X-Git-Url: http://git.samba.org/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=e6634febc0ea08a3551dc0ba3b170a98fb7b7064;hb=HEAD;hp=d1e50585c849ab0a7c721419acc7359aefc4537a;hpb=b097ddb724b54812ea5e116bf2069bc912f225a4;p=samba.git diff --git a/README b/README deleted file mode 100644 index d1e50585c84..00000000000 --- a/README +++ /dev/null @@ -1,191 +0,0 @@ -This is version 2.1.0alphaX of Samba, the free SMB and CIFS client and -server for unix and other operating systems. Samba is maintained by -the Samba Team, who support the original author, Andrew Tridgell. - ->>>> Please read THE WHOLE of this file as it gives important information ->>>> about the configuration and use of Samba. - -This software is freely distributable under the GNU public license, a -copy of which you should have received with this software (in a file -called COPYING). - - -WHAT IS SMB? -============ - -This is a big question. - -The very short answer is that it is the protocol by which a lot of -PC-related machines share files and printers and other informatiuon -such as lists of available files and printers. Operating systems that -support this natively include Windows NT, OS/2, and Linux and add on -packages that achieve the same thing are available for DOS, Windows, -VMS, Unix of all kinds, MVS, and more. Apple Macs and some Web Browsers -can speak this protocol as well. Alternatives to SMB include -Netware, NFS, Appletalk, Banyan Vines, Decnet etc; many of these have -advantages but none are both public specifications and widely -implemented in desktop machines by default. - -The Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS) is what the new SMB initiative -is called. For details watch http://samba.org/cifs. - - -WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO USE SMB? -============================== - -1. Many people want to integrate their Microsoft or IBM style desktop - machines with their Unix or VMS (etc) servers. - -2. Others want to integrate their Microsoft (etc) servers with Unix - or VMS (etc) servers. This is a different problem to integrating - desktop clients. - -3. Others want to replace protocols like NFS, DecNet and Novell NCP, - especially when used with PCs. - - -WHAT CAN SAMBA DO? -================== - -Here is a very short list of what samba includes, and what it does. For -many networks this can be simply summarised by "Samba provides a complete -replacement for Windows NT, Warp, NFS or Netware servers." - -- a SMB server, to provide Windows NT and LAN Manager-style file and print - services to SMB clients such as Windows 95, Warp Server, smbfs and others. - -- a NetBIOS (rfc1001/1002) nameserver, which amongst other things gives - browsing support. Samba can be the master browser on your LAN if you wish. - -- a ftp-like SMB client so you can access PC resources (disks and -printers) from unix, Netware and other operating systems - -- a tar extension to the client for backing up PCs - -- limited command-line tool that supports some of the NT administrative - functionality, which can be used on Samba, NT workstation and NT server. - -For a much better overview have a look at the web site at -http://samba.org/samba, and browse the user survey. - -Related packages include: - -- smbfs, a linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount remote SMB -filesystems from PCs on your linux box. This is included as standard with -Linux 2.0 and later. - -- tcpdump-smb, a extension to tcpdump to allow you to investigate SMB -networking problems over netbeui and tcp/ip. - -- smblib, a library of smb functions which are designed to make it -easy to smb-ise any particular application. See -ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/smblib. - - -CONTRIBUTIONS -============= - -If you want to contribute to the development of the software then -please join the mailing list. The Samba team accepts patches -(preferably in "diff -u" format, see docs/BUGS.txt for more details) -and are always glad to receive feedback or suggestions to the address -samba-bugs@samba.org. We have recently put a new bug tracking -system into place which should help the throughput quite a lot. You -can also get the Samba sourcecode straight from the CVS tree - see -http://samba.org/cvs.html. - -You could also send hardware/software/money/jewelry or pizza -vouchers directly to Andrew. The pizza vouchers would be especially -welcome, in fact there is a special field in the survey for people who -have paid up their pizza :-) - -If you like a particular feature then look through the CVS change-log -(on the web at http://samba.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/samba) and see -who added it, then send them an email. - -Remember that free software of this kind lives or dies by the response -we get. If noone tells us they like it then we'll probably move onto -something else. However, as you can see from the user survey quite a lot of -people do seem to like it at the moment :-) - -Andrew Tridgell -Email: samba-bugs@samba.org - -3 Ballow Crescent -Macgregor, A.C.T. -2615 Australia - -Samba Team -Email: samba-bugs@samba.org - - -MORE INFO -========= - -DOCUMENTATION -------------- - -There is quite a bit of documentation included with the package, -including man pages, and lots of .txt files with hints and useful -info. This is also available from the web page. There is a growing -collection of information under docs/faq; by the next release expect -this to be the default starting point. - -A list of Samba documentation in languages other than English is -available on the web page. - -If you would like to help with the documentation (and we _need_ help!) -then have a look at the mailing list samba-docs, archived at -http://samba.org/listproc/samba-docs. - - -FTP SITE --------- - -Please use a mirror site! The list of mirrors is in docs/MIRRORS.txt. -The master ftp site is samba.org in the directory pub/samba. - - -MAILING LIST ------------- - -There is a mailing list for discussion of Samba. To subscribe send -mail to listproc@samba.org with a body of "subscribe samba Your Name" -Please do NOT send this request to the list alias instead. - -To send mail to everyone on the list mail to samba@listproc.anu.edu.au - -There is also an announcement mailing list where new versions are -announced. To subscribe send mail to listproc@samba.org with a -body of "subscribe samba-announce Your Name". All announcements also -go to the samba list. - -For details of other Samba mailing lists and for access to archives, see -http://samba.org/listproc. - - -NEWS GROUP ----------- - -You might also like to look at the usenet news group -comp.protocols.smb as it often contains lots of useful info and is -frequented by lots of Samba users. The newsgroup was initially setup -by people on the Samba mailing list. It is not, however, exclusive to -Samba, it is a forum for discussing the SMB protocol (which Samba -implements). The samba list is gatewayed to this newsgroup. - - -WEB SITE --------- - -A Samba WWW site has been setup with lots of useful info. Connect to: - -http://samba.org/samba/ - -As well as general information and documentation, this also has searchable -archives of the mailing list and a user survey that shows who else is using -this package. Have you registered with the survey yet? :-) - -It is maintained by Paul Blackman (thanks Paul!). You can contact him -as ictinus@samba.org. -