1<HTML> 2<HEAD> 3<TITLE> Samba FAQ: General Information</TITLE> 4</HEAD> 5<BODY> 6Previous 7<A HREF="sambafaq-2.html">Next</A> 8<A HREF="sambafaq.html#toc1">Table of Contents</A> 9<HR> 10<H2><A NAME="s1">1. General Information</A></H2> 11 12<P> 13<A NAME="general_info"></A> 14</P> 15<P>All about Samba - what it is, how to get it, related sources of 16information, how to understand the version numbering scheme, pizza 17details</P> 18 19<H2><A NAME="ss1.1">1.1 What is Samba? </A></H2> 20 21<P> 22<A NAME="introduction"></A> 23 24Samba is a suite of programs which work together to allow clients to 25access to a server's filespace and printers via the SMB (Server 26Message Block) protocol. Initially written for Unix, Samba now also 27runs on Netware, OS/2 and VMS.</P> 28<P>In practice, this means that you can redirect disks and printers to 29Unix disks and printers from Lan Manager clients, Windows for 30Workgroups 3.11 clients, Windows NT clients, Linux clients and OS/2 31clients. There is also a generic Unix client program supplied as part 32of the suite which allows Unix users to use an ftp-like interface to 33access filespace and printers on any other SMB servers. This gives the 34capability for these operating systems to behave much like a LAN 35Server or Windows NT Server machine, only with added functionality and 36flexibility designed to make life easier for administrators.</P> 37<P>The components of the suite are (in summary):</P> 38<P> 39<UL> 40<LI><B>smbd</B>, the SMB server. This handles actual connections from clients, doing all the file, permission and username work</LI> 41<LI><B>nmbd</B>, the Netbios name server, which helps clients locate servers, doing the browsing work and managing domains as this capability is being built into Samba</LI> 42<LI><B>smbclient</B>, the Unix-hosted client program</LI> 43<LI><B>smbrun</B>, a little 'glue' program to help the server run external programs</LI> 44<LI><B>testprns</B>, a program to test server access to printers</LI> 45<LI><B>testparms</B>, a program to test the Samba configuration file for correctness</LI> 46<LI><B>smb.conf</B>, the Samba configuration file</LI> 47<LI><B>smbprint</B>, a sample script to allow a Unix host to use smbclient to print to an SMB server</LI> 48<LI><B>Documentation!</B> DON'T neglect to read it - you will save a great deal of time!</LI> 49</UL> 50</P> 51<P>The suite is supplied with full source (of course!) and is GPLed.</P> 52<P>The primary creator of the Samba suite is Andrew Tridgell. Later 53versions incorporate much effort by many net.helpers. The man pages 54and this FAQ were originally written by Karl Auer.</P> 55 56 57<H2><A NAME="ss1.2">1.2 What is the current version of Samba? </A></H2> 58 59<P> 60<A NAME="current_version"></A> 61 62At time of writing, the current version was 1.9.17. If you want to be 63sure check the bottom of the change-log file. 64<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/alpha/change-log">ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/alpha/change-log</A></P> 65<P>For more information see 66<A HREF="#version_nums">What do the version numbers mean?</A></P> 67 68 69<H2><A NAME="ss1.3">1.3 Where can I get it? </A></H2> 70 71<P> 72<A NAME="where"></A> 73 74The Samba suite is available via anonymous ftp from 75samba.org. The latest and greatest versions of the suite are in 76the directory:</P> 77<P>/pub/samba/</P> 78<P>Development (read "alpha") versions, which are NOT necessarily stable 79and which do NOT necessarily have accurate documentation, are 80available in the directory:</P> 81<P>/pub/samba/alpha</P> 82<P>Note that binaries are NOT included in any of the above. Samba is 83distributed ONLY in source form, though binaries may be available from 84other sites. Recent versions of some Linux distributions, for example, 85do contain Samba binaries for that platform.</P> 86 87 88<H2><A NAME="ss1.4">1.4 What do the version numbers mean? </A></H2> 89 90<P> 91<A NAME="version_nums"></A> 92 93It is not recommended that you run a version of Samba with the word 94"alpha" in its name unless you know what you are doing and are willing 95to do some debugging. Many, many people just get the latest 96recommended stable release version and are happy. If you are brave, by 97all means take the plunge and help with the testing and development - 98but don't install it on your departmental server. Samba is typically 99very stable and safe, and this is mostly due to the policy of many 100public releases.