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 discarded. Leading, trailing and internal whitespace in section and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading and trailing 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 significant in boolean values, but is preserved in string values. Some items such as create modes are numeric.

SERVICE DESCRIPTIONS
Each section in the configuration file describes a service. The section name is the service name and the parameters 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 descriptions. 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 service 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 configuration 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 services 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 passwords 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] section 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 setting browseable=no in the [homes] section will hide the [homes] service but make any auto home directories visible.

  The [printers] section
    This section works like [homes], but for printers. If a [printers] section occurs in the configuration file, users are able to connect to any printer specified in the local host's printcap file. When a connection request is made, the existing services 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 service name is treated as a printer name and the appropriate 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 [printers] 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, specify the new file as your printcap. The server will then only recognise names found in your pseudo-printcap, which of course can contain whatever aliases you like. The same technique could be used simply to limit access to a subset of your local printers. An alias, by the way, is defined as any component of the first entry of a printcap record. Records are separated by newlines, components (if there are more than one) are 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 indicates that a parameter is specific to the [global] section. The letter 'S' indicates that a parameter can be specified in a service specific section. Note that all S parameters can also be specified in the [global] section - in which case they will define the default 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 negotiation. 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 currently 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 format. 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 service (or globally, of course). The options are: "mangle case = yes/no" controls if names that have characters that aren't of the "default" case are mangled. For example, if 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 filename 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 synonyms. 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 synonyms. 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 Windows 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 downlevel 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 automatically added to the browse lists. This is most useful for homes and printers services that would otherwise not be visible. Note that if you just want all printers in your printcap file loaded then the "load printers" option is easier. Default:
    no 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 example, you could restrict access to only the hosts on a Class C subnet with something like "allow hosts = 150.203.5.". The full syntax of the list is described in the man page hosts_access(5). 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/netmask
    hosts allow = 150.203.15.0/255.255.255.0 Example 3: allow a couple of hosts
    hosts allow = lapland, arvidsjaur Example 4: allow only hosts in netgroup "foonet" or localhost, but deny access from one particular host
     hosts allow = @foonet, localhost
     hosts deny = pirate Note that access still requires suitable user-level passwords. See testparm(1) for a way of testing your host access to see if it does what you expect. Default:
     none (i.e., all hosts permitted access) Example:
     allow hosts = 150.203.5. myhost.mynet.edu.au

