1NMBD(8) System Administration tools NMBD(8)
2
6 nmbd - NetBIOS name server to provide NetBIOS over IP naming services
7 to clients
8
10 nmbd [-D] [-F] [-S] [-a] [-i] [-o] [-h] [-V] [-d <debug level>]
11 [-H <lmhosts file>] [-l <log directory>] [-p <port number>]
12 [-s <configuration file>]
13
15 This program is part of the samba(7) suite.
16 nmbd is a server that understands and can reply to NetBIOS over IP name
18 service requests, like those produced by SMB/CIFS clients such as
19 Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and LanManager
20 clients. It also participates in the browsing protocols which make up
21 the Windows "Network Neighborhood" view.
22 SMB/CIFS clients, when they start up, may wish to locate an SMB/CIFS
24 server. That is, they wish to know what IP number a specified host is
25 using.
26 Amongst other services, nmbd will listen for such requests, and if its
28 own NetBIOS name is specified it will respond with the IP number of the
29 host it is running on. Its "own NetBIOS name" is by default the primary
30 DNS name of the host it is running on, but this can be overridden by
31 the netbios name in smb.conf. Thus nmbd will reply to broadcast queries
32 for its own name(s). Additional names for nmbd to respond on can be set
33 via parameters in the smb.conf(5) configuration file.
34 nmbd can also be used as a WINS (Windows Internet Name Server) server.
36 What this basically means is that it will act as a WINS database
37 server, creating a database from name registration requests that it
38 receives and replying to queries from clients for these names.
39 In addition, nmbd can act as a WINS proxy, relaying broadcast queries
41 from clients that do not understand how to talk the WINS protocol to a
42 WINS server.
43
45 -D
46 If specified, this parameter causes nmbd to operate as a daemon.
47 That is, it detaches itself and runs in the background, fielding
48 requests on the appropriate port. By default, nmbd will operate as
49 a daemon if launched from a command shell. nmbd can also be
50 operated from the inetd meta-daemon, although this is not
51 recommended.
52 -F
54 If specified, this parameter causes the main nmbd process to not
55 daemonize, i.e. double-fork and disassociate with the terminal.
56 Child processes are still created as normal to service each
57 connection request, but the main process does not exit. This
58 operation mode is suitable for running nmbd under process
59 supervisors such as supervise and svscan from Daniel J. Bernstein's
60 daemontools package, or the AIX process monitor.
61 -S
63 If specified, this parameter causes nmbd to log to standard output
64 rather than a file.
65 -i
67 If this parameter is specified it causes the server to run
68 "interactively", not as a daemon, even if the server is executed on
69 the command line of a shell. Setting this parameter negates the
70 implicit daemon mode when run from the command line. nmbd also
71 logs to standard output, as if the -S parameter had been given.
72 -?|--help
74 Print a summary of command line options.
75 -H <filename>
77 NetBIOS lmhosts file. The lmhosts file is a list of NetBIOS names
78 to IP addresses that is loaded by the nmbd server and used via the
79 name resolution mechanism name resolve order described in
80 smb.conf(5) to resolve any NetBIOS name queries needed by the
81 server. Note that the contents of this file are NOT used by nmbd to
82 answer any name queries. Adding a line to this file affects name
83 NetBIOS resolution from this host ONLY.
84 The default path to this file is compiled into Samba as part of the
86 build process. Common defaults are /usr/local/samba/lib/lmhosts,
87 /usr/samba/lib/lmhosts or /etc/samba/lmhosts. See the lmhosts(5)
88 man page for details on the contents of this file.
89 -d|--debuglevel=level
91 level is an integer from 0 to 10. The default value if this
92 parameter is not specified is 0.
93 The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the log
95 files about the activities of the server. At level 0, only critical
96 errors and serious warnings will be logged. Level 1 is a reasonable
97 level for day-to-day running - it generates a small amount of
98 information about operations carried out.
