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, and LanManager clients. It also
participates in the browsing protocols which make up the
Windows "Network 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 using.
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 with the -n
option (see OPTIONS below). 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, creating a
database from name registration requests that it receives and
replying 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 WIN
server.
OPTIONS
-D
If specified, this parameter causes
nmbd 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 inetd
meta-daemon, although this is not recommended.
-a
If this parameter is specified, each new
connection will append log messages to the log file.
This is the default.
-o
If this parameter is specified, the
log files will be overwritten when opened. By default,
smbd will append entries to the log
files.
-h
Prints the help information (usage)
for nmbd.
-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
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/lmhosts. See the lmhosts(5)man page for details on the
contents of this file.
-V
Prints the version number for
nmbd.
-d <debug level>
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 log level
parameter in the smb.conffile.
-l <log file>
The -l parameter specifies a path
and base filename into which operational data from
the running nmbd server will
be logged. The actual log file name is generated by
appending the extension ".nmb" to the specified base
name. For example, if the name specified was "log"
then the file log.nmb would contain the debugging data.
The default log file path is compiled into Samba as
part of the build process. Common defaults are /usr/local/samba/var/log.nmb, /usr/samba/var/log.nmb or
/var/log/log.nmb.
-n <primary NetBIOS name>
This option allows you to override
the NetBIOS name that Samba uses for itself. This is identical
to setting the NetBIOS nameparameter in the
smb.conffile. However, a command
line setting will take precedence over settings in
smb.conf.
-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!
-s <configuration file>
The default configuration file name
is set at build time, typically as /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf, but
this may be changed when Samba is autoconfigured.
The file specified contains the configuration details
required by the server. See
smb.conf(5)for more information.
FILES
/etc/inetd.conf
If the server is to be run by the
inetd meta-daemon, this file
must contain suitable startup information for the
meta-daemon. See the section INSTALLATION below.
/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. See the section INSTALLATION
below.
/etc/services
If running the server via the
meta-daemon inetd, this file
must contain a mapping of service name (e.g., netbios-ssn)
to service port (e.g., 139) and protocol type (e.g., tcp).
See the section INSTALLATION below.
/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf
This is the default location of the
smb.conf
server configuration file. Other common places that systems
install this file are /usr/samba/lib/smb.conf
and /etc/smb.conf.
When run as a WINS server (see the
wins 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 wherever 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. In addition, the debug log level
of nmbd may be raised by sending it a SIGUSR1 (kill -USR1
<nmbd-pid>) and lowered by sending it a
SIGUSR2 (kill -USR2 <nmbd-pid>). 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 2.2 of
the Samba suite.
The original Samba software and related utilities
were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed
by the Samba Team as an Open Source project 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/ <URL: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
