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NMBD(8)
NAME
nmbd - NetBIOS name server to provide NetBIOS over IP naming services to
clients
SYNOPSIS
nmbd [-D] [-F] [-S] [-a] [-i] [-o] [-h] [-V] [-d <debug level>]
[-H <lmhosts file>] [-l <log directory>] [-p <port number>]
[-s <configuration file>]
DESCRIPTION
This program is part of the samba(7) suite.
nmbd is a server that understands and can reply to NetBIOS over IP name
service requests, like those produced by SMB/CIFS clients such as Windows
95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and LanManager clients. It
also participates in the browsing protocols which make up the Windows "Net-
work Neighborhood" view.
SMB/CIFS clients, when they start up, may wish to locate an SMB/CIFS
server. That is, they wish to know what IP number a specified host is us-
ing.
Amongst other services, nmbd will listen for such requests, and if its own
NetBIOS name is specified it will respond with the IP number of the host it
is running on. Its "own NetBIOS name" is by default the primary DNS name of
the host it is running on, but this can be overridden by the netbios name
in smb.conf. Thus nmbd will reply to broadcast queries for its own name(s).
Additional names for nmbd to respond on can be set via parameters in the
smb.conf(5) configuration file.
nmbd can also be used as a WINS (Windows Internet Name Server) server. What
this basically means is that it will act as a WINS database server, creat-
ing a database from name registration requests that it receives and reply-
ing to queries from clients for these names.
In addition, nmbd can act as a WINS proxy, relaying broadcast queries from
clients that do not understand how to talk the WINS protocol to a WINS
server.
OPTIONS
-D If specified, this parameter causesnmbd to operate as a daemon. That
is, it detaches itself and runs in the background, fielding requests
on the appropriate port. By default, nmbd will operate as a daemon if
launched from a command shell. nmbd can also be operated from the in-
etd meta-daemon, although this is not recommended.
-F If specified, this parameter causes the main nmbd process to not dae-
monize, i.e. double-fork and disassociate with the terminal. Child
processes are still created as normal to service each connection re-
quest, but the main process does not exit. This operation mode is
suitable for runningnmbd under process supervisors such as supervise
and svscan from Daniel J. Bernstein's daemontools package, or the AIX
process monitor.
-S If specified, this parameter causesnmbd to log to standard output
rather than a file.
-i If this parameter is specified it causes the server to run "interac-
tively", not as a daemon, even if the server is executed on the com-
mand line of a shell. Setting this parameter negates the implicit dae-
mon mode when run from the command line. nmbd also logs to standard
output, as if the -S parameter had been given.
-h|--help
Print a summary of command line options.
-H <filename>
NetBIOS lmhosts file. The lmhosts file is a list of NetBIOS names to
IP addresses that is loaded by the nmbd server and used via the name
resolution mechanism name resolve order described in smb.conf(5) to
resolve any NetBIOS name queries needed by the server. Note that the
contents of this file are NOT used by nmbd to answer any name queries.
Adding a line to this file affects name NetBIOS resolution from this
host ONLY.
The default path to this file is compiled into Samba as part of the
build process. Common defaults are
/usr/local/samba/lib/lmhosts,/usr/samba/lib/lmhosts
or/etc/samba/lmhosts. See the lmhosts(5) man page for details on the
contents of this file.
-V Prints the program version number.
-s <configuration file>
The file specified contains the configuration details required by the
server. The information in this file includes server-specific informa-
tion such as what printcap file to use, as well as descriptions of all
the services that the server is to provide. See smb.conf for more in-
formation. The default configuration file name is determined at com-
pile time.
-d|--debug=debuglevel
debuglevel is an integer from 0 to 10. The default value if this
parameter is not specified is zero.
The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the log files
about the activities of the server. At level 0, only critical errors
and serious warnings will be logged. Level 1 is a reasonable level for
day-to-day running - it generates a small amount of information about
operations carried out.
Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log data, and
should only be used when investigating a problem. Levels above 3 are
designed for use only by developers and generate HUGE amounts of log
data, most of which is extremely cryptic.
Note that specifying this parameter here will override the parameter
in the smb.conf file.
-l|--logfile=logdirectory
Base directory name for log/debug files. The extension ".progname"
will be appended (e.g. log.smbclient, log.smbd, etc...). The log file
is never removed by the client.
-p <UDP port number>
UDP port number is a positive integer value. This option changes the
default UDP port number (normally 137) that nmbd responds to name
queries on. Don't use this option unless you are an expert, in which
case you won't need help!
FILES
/etc/inetd.conf
If the server is to be run by theinetd meta-daemon, this file must
contain suitable startup information for the meta-daemon.
/etc/rc
or whatever initialization script your system uses).
If running the server as a daemon at startup, this file will need to
contain an appropriate startup sequence for the server.
/etc/services
If running the server via the meta-daemon inetd, this file must con-
tain a mapping of service name (e.g., netbios-ssn) to service port
(e.g., 139) and protocol type (e.g., tcp).
/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf
This is the default location of the smb.conf(5) server configuration
file. Other common places that systems install this file are
/usr/samba/lib/smb.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf.
When run as a WINS server (see thewins support parameter in the
smb.conf(5) man page),nmbd will store the WINS database in the file
wins.dat in the var/locks directory configured under wherever Samba
was configured to install itself.
If nmbd is acting as a browse master (see the local master parameter
in the smb.conf(5) man page, nmbd will store the browsing database in
the file browse.dat in the var/locks directory configured under wher-
ever Samba was configured to install itself.
SIGNALS
To shut down an nmbd process it is recommended that SIGKILL (-9) NOT be
used, except as a last resort, as this may leave the name database in an
inconsistent state. The correct way to terminate nmbd is to send it a
SIGTERM (-15) signal and wait for it to die on its own.
nmbd will accept SIGHUP, which will cause it to dump out its namelists into
the file namelist.debug in the /usr/local/samba/var/locks directory (or
the var/locks directory configured under wherever Samba was configured to
install itself). This will also cause nmbd to dump out its server database
in the log.nmb file.
The debug log level of nmbd may be raised or lowered using smbcontrol(1)
(SIGUSR[1|2] signals are no longer used since Samba 2.2). This is to allow
transient problems to be diagnosed, whilst still running at a normally low
log level.
VERSION
This man page is correct for version 3.0 of the Samba suite.
SEE ALSO
inetd(8), smbd(8), smb.conf(5), smbclient(1), testparm(1), testprns(1), and
the Internet RFC's rfc1001.txt, rfc1002.txt. In addition the CIFS (formerly
SMB) specification is available as a link from the Web page
http://samba.org/cifs/.
AUTHOR
The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew
Tridgell. Samba is now developed by the Samba Team as an Open Source pro-
ject similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed.
The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer. The man page
sources were converted to YODL format (another excellent piece of Open
Source software, available at ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/) and updated
for the Samba 2.0 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to DocBook for
Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter. The conversion to DocBook XML 4.2 for
Samba 3.0 was done by Alexander Bokovoy.
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Index for
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Alphabetical
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