99 Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log data, and
101 should only be used when investigating a problem. Levels above 3
102 are designed for use only by developers and generate HUGE amounts
103 of log data, most of which is extremely cryptic.
104 Note that specifying this parameter here will override the log
106 level parameter in the smb.conf file.
107 -V|--version
109 Prints the program version number.
110 -s|--configfile <configuration file>
112 The file specified contains the configuration details required by
113 the server. The information in this file includes server-specific
114 information such as what printcap file to use, as well as
115 descriptions of all the services that the server is to provide. See
116 smb.conf for more information. The default configuration file name
117 is determined at compile time.
118 -l|--log-basename=logdirectory
120 Base directory name for log/debug files. The extension ".progname"
121 will be appended (e.g. log.smbclient, log.smbd, etc...). The log
122 file is never removed by the client.
123 -p <UDP port number>
125 UDP port number is a positive integer value. This option changes
126 the default UDP port number (normally 137) that nmbd responds to
127 name queries on. Don't use this option unless you are an expert, in
128 which case you won't need help!
129
131 /etc/inetd.conf
132 If the server is to be run by the inetd meta-daemon, this file must
133 contain suitable startup information for the meta-daemon.
134 /etc/rc
136 or whatever initialization script your system uses).
137 If running the server as a daemon at startup, this file will need
139 to contain an appropriate startup sequence for the server.
140 /etc/services
142 If running the server via the meta-daemon inetd, this file must
143 contain a mapping of service name (e.g., netbios-ssn) to service
144 port (e.g., 139) and protocol type (e.g., tcp).
145 /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf
147 This is the default location of the smb.conf(5) server
148 configuration file. Other common places that systems install this
149 file are /usr/samba/lib/smb.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf.
150 When run as a WINS server (see the wins support parameter in the
152 smb.conf(5) man page), nmbd will store the WINS database in the
153 file wins.dat in the var/locks directory configured under wherever
154 Samba was configured to install itself.
155 If nmbd is acting as a
157 browse master (see the local master parameter in the smb.conf(5)
158 man page, nmbd will store the browsing database in the file
159 browse.dat in the var/locks directory configured under wherever
160 Samba was configured to install itself.
161
163 To shut down an nmbd process it is recommended that SIGKILL (-9) NOT be
164 used, except as a last resort, as this may leave the name database in
165 an inconsistent state. The correct way to terminate nmbd is to send it
166 a SIGTERM (-15) signal and wait for it to die on its own.
167 nmbd will accept SIGHUP, which will cause it to dump out its namelists
169 into the file namelist.debug in the /usr/local/samba/var/locks
170 directory (or the var/locks directory configured under wherever Samba
171 was configured to install itself). This will also cause nmbd to dump
172 out its server database in the log.nmb file.
173 The debug log level of nmbd may be raised or lowered using
175 smbcontrol(1) (SIGUSR[1|2] signals are no longer used since Samba 2.2).
176 This is to allow transient problems to be diagnosed, whilst still
177 running at a normally low log level.
178
180 This man page is correct for version 3 of the Samba suite.
181
183 inetd(8), smbd(8), smb.conf(5), smbclient(1), testparm(1), testprns(1),
184 and the Internet RFC's rfc1001.txt, rfc1002.txt. In addition the CIFS
185 (formerly SMB) specification is available as a link from the Web page
186 http://samba.org/cifs/.
187
189 The original Samba software and related utilities were created by
190 Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed by the Samba Team as an Open
191 Source project similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed.
192 The original Samba man pages were written by Karl Auer. The man page
194 sources were converted to YODL format (another excellent piece of Open
195 Source software, available at ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/pub/unix/) and
196 updated for the Samba 2.0 release by Jeremy Allison. The conversion to
197 DocBook for Samba 2.2 was done by Gerald Carter. The conversion to
198 DocBook XML 4.2 for Samba 3.0 was done by Alexander Bokovoy.
199Samba 3.6 04/11/2016 NMBD(8)