  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 'available = 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' parameter. nmbd also binds to the 'all addresses' interface (0.0.0.0) on ports 137 and 138 for the purposes of reading broadcast messages. If this option is not set then nmbd will service name requests on all of these sockets. If "bind 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 interface 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 determine 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" parameter 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 create 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 created from this parameter with the value of the "force create 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 connection 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 configuration of the system. The default will be the debug level specified on the command 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 nonexistent 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 permissions, 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/Windows users from seeing (eg. .AppleDouble) Setting 'delete veto files = True' allows these directories 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 routines to calculate the total disk space and amount available with an external routine. The example below gives a possible script that might fulfill this function. The external program will be passed a single 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 blocksize 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 executable) 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 converting DOS modes to UNIX modes when creating UNIX directories. 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 created 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 particular 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 service. 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 directories that the server should always show as empty. Note that Samba can be very fussy about the exact format of the "dont descend" entries. For example you may need "./proc" instead of just "/proc". 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 timestamp. By default, Samba runs with POSIX semantics and refuses to change the timestamp on a file if the user smbd is acting on behalf of is not the file owner. Setting this option to True allows DOS semantics and 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 granulatity 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 granularity, 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 reporting 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 passwords 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++ generated makefiles have the object directory as a dependency for each object file, and a make rule to create the directory. Also, when NMAKE compares timestamps it uses the creation time when examining a directory. Thus the object directory will be created if it does not exist, but once it does exist it will always have an earlier timestamp than the object files it contains. However, Unix time semantics mean that the create time reported by Samba will be updated whenever a file is created 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 proceed 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 operations. 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 multiple 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. Setting 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 permissions 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 parameter 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 masking 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 permissions that will *always* be set on a directory created by Samba. This is done by bitwise 'OR'ing these bits onto the mode bits of a directory that is being created. The default for this parameter is (in octel) 0000 which will not add any extra permission bits to a created directory. This operation is done after the mode mask in the parameter "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 execute 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 incorrectly can cause security problems. This user name only gets used once a connection is established. Thus clients still need to connect as a valid user and supply a valid password. Once 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 performance, 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 services which are specified as 'guest ok' (see below). Whatever privileges this user has will be available to any client connecting to the guest service. Typically this user will exist in the password file, but will not have a valid login. If a username is specified in a given service, 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 visible but are accessible. The DOS 'hidden' attribute is applied to any files or directories that match. Each entry in the list must be separated by a "/", which allows spaces to be included in the entry. '*' and '?' can be used to specify multiple files or directories as in DOS wildcards. Each entry must be a unix path, not a DOS path and must not include the unix directory separator "/". Note that the case sensitivity option is applicable in hiding files. Setting this parameter will affect the performance of Samba, as it will be forced to check all files and directories for a match as they are scanned. See also "hide dot files", "veto files" and "case sensitive" 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/TrashFor%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 specifies 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 services. hosts equiv may be useful for NT clients which will not supply passwords to samba. NOTE: The use of hosts.equiv can be a major security hole. This is because you are trusting the PC to supply the correct username. It is very easy to get a PC to supply a false username. I recommend that the hosts.equiv option be only used if you really know what you are doing, or perhaps 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 interfaces, 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 interfaces 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 parameter 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 Windows 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 profile). Windows clients can sometimes maintain a connection to the [homes] share, even though there is no user logged in. Therefore, it is vital that the logon path does not include a reference to the homes share (i.e \\%N\HOMESrofile_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 = \\PROFILESERVER\HOME_DIR\%U\PROFILE

  logon script (G)
This parameter specifies the batch file (.bat) or NT command file (.cmd) to be downloaded and run on a machine when a user successfully logs in. The file must contain the DOS style cr/lf line endings. Using a DOS-style editor to create the file is recommended. The script must be a relative path to the [netlogon] service. 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 modified. 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 specific print job. This command should be a program or script which takes a printer name and job number to pause the print job. Currently 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 prevent the lpq command being called too often. A separate cache is kept for each variation of the lpq command used by the system, so if you use 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 correctly 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 number 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 completion, 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 containing 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 visible, or whether non-DOS names should simply be ignored. See the section on "NAME MANGLING" for details on how to control the mangling process. If mangling is used then the mangling algorithm is as follows:
    - 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 extension). 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 alphanumeric characters. This algorithm can cause name collisions only if files in a directory share the same first five alphanumeric characters. The probability of such a clash is 1/1300. The name mangling (if enabled) allows a file to be copied between UNIX directories from DOS while retaining the long UNIX filename. UNIX files can be renamed to a new extension 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" character in name mangling. The default is a ~ but this may interfere with some software. Use this option to set it to whatever you prefer. Default:
     mangling char = ~ Example:
     mangling char = ^

  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 becoming 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 apparent size of disks. If you set this option to 100 then all shares will appear to be not larger than 100 MB in size. Note that this option does not limit the amount of data you can put on the disk. In the above case you could still store much more than 100 MB on the 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 requesting 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 performance with a smaller value. A value below 2048 is likely to cause problems. Default:
    max xmit = 65535 Example:
     max xmit = 8192

  message command (G)
This specifies what command to run when the server receives a WinPopup style message. This would normally be a command that would deliver the message somehow. How this is to be done is up to your imagination. 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 COMMAND 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 (probably 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 interesting ideas you have. Here's a way of sending the messages as mail to root: message command = /bin/mail -s 'message from %f on %m' root < %s; rm %s If you don't have a message command then the message won't be delivered and Samba will tell the sender there was an error. Unfortunately WfWg totally ignores the error code and carries on regardless, saying that the message was delivered. If you want to silently delete it then try "message command = rm %s". 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 smbclient 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 separated 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 resolution, 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 normal system hostname lookup.

