Beyond Linux® From Scratch (systemd Edition) - Version r12.2-730

Chapter 15. Networking Programs

Samba-4.21.1

Introduction to Samba

The Samba package provides file and print services to SMB/CIFS clients and Windows networking to Linux clients. Samba can also be configured as a Windows Domain Controller replacement, a file/print server acting as a member of a Windows Active Directory domain and a NetBIOS (RFC1001/1002) nameserver (which among other things provides LAN browsing support).

[Note]

Note

Development versions of BLFS may not build or run some packages properly if LFS or dependencies have been updated since the most recent stable versions of the books.

Package Information

Samba Dependencies

Required

GnuTLS-3.8.8, jansson-2.14, libtirpc-1.3.6, lmdb-0.9.31, Parse-Yapp-1.21, and rpcsvc-proto-1.4.4

Recommended

Fuse-3.16.2, GPGME-1.24.0, ICU-76.1, libtasn1-4.19.0, libxslt-1.1.42 (for documentation), Linux-PAM-1.7.0, MIT Kerberos V5-1.21.3, and OpenLDAP-2.6.8

Optional

Avahi-0.8, BIND-9.20.3, Cups-2.4.11, Cyrus SASL-2.1.28, GDB-15.2, git-2.47.1, GnuPG-2.4.6 (required for ADS and the test suite), libaio-0.3.113, libarchive-3.7.7 (for tar in smbclient), libcap-2.72 with PAM, libgcrypt-1.11.0, libnsl-2.0.1, libunwind-1.8.1, Markdown-3.7, nss-3.107, popt-1.19, Talloc-2.4.2 (included), Vala-0.56.17, Valgrind-3.24.0 (optionally used by the test suite), xfsprogs-6.11.0, cmocka, cryptography, ctdb (included), cwrap, dnspython, FAM, Gamin, GlusterFS, Heimdal (included), iso8601, ldb (included), OpenAFS, poetry-core (required for ADS), pyasn1, tevent (included), tdb (included), and tracker-2

Optional (for the Developer Test Suite)

Install in listed order: six-1.16.0, pytest-8.3.3, argparse, testtools, testscenarios, and python-subunit

Editor Notes: https://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/samba4

Installation of Samba

To support the test suite, set up a Python virtual environment for some Python modules out of the scope of BLFS: 

python3 -m venv pyvenv &&
./pyvenv/bin/pip3 install cryptography pyasn1 iso8601

Install Samba by running the following commands: 

PYTHON=$PWD/pyvenv/bin/python3             \
./configure                                \
    --prefix=/usr                          \
    --sysconfdir=/etc                      \
    --localstatedir=/var                   \
    --with-piddir=/run/samba               \
    --with-pammodulesdir=/usr/lib/security \
    --enable-fhs                           \
    --without-ad-dc                        \
    --with-system-mitkrb5                  \
    --enable-selftest                      \
    --disable-rpath-install                &&
make

To test the results, issue: PATH=$PWD/pyvenv/bin:$PATH make quicktest. The test suite will produce lines that look like failures, but these are innocuous. The last few lines of output should report "ALL OK" for a good test run. A summary of any failures can be found in ./st/summary.

[Note]

Note

Additionally, developer test suites are available. If you've installed the optional python modules above in the Python virtual environment for building this package, you can run these tests with make test. It is not recommended for the average builder at around 290 SBU and over a gigabyte of disk space, and you should expect ~73 errors and ~30 failures from the 3000+ tests.

Fix hard coded paths to Python 3 interpreter: 

sed '1s@^.*$@#!/usr/bin/python3@' \
    -i ./bin/default/source4/scripting/bin/*.inst

If upgrading from an old version of samba, as the root user, remove the old Python support files to prevent some issues: 

rm -rf /usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/samba

Still as the root user, install the package: 

make install &&

install -v -m644    examples/smb.conf.default /etc/samba &&

sed -e "s;log file =.*;log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log;" \
    -e "s;path = /usr/spool/samba;path = /var/spool/samba;" \
    -i /etc/samba/smb.conf.default &&

mkdir -pv /etc/openldap/schema                        &&

install -v -m644    examples/LDAP/README              \
                    /etc/openldap/schema/README.samba &&

install -v -m644    examples/LDAP/samba*              \
                    /etc/openldap/schema              &&

install -v -m755    examples/LDAP/{get*,ol*} \
                    /etc/openldap/schema

Command Explanations

--enable-fhs: Assigns all other file paths in a manner compliant with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS).

