1<HTML> 2<HEAD> 3<TITLE> Samba Server FAQ: What is Samba?</TITLE> 4</HEAD> 5<BODY> 6Previous 7<A HREF="Samba-Server-FAQ-2.html">Next</A> 8<A HREF="Samba-Server-FAQ.html#toc1">Table of Contents</A> 9<HR> 10<H2><A NAME="s1">1. What is Samba?</A></H2> 11 12<P> 13<A NAME="WhatIsSamba"></A> 14</P> 15<P>See the 16<A HREF="Samba-meta-FAQ.html#introduction">meta FAQ introduction</A> if you don't have any idea what Samba does.</P> 17<P>Samba has many features that are not supported in other CIFS and SMB 18implementations, all of which are commercial. It approaches some 19problems from a different angle.</P> 20<P>Some of its features include: 21<UL> 22<LI>extremely dynamic runtime configuration</LI> 23<LI>host as well as username/password security</LI> 24<LI>scriptable SMB client</LI> 25<LI>automatic home directory exporting</LI> 26<LI>automatic printer exporting</LI> 27<LI>intelligent dead connection timeouts</LI> 28<LI>guest connections</LI> 29</UL> 30</P> 31<P>Look at the 32<A HREF="samba-man-index.html">manual pages</A> included with the package for a full list of 33features. The components of the suite are (in summary):</P> 34<P> 35<DL> 36 37<DT><B>smbd</B><DD><P>the SMB server. This handles actual connections from clients, 38doing all the interfacing with the 39<A HREF="Samba-meta-FAQ.html#DomainModeSecurity">authentication database</A> for file, permission and username work.</P> 40 41<DT><B>nmbd</B><DD><P>the NetBIOS name server, which helps clients locate servers, 42maintaining the 43<A HREF="Samba-meta-FAQ.html#BrowseAndDomainDefs">authentication database</A> doing the browsing work and managing 44domains as this capability is being built into Samba.</P> 45 46<DT><B>smbclient</B><DD><P>the scriptable commandline SMB client program. 47Useful for automated work, printer filters and testing purposes. It is 48more CIFS-compliant than most commercial implementations. Note that this 49is not a filesystem. The Samba team does not supply a network filesystem 50driver, although the smbfs filesystem for Linux is derived from 51smbclient code.</P> 52 53<DT><B>smbrun</B><DD><P>a little 'glue' program to help the server run 54external programs.</P> 55 56<DT><B>testprns</B><DD><P>a program to test server access to printers</P> 57 58<DT><B>testparms</B><DD><P>a program to test the Samba configuration file 59for correctness</P> 60 61<DT><B>smb.conf</B><DD><P>the Samba configuration file</P> 62 63<DT><B>examples</B><DD><P>many examples have been put together for the different 64operating systems that Samba supports.</P> 65 66<DT><B>Documentation!</B><DD><P>DON'T neglect to read it - you will save a great 67deal of time!</P> 68 69</DL> 70</P> 71 72<HR> 73Previous 74<A HREF="Samba-Server-FAQ-2.html">Next</A> 75<A HREF="Samba-Server-FAQ.html#toc1">Table of Contents</A> 76</BODY> 77</HTML> 78