</P> 101<P>How the scheme works: 102<OL> 103<LI>When major changes are made the version number is increased. For 104example, the transition from 1.9.15 to 1.9.16. However, this version 105number will not appear immediately and people should continue to use 1061.9.15 for production systems (see next point.) 107</LI> 108<LI>Just after major changes are made the software is considered 109unstable, and a series of alpha releases are distributed, for example 1101.9.16alpha1. These are for testing by those who know what they are 111doing. The "alpha" in the filename will hopefully scare off those who 112are just looking for the latest version to install. 113</LI> 114<LI>When Andrew thinks that the alphas have stabilised to the point 115where he would recommend new users install it, he renames it to the 116same version number without the alpha, for example 1.9.16. 117</LI> 118<LI>Inevitably bugs are found in the "stable" releases and minor patch 119levels are released which give us the pXX series, for example 1.9.16p2.</LI> 120</OL> 121 122So the progression goes: 123<PRE> 124 1.9.15p7 (production) 125 1.9.15p8 (production) 126 1.9.16alpha1 (test sites only) 127 : 128 1.9.16alpha20 (test sites only) 129 1.9.16 (production) 130 1.9.16p1 (production) 131</PRE> 132 133The above system means that whenever someone looks at the samba ftp 134site they will be able to grab the highest numbered release without an 135alpha in the name and be sure of getting the current recommended 136version.</P> 137 138 139<H2><A NAME="ss1.5">1.5 What platforms are supported? </A></H2> 140 141<P> 142<A NAME="platforms"></A> 143 144Many different platforms have run Samba successfully. The platforms 145most widely used and thus best tested are Linux and SunOS.</P> 146<P>At time of writing, the Makefile claimed support for: 147<UL> 148<LI> A/UX 3.0</LI> 149<LI> AIX</LI> 150<LI> Altos Series 386/1000</LI> 151<LI> Amiga</LI> 152<LI> Apollo Domain/OS sr10.3</LI> 153<LI> BSDI </LI> 154<LI> B.O.S. (Bull Operating System)</LI> 155<LI> Cray, Unicos 8.0</LI> 156<LI> Convex</LI> 157<LI> DGUX. </LI> 158<LI> DNIX.</LI> 159<LI> FreeBSD</LI> 160<LI> HP-UX</LI> 161<LI> Intergraph. </LI> 162<LI> Linux with/without shadow passwords and quota</LI> 163<LI> LYNX 2.3.0</LI> 164<LI> MachTen (a unix like system for Macintoshes)</LI> 165<LI> Motorola 88xxx/9xx range of machines</LI> 166<LI> NetBSD</LI> 167<LI> NEXTSTEP Release 2.X, 3.0 and greater (including OPENSTEP for Mach).</LI> 168<LI> OS/2 using EMX 0.9b</LI> 169<LI> OSF1</LI> 170<LI> QNX 4.22</LI> 171<LI> RiscIX. </LI> 172<LI> RISCOs 5.0B</LI> 173<LI> SEQUENT. </LI> 174<LI> SCO (including: 3.2v2, European dist., OpenServer 5)</LI> 175<LI> SGI.</LI> 176<LI> SMP_DC.OSx v1.1-94c079 on Pyramid S series</LI> 177<LI> SONY NEWS, NEWS-OS (4.2.x and 6.1.x)</LI> 178<LI> SUNOS 4</LI> 179<LI> SUNOS 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4 (Solaris 2.2, 2.3, and '2.4 and later')</LI> 180<LI> Sunsoft ISC SVR3V4</LI> 181<LI> SVR4</LI> 182<LI> System V with some berkely extensions (Motorola 88k R32V3.2).</LI> 183<LI> ULTRIX.</LI> 184<LI> UNIXWARE</LI> 185<LI> UXP/DS</LI> 186</UL> 187</P> 188 189 190<H2><A NAME="ss1.6">1.6 How can I find out more about Samba? </A></H2> 191 192<P> 193<A NAME="more"></A> 194 195There are a number of places to look for more information on Samba, including: 196<UL> 197<LI>Two mailing lists devoted to discussion of Samba-related matters. </LI> 198<LI>The newsgroup, comp.protocols.smb, which has a great deal of discussion on Samba. </LI> 199<LI>The WWW site 'SAMBA Web Pages' at 200<A HREF="http://samba.edu.au/samba/">http://samba.edu.au/samba/</A> includes: 201<UL> 202<LI>Links to man pages and documentation, including this FAQ</LI> 203<LI>A comprehensive survey of Samba users.</LI> 204<LI>A searchable hypertext archive of the Samba mailing list.</LI> 205<LI>Links to Samba source code, binaries, and mirrors of both.