--without-ad-dc: Disables Active Directory Domain Controller functionality. See Set up a Samba Active Directory Domain Controller for detailed information. Remove this switch if you've installed the Python modules needed for ADS support. Note that BLFS does not provide a samba bootscript or systemd unit for an Active Directory domain controller.

--with-system-mitkrb5: Enables building with the system version of Kerberos. This mitigates security vulnerabilities and reduces build time. Remove this if you do not have MIT Kerberos V5-1.21.3 installed.

--disable-rpath-install: Removes the library installation path from embedded shared library search paths in the installed binary executable files and shared libraries. When this package is installed into the standard location the library installation path is /usr/lib. It's always searched by the dynamic linker, so there is no need to embed it into installed files.

--with-selftest-prefix=SELFTEST_PREFIX: This option specifies the test suite work directory (default=./st).

install -v -m644 examples/LDAP/* /etc/openldap/schema: These commands are used to copy sample Samba schemas to the OpenLDAP schema directory.

install -v -m644 ../examples/smb.conf.default /etc/samba: This copies a default smb.conf file into /etc/samba. This sample configuration will not work until you copy it to /etc/samba/smb.conf and make the appropriate changes for your installation. See the configuration section for minimum values which must be set.

Configuring Samba

Config Files

/etc/samba/smb.conf

Printing to SMB Clients

If you use CUPS for print services, and you wish to print to a printer attached to an SMB client, you need to create an SMB backend device. To create the device, issue the following command as the root user: 

install -dvm 755 /usr/lib/cups/backend &&
ln -v -sf /usr/bin/smbspool /usr/lib/cups/backend/smb

Configuration Information

Due to the complexity and the many various uses for Samba, complete configuration for all the package's capabilities is well beyond the scope of the BLFS book. This section provides instructions to configure the /etc/samba/smb.conf file for two common scenarios. The complete contents of /etc/samba/smb.conf will depend on the purpose of Samba installation.

[Note]

Note

You may find it easier to copy the configuration parameters shown below into an empty /etc/samba/smb.conf file instead of copying and editing the default file as mentioned in the “Command Explanations” section. How you create/edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file will be left up to you. Do ensure the file is only writable by the root user (mode 644).

Scenario 1: Minimal Standalone Client-Only Installation

Choose this variant if you only want to transfer files using smbclient, mount Windows shares and print to Windows printers, and don't want to share your files and printers to Windows machines.

A /etc/samba/smb.conf file with the following three parameters is sufficient: 

[global]
    workgroup = WORKGROUP
    dos charset = cp850
    unix charset = ISO-8859-1

The values in this example specify that the computer belongs to a Windows workgroup named WORKGROUP, uses the cp850 character set on the wire when talking to MS-DOS and MS Windows 9x, and that the filenames are stored in the ISO-8859-1 encoding on the disk. Adjust these values appropriately for your installation. The unix charset value must be the same as the output of locale charmap when executed with the LANG variable set to your preferred locale, otherwise the ls command may not display correct filenames of downloaded files.

There is no need to run any Samba servers in this scenario, thus you don't need to install the provided systemd units.

Scenario 2: Standalone File/Print Server

Choose this variant if you want to share your files and printers to Windows machines in your workgroup in addition to the capabilities described in Scenario 1.

In this case, the /etc/samba/smb.conf.default file may be a good template to start from. Also, you should add the “dos charset” and “unix charset” parameters to the “[global]” section as described in Scenario 1 in order to prevent filename corruption. For security reasons, you may wish to define path = /home/alice/shared-files, assuming your user name is alice and you only want to share the files in that directory, instead of your entire home. Then, replace homes by shared-files and change also the “comment” if used the configuration file below or the /etc/samba/smb.conf.default to create yours.