  netbios aliases (G)
This is a list of names that nmbd will advertise as additional names by which the Samba server is known. This allows one machine to appear in browse lists under multiple names. If a machine is acting as a browse server or logon server none of these names will be advertised as either browse server or logon servers, only the primary name of the machine will be advertised with these capabilities. 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 returning 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 disable 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 parameter 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 passwords. 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 usernames 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 disable 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 program 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 substituted 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 passwords. 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 password 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 validation 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 substitutions, but probably the only useful one is %m, which means the Samba server will use the incoming client as the password server. If you use this then you better trust your clients, and you 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 printable services, this is where print data will spool prior to being submitted to the host for printing. For a printable service offering guest access, the service should be readonly and the path should be world-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 occurrences of %m will be replaced by the name of the machine they are connecting from. These replacements are very useful for setting up pseudo home directories for users. Note that this path will be based on 'root dir' if one was specified. Default:
     none Example:
     path = /home/fred+

  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 message 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 recommended 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 discussion.

  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 appropriate printer name. The spool file name is generated automatically 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 printable service nor a global print command, spool files will be created but not processed and (most importantly) not removed. Note that printing may fail on some UNIXes from the "nobody" account. If this happens then create an alternative guest account that can print and set the "guest account" in the [global] section. You can form quite complex print commands by realising that they are just passed to a shell. For example the following will log a print job, print the file, then remove it. Note that ; is the usual separator for command in shell scripts. print command = echo Printing %s >> /tmp/print.log; lpr -P %p %s; rm %s You may have to vary this command considerably depending on how you normally print files on your system. 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] section 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 automatically 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/qconfig". Samba will assume the file is in AIX "qconfig" format if the string "/qconfig" appears in the printcap filename. Default:
     printcap name = /etc/printcap Example:
     printcap name = /etc/myprintcap

  printer (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 definition 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/printers/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 protocol 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 choosing 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 benefit. 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 arbitrary workgroup name. This is useful if you want your Samba server to appear in a remote workgroup for which the normal browse propagation rules don't work. The remote workgroup can be anywhere that you can send IP packets to. For example:
       remote announce = 192.168.2.255/SERVERS 192.168.4.255/STAFF the above line would cause nmbd to announce itself to the two given IP addresses using the given 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 broadcast addresses of the remote networks, but can also be the IP addresses of known browse masters if your network config 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 multiple workgroups across routed networks. This is done in a manner that does not work with any non-samba servers. This is useful if you want your Samba server and all local clients to appear in a remote workgroup for which the normal browse propagation rules don't work. The remote workgroup can be anywhere that you can send IP packets to. For example:
       remote browse sync = 192.168.2.255 192.168.4.255 the above line would cause nmbd to request the master browser on the specified subnets or addresses to synchronise their browse lists with the local server. The IP addresses you choose would normally be the broadcast addresses of the remote networks, but can also be the IP addresses of known browse masters if your network config is that stable. If a machine IP address is given Samba makes NO attempt to validate that the remote machine is available, is listening, nor that it is in fact the browse master on it's segment.

  revalidate (S)
This options controls whether Samba will allow a previously 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 directories (depending on the setting of the "wide links" parameter). 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 specified 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 printing (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 protocol 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 usernames on the UNIX machine then you will want to use "security = user". If you mostly use usernames that don't exist on the UNIX box then use "security = share". 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 connect 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 validate 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 smbpasswd 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 comment box in print manager and next to the IPC connection in "net view". It can be any string that you wish to show to your users. It also sets what will appear in browse lists next to the machine name. A %v will be replaced with the Samba version 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 directory". 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 discussion.

