the log level parameter in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file.
  • --debug-stdout — this will redirect debug output to STDOUT. by default server daemons are logging to a log file.
  • --configfile=CONFIGFILE — the file specified contains the configuration details required by the server. the information in this file includes server-specific info like what printcap file to use, plus descriptions of all the services the server is to provide. see /etc/samba/smb.conf for more information. the default configuration file name is determined at compile time.
  • --option=<name>=<value> — set the smb.conf(5) option "<name>" to value "<value>" from the command line. this overrides compiled-in defaults and options read from the configuration file. if a name or a value includes a space, wrap the whole --option=name=value into quotes. 🫶
  • -l|--log-basename=logdirectory — base directory name for log/debug files. the extension ".progname" will be appended (e.g. log.smbclient, log.smbd, etc...). the log file is never removed by the client.
  • --leak-report — enable talloc leak reporting on exit. leak check bestie 🔍
  • --leak-report-full — enable full talloc leak reporting on exit.
  • -V|--version — prints the program version number.
  • -?|--help — print a summary of command line options.
  • --usage — display brief usage message.

🧚 FILES 🧚

  • /etc/rc — or whatever initialization script your system uses. if running the server as a daemon at startup, this file will need to contain an appropriate startup sequence for the server.
  • /etc/services — if running the server via the meta-daemon inetd, this file must contain a mapping of service name (e.g., netbios-ssn) to service port (e.g., 139) and protocol type (e.g., tcp).
  • /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf — this is the default location of the smb.conf(5) server configuration file. other common places that systems install this file are /usr/samba/lib/smb.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf. this file describes all the services the server is to make available to clients. see smb.conf(5) for more information.

🌈 DIAGNOSTICS 🌈

most diagnostics issued by the server are logged in a specified log file. the log file name is specified at compile time, but may be overridden on the command line.

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. unfortunately, at the time this man page was created, there are too many diagnostics available in the source code 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. iykyk 🙈

⭐ VERSION ⭐

this man page is part of version 4.24.7-Ubuntu-4.24.7+dfsg-1ubuntu1 of the Samba suite.

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

hosts_access(5) smb.conf(5), smbclient(8), samba-tool(8), smbd(8), nmbd(8), winbindd(1), and the Internet RFC's rfc1001.txt, rfc1002.txt. in addition the CIFS (formerly SMB) specification is available as a link from the Web page https://www.samba.org/cifs/.

💜 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.

and that's the whole page, bestie — this one's from the Samba suite, version 4.24.7-Ubuntu-4.24.7+dfsg-1ubuntu1, dated 09/13/2026. go run your server, slay, and don't forget to read smb.conf(5) first 💖✨🎀🦋

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