</LI> 206</UL> 207</LI> 208<LI>The long list of topic documentation. These files can be found in the 'docs' directory of the Samba source, or at 209<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/">ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/</A> 210<UL> 211<LI> 212<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Application_Serving.txt">Application_Serving.txt</A></LI> 213<LI> 214<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/BROWSING.txt">BROWSING.txt</A></LI> 215<LI> 216<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/BUGS.txt">BUGS.txt</A></LI> 217<LI> 218<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DIAGNOSIS.txt">DIAGNOSIS.txt</A></LI> 219<LI> 220<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DNIX.txt">DNIX.txt</A></LI> 221<LI> 222<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DOMAIN.txt">DOMAIN.txt</A></LI> 223<LI> 224<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/DOMAIN_CONTROL.txt">CONTROL.txt</A></LI> 225<LI> 226<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/ENCRYPTION.txt">ENCRYPTION.txt</A></LI> 227<LI> 228<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Faxing.txt">Faxing.txt</A></LI> 229<LI> 230<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/GOTCHAS.txt">GOTCHAS.txt</A></LI> 231<LI> 232<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/HINTS.txt">HINTS.txt</A></LI> 233<LI> 234<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/INSTALL.sambatar">INSTALL.sambatar</A></LI> 235<LI> 236<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/INSTALL.txt">INSTALL.txt</A></LI> 237<LI> 238<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/MIRRORS">MIRRORS</A></LI> 239<LI> 240<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/NetBIOS.txt">NetBIOS.txt</A></LI> 241<LI> 242<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/OS2.txt">OS2.txt</A></LI> 243<LI> 244<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/PROJECTS">PROJECTS</A></LI> 245<LI> 246<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Passwords.txt">Passwords.txt</A></LI> 247<LI> 248<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Printing.txt">Printing.txt</A></LI> 249<LI> 250<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.DCEDFS">README.DCEDFS</A></LI> 251<LI> 252<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.OS2">README.OS2</A></LI> 253<LI> 254<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.jis">README.jis</A></LI> 255<LI> 256<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/README.sambatar">README.sambatar</A></LI> 257<LI> 258<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/SCO.txt">SCO.txt</A></LI> 259<LI> 260<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/SMBTAR.notes">SMBTAR.notes</A></LI> 261<LI> 262<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Speed.txt">Speed.txt</A></LI> 263<LI> 264<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Support.txt">Support.txt</A></LI> 265<LI> 266<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/THANKS">THANKS</A></LI> 267<LI> 268<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Tracing.txt">Tracing.txt</A></LI> 269<LI> 270<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/UNIX-SMB.txt">SMB.txt</A></LI> 271<LI> 272<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/Warp.txt">Warp.txt</A></LI> 273<LI> 274<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/WinNT.txt">WinNT.txt</A></LI> 275<LI> 276<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/history">history</A></LI> 277<LI> 278<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/security_level.txt">level.txt</A></LI> 279<LI> 280<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/docs/wfw_slip.htm">slip.htm</A></LI> 281</UL> 282</LI> 283</UL> 284</P> 285 286 287<H2><A NAME="ss1.7">1.7 How do I subscribe to the Samba Mailing Lists?</A></H2> 288 289<P> 290<A NAME="mailinglist"></A> 291 292Send email to 293<A HREF="mailto:listproc@samba.org">listproc@samba.org</A>. Make sure the subject line is 294blank, and include the following two lines in the body of the message: 295<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE> 296<PRE> 297subscribe samba Firstname Lastname 298subscribe samba-announce Firstname Lastname 299</PRE> 300</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE> 301 302Obviously you should substitute YOUR first name for "Firstname" and 303YOUR last name for "Lastname"! Try not to send any signature stuff, it 304sometimes confuses the list processor.</P> 305<P>The samba list is a digest list - every eight hours or so it 306regurgitates a single message containing all the messages that have 307been received by the list since the last time and sends a copy of this 308message to all subscribers.