1 This is the release version of Samba, the free SMB and CIFS client and
2 server and Domain Controller for UNIX and other operating
3 systems. Samba is maintained by the Samba Team, who support the
4 original author, Andrew Tridgell.
6 **Please read THE WHOLE of this file as it gives important information
7 about the configuration and use of Samba.**
9 NOTE: Installation instructions may be found
10 for the file/print server and domain member in:
11 docs/htmldocs/Samba3-HOWTO/install.html
13 For the AD DC implementation a full HOWTO is provided at:
14 https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba4/HOWTO
16 Community guidelines can be read at:
17 https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/How_to_do_Samba:_Nicely
19 This software is freely distributable under the GNU public license, a
20 copy of which you should have received with this software (in a file
27 This is a big question.
29 The very short answer is that it is the protocol by which a lot of
30 PC-related machines share files and printers and other information
31 such as lists of available files and printers. Operating systems that
32 support this natively include Windows 9x, Windows NT (and derivatives),
33 OS/2, Mac OS X and Linux. Add on packages that achieve the same
34 thing are available for DOS, Windows 3.1, VMS, Unix of all kinds,
35 MVS, and more. Some Web Browsers can speak this protocol as well
36 (smb://). Alternatives to SMB include Netware, NFS, Appletalk,
37 Banyan Vines, Decnet etc; many of these have advantages but none are
38 both public specifications and widely implemented in desktop machines
41 The Common Internet File system (CIFS) is what the new SMB initiative
42 is called. For details watch https://www.samba.org/cifs/.
45 WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO USE SMB?
46 ==============================
48 1. Many people want to integrate their Microsoft desktop clients
49 with their Unix servers.
51 2. Others want to integrate their Microsoft (etc) servers with Unix
52 servers. This is a different problem to integrating desktop
55 3. Others want to replace protocols like NFS, DecNet and Novell NCP,
56 especially when used with PCs.
62 Please refer to the WHATSNEW.txt included with this README for
63 a list of features in the latest Samba release.
65 Here is a very short list of what samba includes, and what it does.
66 For many networks this can be simply summarized by "Samba provides
67 a complete replacement for Windows NT, Warp, NFS or Netware servers."
69 - a SMB server, to provide Windows NT and LAN Manager-style file and print
70 services to SMB clients such as Windows 95, Warp Server, smbfs and others.
72 - a Windows Domain Controller (NT4 and AD) replacement.
74 - a file/print server that can act as a member of a Windows NT 4.0
75 or Active Directory domain.
77 - a NetBIOS (rfc1001/1002) nameserver, which amongst other things gives
78 browsing support. Samba can be the master browser on your LAN if you wish.
80 - a ftp-like SMB client so you can access PC resources (disks and
81 printers) from UNIX, Netware, and other operating systems
83 - a tar extension to the client for backing up PCs
85 - limited command-line tool that supports some of the NT administrative
86 functionality, which can be used on Samba, NT workstation and NT server.
88 For a much better overview have a look at the website at
89 https://www.samba.org/samba/, and browse the user survey.
91 Related packages include:
93 - cifsvfs, an advanced Linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount
94 remote SMB filesystems from PCs on your Linux box. This is included
95 as standard with Linux 2.5 and later.
97 - smbfs, the previous Linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount remote SMB
98 filesystems from PCs on your Linux box. This is included as standard with
106 1. To contribute via GitLab
107 - fork the official Samba team repository on GitLab
108 * see https://gitlab.com/samba-team/samba
109 - become familiar with the coding standards as described in README.Coding
110 - make sure you read the Samba copyright policy
111 * see https://www.samba.org/samba/devel/copyright-policy.html
112 - create a feature branch
114 - when committing, be sure to add signed-off-by tags
115 * see https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/CodeReview#commit_message_tags
116 - send a merge request for your branch through GitLab
117 - this will send an email to everyone registered on GitLab
118 - discussion happens on the samba-technical mailing list as described below
119 - more info on using Git for Samba development can be found on the Samba Wiki
120 * see https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Using_Git_for_Samba_Development
122 2. If you want to contribute to the development of the software then
123 please join the mailing list. The Samba team accepts patches
124 (preferably in "diff -u" format, see https://www.samba.org/samba/devel/
125 for more details) and are always glad to receive feedback or
126 suggestions to the address samba@lists.samba.org. More information
127 on the various Samba mailing lists can be found at https://lists.samba.org/.
129 You can also get the Samba sourcecode straight from the git repository - see
130 https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Using_Git_for_Samba_Development.
132 If you like a particular feature then look through the git change-log
133 (on the web at https://gitweb.samba.org/?p=samba.git;a=summary) and see
134 who added it, then send them an email.
136 Remember that free software of this kind lives or dies by the response
137 we get. If no one tells us they like it then we'll probably move onto
146 There is quite a bit of documentation included with the package,
147 including man pages, and lots of .html files with hints and useful
148 info. This is also available from the webpage. There is a growing
149 collection of information under docs/.
151 A list of Samba documentation in languages other than English is
152 available on the webpage.
154 If you would like to help with the documentation, please coordinate
155 on the samba@samba.org mailing list. See the next section for details
156 on subscribing to samba mailing lists.
162 Please do NOT send subscription/unsubscription requests to the lists!
164 There is a mailing list for discussion of Samba. For details go to
165 <https://lists.samba.org/> or send mail to <samba-subscribe@lists.samba.org>
167 There is also an announcement mailing list where new versions are
168 announced. To subscribe go to <https://lists.samba.org/> or send mail
169 to <samba-announce-subscribe@lists.samba.org>. All announcements also
170 go to the samba list, so you only need to be on one.
172 For details of other Samba mailing lists and for access to archives, see
173 <https://lists.samba.org/>
176 MAILING LIST ETIQUETTE
177 ----------------------
179 A few tips when submitting to this or any mailing list.
181 1. Make your subject short and descriptive. Avoid the words "help" or
182 "Samba" in the subject. The readers of this list already know that
183 a) you need help, and b) you are writing about samba (of course,
184 you may need to distinguish between Samba PDC and other file
185 sharing software). Avoid phrases such as "what is" and "how do
186 i". Some good subject lines might look like "Slow response with
187 Excel files" or "Migrating from Samba PDC to NT PDC".
189 2. If you include the original message in your reply, trim it so that
190 only the relevant lines, enough to establish context, are
191 included. Chances are (since this is a mailing list) we've already
192 read the original message.
194 3. Trim irrelevant headers from the original message in your
195 reply. All we need to see is a) From, b) Date, and c) Subject. We
196 don't even really need the Subject, if you haven't changed
197 it. Better yet is to just preface the original message with "On
198 [date] [someone] wrote:".
200 4. Please don't reply to or argue about spam, spam filters or viruses
201 on any Samba lists. We do have a spam filtering system that is
202 working quite well thank you very much but occasionally unwanted
203 messages slip through. Deal with it.
205 5. Never say "Me too." It doesn't help anyone solve the
206 problem. Instead, if you ARE having the same problem, give more
207 information. Have you seen something that the other writer hasn't
208 mentioned, which may be helpful?
210 6. If you ask about a problem, then come up with the solution on your
211 own or through another source, by all means post it. Someone else
212 may have the same problem and is waiting for an answer, but never
215 7. Give as much *relevant* information as possible such as Samba
216 release number, OS, kernel version, etc...
218 8. RTFM. Google. groups.google.com.
224 A Samba website has been setup with lots of useful info. Connect to:
226 https://www.samba.org/
228 As well as general information and documentation, this also has searchable
229 archives of the mailing list and links to other useful resources such as