The following configuration file creates a separate share for each user's home directory and also makes all printers available to Windows machines: 

[global]
    workgroup = WORKGROUP
    dos charset = cp850
    unix charset = ISO-8859-1

[homes]
    comment = Home Directories
    browseable = no
    writable = yes

[printers]
    comment = All Printers
    path = /var/spool/samba
    browseable = no
    guest ok = no
    printable = yes

Other parameters you may wish to customize in the “[global]” section include: 

    server string =
    security =
    hosts allow =
    load printers =
    log file =
    max log size =
    socket options =
    local master =

Reference the comments in the /etc/samba/smb.conf.default file for information regarding these parameters.

Since the smbd and nmbd daemons are needed in this case, install the samba systemd unit. Be sure to run smbpasswd (with the -a option to add users) to enable and set passwords for all accounts that need Samba access. Using the default Samba passdb backend, any user you attempt to add will also be required to exist in the /etc/passwd file.

Advanced Requirements

More complex scenarios involving domain control or membership are possible. Such setups are advanced topics and cannot be adequately covered in BLFS. Many complete books have been written on these topics alone. Note that in some domain membership scenarios, the winbindd daemon and the corresponding systemd unit are needed.

Guest account

The default Samba installation uses the nobody user for guest access to the server. This can be overridden by setting the guest account = parameter in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. If you utilize the guest account = parameter, ensure this user exists in the /etc/passwd file.

Systemd Units

To start the Samba daemons at boot, install the systemd units from the blfs-systemd-units-20240916 package by running the following command as the root user: 

make install-samba

To start the winbindd daemon at boot, install the systemd unit from the blfs-systemd-units-20240916 package by running the following command as the root user: 

make install-winbindd
[Note]

Note

This package comes with two types of units: A service file and a socket file. The service file will start the smbd daemon once at boot and it will keep running until the system shuts down. The socket file will make systemd listen on the smbd port (Default 445, needs to be edited for anything else) and will start the smbd daemon when something tries to connect to that port and stop the daemon when the connection is terminated. This is called socket activation and is analogous to using {,x}inetd on a SysVinit based system.

By default, the first method is used - the smbd daemon is started at boot and stopped at shutdown. If the socket method is desired, you need to run the following commands as the root user: 

systemctl stop smbd &&
systemctl disable smbd &&
systemctl enable smbd.socket &&
systemctl start smbd.socket

Note that only the smbd daemon can be socket activated.

Contents

Installed Programs: cifsdd, dbwrap_tool, dumpmscat, eventlogadm, gentest, ldbadd, ldbdel, ldbedit, ldbmodify, ldbrename, ldbsearch, locktest, masktest, mdsearch, mvxattr, ndrdump, net, nmbd, nmblookup, ntlm_auth, oLschema2ldif, pdbedit, profiles, regdiff, regpatch, regshell, regtree, rpcclient, samba-log-parser, samba-gpupdate, samba-regedit, samba-tool, sharesec, smbcacls, smbclient, smbcontrol, smbcquotas, smbd, smbget, smbpasswd, smbspool, smbstatus, smbtar, smbtorture, smbtree, tdbbackup, tdbdump, tdbrestore, tdbtool, testparm, wbinfo, and winbindd
Installed Libraries: libdcerpc-binding.so, libdcerpc-samr.so, libdcerpc-server-core.so, libdcerpc.so, libndr-krb5pac.so, libndr-nbt.so, libndr.so, libndr-standard.so, libnetapi.so, libnss_winbind.so, libnss_wins.so, libsamba-credentials.so, libsamba-errors.so, libsamba-hostconfig.so, libsamba-passdb.so, libsamba-policy.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so, libsamba-util.so, libsamdb.so, libsmbclient.so, libsmbconf.so, libsmbldap.so, libtevent-util.so, libwbclient.so, and filesystem and support modules under /usr/lib/{python3.13,samba}
Installed Directories: /etc/samba, /run/samba, /usr/include/samba-4.0, /usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/samba, /usr/{lib,libexec,share}/samba, and /var/{cache,lib,lock,log,run}/samba