</P> 309<P>If you stop being interested in Samba, please send another email to 310<A HREF="mailto:listproc@samba.org">listproc@samba.org</A>. Make sure the subject line is blank, and 311include the following two lines in the body of the message: 312<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE> 313<PRE> 314unsubscribe samba 315unsubscribe samba-announce 316</PRE> 317</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE> 318 319The <B>From:</B> line in your message <EM>MUST</EM> be the same address you used when 320you subscribed.</P> 321 322 323<H2><A NAME="ss1.8">1.8 Something's gone wrong - what should I do? </A></H2> 324 325<P> 326<A NAME="wrong"></A> 327 328<B><F>#</F> *** IMPORTANT! *** <F>#</F></B></P> 329<P>DO NOT post messages on mailing lists or in newsgroups until you have 330carried out the first three steps given here!</P> 331<P>Firstly, see if there are any likely looking entries in this FAQ! If 332you have just installed Samba, have you run through the checklist in 333<A HREF="ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/DIAGNOSIS.txt">DIAGNOSIS.txt</A>? It can save you a lot of time and effort. 334DIAGNOSIS.txt can also be found in the docs directory of the Samba distribution.</P> 335<P>Secondly, read the man pages for smbd, nmbd and smb.conf, looking for 336topics that relate to what you are trying to do.</P> 337<P>Thirdly, if there is no obvious solution to hand, try to get a look at 338the log files for smbd and/or nmbd for the period during which you 339were having problems. You may need to reconfigure the servers to 340provide more extensive debugging information - usually level 2 or 341level 3 provide ample debugging info. Inspect these logs closely, 342looking particularly for the string "Error:".</P> 343<P>Fourthly, if you still haven't got anywhere, ask the mailing list or 344newsgroup. In general nobody minds answering questions provided you 345have followed the preceding steps. It might be a good idea to scan the 346archives of the mailing list, which are available through the Samba 347web site described in the previous 348section.</P> 349<P>If you successfully solve a problem, please mail the FAQ maintainer a 350succinct description of the symptom, the problem and the solution, so 351I can incorporate it in the next version.</P> 352<P>If you make changes to the source code, _please_ submit these patches 353so that everyone else gets the benefit of your work. This is one of 354the most important aspects to the maintainence of Samba. Send all 355patches to 356<A HREF="mailto:samba@samba.org">samba@samba.org</A>. Do not send patches to Andrew Tridgell or any 357other individual, they may be lost if you do.</P> 358 359 360<H2><A NAME="ss1.9">1.9 Pizza supply details </A></H2> 361 362<P> 363<A NAME="pizza"></A> 364 365Those who have registered in the Samba survey as "Pizza Factory" will 366already know this, but the rest may need some help. Andrew doesn't ask 367for payment, but he does appreciate it when people give him 368pizza. This calls for a little organisation when the pizza donor is 369twenty thousand kilometres away, but it has been done.</P> 370<P>Method 1: Ring up your local branch of an international pizza chain 371and see if they honour their vouchers internationally. Pizza Hut do, 372which is how the entire Canberra Linux Users Group got to eat pizza 373one night, courtesy of someone in the US</P> 374<P>Method 2: Ring up a local pizza shop in Canberra and quote a credit 375card number for a certain amount, and tell them that Andrew will be 376collecting it (don't forget to tell him.) One kind soul from Germany 377did this.</P> 378<P>Method 3: Purchase a pizza voucher from your local pizza shop that has 379no international affiliations and send it to Andrew. It is completely 380useless but he can hang it on the wall next to the one he already has 381from Germany :-)</P> 382<P>Method 4: Air freight him a pizza with your favourite regional 383flavours. It will probably get stuck in customs or torn apart by 384hungry sniffer dogs but it will have been a noble gesture.</P> 385 386 387<HR> 388Previous 389<A HREF="sambafaq-2.html">Next</A> 390<A HREF="sambafaq.html#toc1">Table of Contents</A> 391</BODY> 392</HTML> 393