  socket address (G)
This option allows you to control what address Samba will listen for connections on. This is used to support multiple virtual interfaces on the one server, each with a different configuration. By default samba will accept connections on any address. Example:
    socket address = 192.168.2.20

  socket options (G)
This option (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 status 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 locking in the server. When this is set to yes the server will check every read and write access for file locks, and deny access if locks exist. This can be slow on some systems. When strict locking is "no" the server does file lock checks only when the client explicitly asks for them. Well behaved clients always ask for lock checks when it is important, so in the vast majority of cases "strict locking = no" is preferable. Default:
    strict locking = no 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 messages. 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 normal GMT to local time conversion. This is useful if you are serving a lot of PCs that have incorrect daylight saving time handling. Default:
    time offset = 0 Example:
    time offset = 60

  time server (G)
This parameter determines if nmbd 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' program 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) password in the smbpasswd file to be updated automatically as they log on. This option allows a site to migrate from plaintext password authentication (users authenticate with plaintext password over the wire, and are checked against a UNIX account database) to encrypted password authentication (the SMB challenge/response authentication mechanism) without forcing all users to re-enter their passwords via smbpasswd at the time the change is made. This is a convenience option to allow the change over to encrypted passwords to be made over a longer period. Once all users have encrypted representations of their passwords in the smbpasswd file this parameter should be set to "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 authenticating to smbd must still enter a valid password in order to connect correctly, and to update their hashed (smbpasswd) passwords. Default:
    update encrypted = no 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 password against each of the usernames in the username= line in turn. This is slow and a bad idea for lots of users in case of duplicate passwords. You may get timeouts or security breaches using this parameter unwisely. Samba relies on the underlying UNIX security. This parameter does not restrict who can login, it just offers hints to the Samba server as to what 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 searching 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 discovery of usernames will be. Use this parameter when you have strange usernames on your UNIX machine, such as 'AstrangeUser'. Default:
    username level = 0 Example:
    username level = 5

  username map (G)
This option allows you to 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 contain a single UNIX username on the left then a '=' followed by a list of usernames on the right. The list of usernames on the right may 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 continues with the next line. If any line begins with a '#' or a ';' then it is ignored If any line begins with an ! then the processing will stop after that line if a mapping was done by the line. Otherwise mapping continues with every line being processed. Using ! is most useful when you have a wildcard mapping line later in the file. For example to map from the name "admin" or "administrator" 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 exception 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 modification. 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 filenames. This is particularly useful for national character sets, such as adding u-umlaut or a-ring. The option takes a list of characters in either integer or character form with spaces between them. If you give two characters with a colon between them then it will be taken as an lowercase: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 notation. For example to add the single character 'Z' to the charset (which is a pointless thing to do as it's already there) you could do one of the following valid chars = Z valid chars = z:Z valid chars = 0132:0172 The last two examples above actually add two characters, and alter the uppercase and lowercase mappings appropriately. Note that you MUST specify this parameter after the "client code page" parameter if you have both set. If "client code page" is set after the "valid chars" parameter the "valid chars" settings will be 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 important to be aware of, is that if a directory contains nothing but files that match the veto files parameter (which means that Windows/DOS clients cannot ever see them) is deleted, the veto files within that directory *are automatically deleted* along with it, if the user has UNIX permissions to do so.

Setting this parameter will affect the performance of Samba, as it will be forced to check all files and directories for a match as they are scanned. 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 administrator to selectively turn off the granting of oplocks on selected files that match a wildcarded list, similar to the wildcarded list used in the 'veto files' parameter. Default
    No files are vetoed for oplock grants. 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\service%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 corresponding user. Step 4: If the client has previously validated a username/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 service. 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 connection 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 combinations 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 configuration 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 compile 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. Unfortunately, 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 channel:
    samba-announce@listproc.anu.edu.au
To subscribe to these lists send a message to listproc@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)