+ Samba is a free SMB and CIFS client and server and Domain Controller for UNIX

+ and other operating systems. It is maintained by the Samba Team, who support the

+ original author, Andrew Tridgell.

+ 

+ This software is freely distributable under the GNU public license, a copy of

+ which you should have received with this software (in a file called COPYING).

+ 

+ # WHAT IS SMB/CIFS?

+ This is a big question.

+ 

+ The very short answer is that it is the protocol by which a lot of PC-related

+ machines share files and printers and other information such as lists of

+ available files and printers. Operating systems that support this natively

+ include Windows 9x, Windows NT (and derivatives), OS/2, Mac OS X and Linux. Add

+ on packages that achieve the same thing are available for DOS, Windows 3.1, VMS,

+ Unix of all kinds, MVS, and more.  Some Web Browsers can speak this protocol as

+ well (smb://).  Alternatives to SMB include Netware, NFS, Appletalk, Banyan

+ Vines, Decnet etc; many of these have advantages but none are both public

+ specifications and widely implemented in desktop machines by default.

+ 

+ The Common Internet File system (CIFS) is what the new SMB initiative is called.

+ For details watch [here](https://samba.org/cifs)

+ 

+ # WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO USE SMB?

+ * Many people want to integrate their Microsoft desktop clients with their Unix

+ servers.

+ 

+ * Others want to integrate their Microsoft (etc) servers with Unix servers. This

+ is a different problem to integrating desktop clients.

+ 

+ * Others want to replace protocols like NFS, DecNet and Novell NCP, especially

+ when used with PCs.

+ 

+ # WHAT CAN SAMBA DO?

+ Please refer to the WHATSNEW.txt included with this README for a list of

+ features in the latest Samba release.

+ 

+ Here is a very short list of what samba includes, and what it does. For many

+ networks this can be simply summarized by "Samba provides a complete replacement

+ for Windows NT, Warp, NFS or Netware servers."

+ * a SMB server, to provide Windows NT and LAN Manager-style file and print

+ services to SMB clients such as Windows 95, Warp Server, smbfs and others.

+ 

+ * a Windows Domain Controller (NT4 and AD) replacement.

+ 

+ * a file/print server that can act as a member of a Windows NT 4.0 or Active

+ Directory domain.

+ 

+ * a NetBIOS (rfc1001/1002) nameserver, which amongst other things gives browsing

+ support. Samba can be the master browser on your LAN if you wish.

+ 

+ * a ftp-like SMB client so you can access PC resources (disks and printers) from

+ UNIX, Netware, and other operating systems

+ 

+ * a tar extension to the client for backing up PCs

+ 

+ * limited command-line tool that supports some of the NT administrative

+ functionality, which can be used on Samba, NT workstation and NT server.

+ 

+ For a much better overview have a look at the [web site](http://samba.org/samba)

+ and browse the user survey.

+ 

+ #### Related packages include:

+ * cifsvfs, an advanced Linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount remote SMB

+ filesystems from PCs on your Linux box. This is included as standard with Linux

+ 2.5 and later.

+ 

+ * smbfs, the previous Linux-only filesystem allowing you to mount remote SMB

+ filesystems from PCs on your Linux box. This is included as standard with Linux

+ 2.0 and later.

+ 

+ # CONTRIBUTIONS

+ 

+ ### To contribute via GitHub

+   * fork the official Samba team repository on GitHub

+     -- see [GitHub](https://github.com/samba-team/samba)

+ 

+   * become familiar with the coding standards as described in README.Coding

+ 

+   * make sure you read the Samba copyright policy

+     -- see [Copyright Policy](https://www.samba.org/samba/devel/copyright-policy.html)

+ 

+   * create a feature branch

+ 

+   * make changes

+ 

+   * when committing, be sure to add signed-off-by tags

+     -- see [Commit message tags](https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/CodeReview#commit_message_tags)

+ 

+   * send a pull request for your branch through GitHub

+ 

+   * this will trigger an email to the samba-technical mailing list

+ 

+   * discussion happens on the samba-technical mailing list as described below

+ 

+   * more info on using Git for Samba development can be found on Samba Wiki

+     -- see [Using Git for Samba](https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Using_Git_for_Samba_Development)

+ 

+ ### To contribute via mailing lists

+ Join the mailing list. The Samba team accepts patches (preferably in "diff -u"

+ format, see [here](https://samba.org/samba/devel) for more details) and are

+ always glad to receive feedback or suggestions to the address

+ samba@lists.samba.org. More information on the various Samba mailing lists can

+ be found at [mailman](http://lists.samba.org).

