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<TITLE> Samba Server FAQ: What is Samba?</TITLE>
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<H2><A NAME="s1">1. What is Samba?</A></H2>
<P>
<A NAME="WhatIsSamba"></A>
</P>
<P>See the
<A HREF="Samba-meta-FAQ.html#introduction">meta FAQ introduction</A> if you don't have any idea what Samba does.</P>
<P>Samba has many features that are not supported in other CIFS and SMB
implementations, all of which are commercial. It approaches some
problems from a different angle.</P>
<P>Some of its features include:
<UL>
<LI>extremely dynamic runtime configuration</LI>
<LI>host as well as username/password security</LI>
<LI>scriptable SMB client</LI>
<LI>automatic home directory exporting</LI>
<LI>automatic printer exporting</LI>
<LI>intelligent dead connection timeouts</LI>
<LI>guest connections</LI>
</UL>
</P>
<P>Look at the
<A HREF="samba-man-index.html">manual pages</A> included with the package for a full list of
features. The components of the suite are (in summary):</P>
<P>
<DL>
<DT><B>smbd</B><DD><P>the SMB server. This handles actual connections from clients,
doing all the interfacing with the
<A HREF="Samba-meta-FAQ.html#DomainModeSecurity">authentication database</A> for file, permission and username work.</P>
<DT><B>nmbd</B><DD><P>the NetBIOS name server, which helps clients locate servers,
maintaining the
<A HREF="Samba-meta-FAQ.html#BrowseAndDomainDefs">authentication database</A> doing the browsing work and managing
domains as this capability is being built into Samba.</P>
<DT><B>smbclient</B><DD><P>the scriptable commandline SMB client program.
Useful for automated work, printer filters and testing purposes. It is
more CIFS-compliant than most commercial implementations. Note that this
is not a filesystem. The Samba team does not supply a network filesystem
driver, although the smbfs filesystem for Linux is derived from
smbclient code.</P>
<DT><B>smbrun</B><DD><P>a little 'glue' program to help the server run
external programs.</P>
<DT><B>testprns</B><DD><P>a program to test server access to printers</P>
<DT><B>testparms</B><DD><P>a program to test the Samba configuration file
for correctness</P>
<DT><B>smb.conf</B><DD><P>the Samba configuration file</P>
<DT><B>examples</B><DD><P>many examples have been put together for the different
operating systems that Samba supports.</P>
<DT><B>Documentation!</B><DD><P>DON'T neglect to read it - you will save a great
deal of time!</P>
</DL>
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