Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

By William Ball

Samba Resources

With Red Hat Linux 7 installed, you have access to voluminous Samba documentation. Every program has its own man page, available with the Linux command:


   #man programname

programname is smbtar, smbmount, or the like.

There is also text-based hyperlink help available with the info program:


   #info programname

programname is smbtar, smbmount, or the like.

You can find text format Samba documentation in directory /usr/share/doc/ samba-2.0.7/docs/textdocs. You can find Samba documentation in HTML form in directory /usr/share/doc/samba-2.0.7/docs/htmldocs.

As of Samba version 2 and later, a great source of documentation is SWAT. SWAT is discussed later in this chapter. If SWAT is enabled on your server, it's a highly organized source of Samba documentation. Users other than root can take advantage of SWAT's documentation, although only user root can alter a properly permissioned smb.conf configuration through SWAT.

Samba Applications Documentation Sources

Samba is a suite of programs (listed in Table 17.2) designed to give all necessary client and server access to SMB on your Linux-based computer. Each program has a man page and an info page.

Table 17.2. Programs Composing the Samba Suite

Program Description
smbd The daemon that provides the file and print services to SMB clients, such as Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, or LanManager. (The configuration file for this daemon is described in smb.conf.)
nmbd The daemon that provides NetBIOS nameserving and browsing support.
smbclient This program implements an FTP-like client that is useful for accessing SMB shares on other compatible servers.
testparm This utility enables you to test the /etc/samba/smb.conf configuration file.
smbstatus This utility enables you to tell who is currently using the smbd server.
smbpasswd This utility changes a user's SMB password in the smbpasswd file.
smbrun This is an interface program between smbd and external programs.
smbtar This is a shell script for backing up SMB shares directly to a UNIX-based tape drive.
smbmount Use this utility to mount an SMB filesystem.
smbmnt Called by smbmount to do the work. Generally not called directly.
smbumount A utility that unmounts an SMB filesystem.

Configuration Option Documentation

Samba has hundreds of configuration options. For complete information, search for these three strings on the smb.conf man page: "COMPLETE LIST OF GLOBAL PARAMETERS", "COMPLETE LIST OF SERVICE PARAMETERS", and "EXPLANATION OF EACH PARAMETER". All the same information is accessible in the smb.conf info page.

Other Documentation

The smb.conf file supports a number of variable substitutions. The %H and %u substitutions were discussed earlier in this chapter. For a complete list and description of these substitutions, search the smb.conf man page for the phrase "VARIABLE SUBSTITUTIONS".

The smb.conf file has several options related to name mangling. Name mangling is a method of interfacing between old DOS 8.3 filename conventions and modern file naming conventions. It also relates to case sensitivity, default case, and the like. To see a complete treatise on the subject, search for the string "NAME MANGLING" in the smb.conf man page.

Last but not least, Samba Unleashed provides extremely deep and broad coverage of Samba.

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