Short Descriptions

cifsdd

is the dd command for SMB

dbwrap_tool

is used to read and manipulate TDB/CTDB databases using the dbwrap interface

dumpmscat

dumps the content of MS catalog files

eventlogadm

is used to write records to eventlogs from STDIN, add the specified source and DLL eventlog registry entries and display the active eventlog names (from smb.conf)

gentest

is used to run random generic SMB operations against two SMB servers and show the differences in behavior

ldbadd

is a command-line utility for adding records to an LDB database

ldbdel

is a command-line utility for deleting LDB database records

ldbedit

allows you to edit LDB databases using your preferred editor

ldbmodify

allows you to modify records in an LDB database

ldbrename

allows you to rename LDB databases

ldbsearch

searches an LDB database for records matching a specified expression

locktest

is used to find differences in locking between two SMB servers

masktest

is used to find differences in wildcard matching between Samba's implementation and that of a remote server

mdsearch

runs Spotlight searches against a SMB server

mvxattr

is used to recursively rename extended attributes

ndrdump

is a DCE/RPC Packet Parser and Dumper

net

is a tool for administration of Samba and remote CIFS servers, similar to the net utility for DOS/Windows

nmbd

is the Samba NetBIOS name server

nmblookup

is used to query NetBIOS names and map them to IP addresses

ntlm_auth

is a tool to allow external access to Winbind's NTLM authentication function

oLschema2ldif

converts LDAP schema's to LDB-compatible LDIF

pdbedit

is a tool used to manage the SAM database

profiles

is a utility that reports and changes SIDs in Windows registry files

regdiff

is a Diff program for Windows registry files

regpatch

applies registry patches to registry files

regshell

is a Windows registry file browser using readline

regtree

is a text-mode registry viewer

rpcclient

is used to execute MS-RPC client side functions

samba-log-parser

parses winbind logs generated by Samba

samba-gpupdate

allows you to edit Microsoft Group Policy Objects (GPOs)

samba-regedit

is a ncurses based tool to manage the Samba registry

samba-tool

is the main Samba administration tool

sharesec

manipulates share ACL permissions on SMB file shares

smbcacls

is used to manipulate Windows NT access control lists

smbclient

is a SMB/CIFS access utility, similar to FTP

smbcontrol

is used to control running smbd, nmbd and winbindd daemons

smbcquotas

is used to manipulate Windows NT quotas on SMB file shares

smbd

is the main Samba daemon which provides SMB/CIFS services to clients

smbget

is a simple utility with wget-like semantics, that can download files from SMB servers. You can specify the files you would like to download on the command-line

smbpasswd

changes a user's Samba password

smbspool

sends a print job to a SMB printer

smbstatus

reports current Samba connections

smbtar

is a shell script used for backing up SMB/CIFS shares directly to Linux tape drives or to a file

smbtorture

is a test suite that runs several tests against a SMB server

smbtree

is a text-based SMB network browser

tdbbackup

is a tool for backing up or validating the integrity of Samba .tdb files

tdbdump

is a tool used to print the contents of a Samba .tdb file

tdbrestore

is a tool for creating a Samba .tdb file out of a ntdbdump

tdbtool

is a tool which allows simple database manipulation from the command line

testparm

checks a smb.conf file for proper syntax

wbinfo

queries a running winbindd daemon

winbindd

resolves names from Windows NT servers

libnss_winbind.so

provides Name Service Switch API functions for resolving names from NT servers

libnss_wins.so

provides API functions for Samba's implementation of the Windows Internet Naming Service

libnetapi.so

provides API functions for the administration tools used for Samba and remote CIFS servers

libsmbclient.so

provides API functions for the Samba SMB client tools

libwbclient.so

provides API functions for Windows domain client services