+ 

+ You can also get the Samba sourcecode straight from the [git repository](http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Using_Git_for_Samba_Development).

+ 

+ If you like a particular feature then look through the git change-log on the

+ [web](https://git.samba.org/?p=samba.git;a=summary) and see who added it, then

+ send them an email.

+ 

+ Remember that free software of this kind lives or dies by the response we get.

+ If no one tells us they like it then we'll probably move onto something else.

+ 

+ 

+ # MORE INFO

+ 

+ ### DOCUMENTATION

+ There is quite a bit of documentation included with the package, including man

+ pages, and lots of .html files with hints and useful info. This is also

+ available from the web page. There is a growing collection of information under

+ docs/.

+ 

+ A list of Samba documentation in languages other than English is available on

+ the web page.

+ 

+ If you would like to help with the documentation, please coordinate on the

+ samba@lists.samba.org mailing list. See the next section for details on

+ subscribing to samba mailing lists.

+ 

+ ### MAILING LIST

+ Please do NOT send subscription/unsubscription requests to the lists!

+ 

+ There is a mailing list for discussion of Samba.  For details go to [mailman](https://lists.samba.org)

+ or send mail to <samba-subscribe@lists.samba.org>.

+ 

+ There is also an announcement mailing list where new versions are announced. To

+ subscribe go to [mailman](http://lists.samba.org) or send mail to

+ <samba-announce-subscribe@lists.samba.org>. All announcements also go to the

+ samba list, so you only need to be on one.

+ 

+ For details of other Samba mailing lists and for access to archives, see

+ [mailman](<http://lists.samba.org)

+ 

+ ### MAILING LIST ETIQUETTE

+ 

+ A few tips when submitting to this or any mailing list.

+  - Make your subject short and descriptive. Avoid the words "help" or "Samba" in

+ the subject. The readers of this list already know that a) you need help, and b)

+ you are writing about samba (of course, you may need to distinguish between

+ Samba PDC and other file sharing software). Avoid phrases such as "what is" and

+ "how do i". Some good subject lines might look like "Slow response with Excel

+ files" or "Migrating from Samba PDC to NT PDC".

+ 

+ - If you include the original message in your reply, trim it so that only the

+ relevant lines, enough to establish context, are included. Chances are (since

+ this is a mailing list) we've already read the original message.

+ 

+ - Trim irrelevant headers from the original message in your reply. All we need

+ to see is a) From, b) Date, and c) Subject. We don't even really need the

+ Subject, if you haven't changed it. Better yet is to just preface the original

+ message with "On [date] [someone] wrote:".

+ 

+ - Please don't reply to or argue about spam, spam filters or viruses on any

+ Samba lists. We do have a spam filtering system that is working quite well thank

+ you very much but occasionally unwanted messages slip through. Deal with it.

+ 

+ - Never say "Me too." It doesn't help anyone solve the problem. Instead, if you

+ ARE having the same problem, give more information. Have you seen something that

+ the other writer hasn't mentioned, which may be helpful?

+ 

+ - If you ask about a problem, then come up with the solution on your own or

+ through another source, by all means post it. Someone else may have the same

+ problem and is waiting for an answer, but never hears of it.

+ 

+ - Give as much *relevant* information as possible such as Samba release number,

+ OS, kernel version, etc...

+ 

+ - RTFM. Google.

+ 

+ ### WEB SITE

+ A Samba WWW [site](https://samba.org) has been setup with lots of useful info.

+ 

+ As well as general information and documentation, this also has searchable

+ archives of the mailing list and a user survey that shows who else is using this

+ package.