SMBCLIENT(1) UNIX System V (19 November 2002) SMBCLIENT(1)
NAME [Toc] [Back]
smbclient - ftp-like client to access SMB/CIFS resources on
servers
SYNOPSIS [Toc] [Back]
smbclient servicename [ password ] [ -b <buffer size> ] [
-d debuglevel ] [ -D Directory ] [ -U username ] [ -W
workgroup ] [ -M <netbios name> ] [ -m maxprotocol ] [ -A
authfile ] [ -N ] [ -l logfile ] [ -L <netbios name> ] [
-I destinationIP ] [ -E <terminal code> ] [ -c <command
string> ] [ -i scope ] [ -O <socket options> ] [ -p port
] [ -R <name resolve order>
] [ -s <smb config file> ] [ -T<c|x>IXFqgbNan ]
DESCRIPTION [Toc] [Back]
This tool is part of the Samba suite.
smbclient is a client that can 'talk' to an SMB/CIFS server.
It offers an interface similar to that of the ftp program
(see ftp(1)). Operations include things like getting files
from the server to the local machine, putting files from the
local machine to the server, retrieving directory
information from the server and so on.
OPTIONS [Toc] [Back]
servicename
servicename is the name of the service you want to use
on the server. A service name takes the form
//server/service where server is the NetBIOS name of
the SMB/CIFS server offering the desired service and
service is the name of the service offered. Thus to
connect to the service "printer" on the SMB/CIFS server
"smbserver", you would use the servicename
//smbserver/printer
Note that the server name required is NOT necessarily
the IP (DNS) host name of the server ! The name
required is a NetBIOS server name, which may or may not
be the same as the IP hostname of the machine running
the server.
The server name is looked up according to either the -R
parameter to smbclient or using the name resolve order
parameter in the smb.conf file, allowing an
administrator to change the order and methods by which
server names are looked up.
password
The password required to access the specified service
on the specified server. If this parameter is supplied,
the -N option (suppress password prompt) is assumed.
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There is no default password. If no password is
supplied on the command line (either by using this
parameter or adding a password to the -U option (see
below)) and the -N option is not specified, the client
will prompt for a password, even if the desired service
does not require one. (If no password is required,
simply press ENTER to provide a null password.)
Note: Some servers (including OS/2 and Windows for
Workgroups) insist on an uppercase password. Lowercase
or mixed case passwords may be rejected by these
servers.
Be cautious about including passwords in scripts.
-s smb.conf
Specifies the location of the all important smb.conf
file.
-O socket options
TCP socket options to set on the client socket. See the
socket options parameter in the smb.conf (5) manpage
for the list of valid options.
-R <name resolve order>
This option is used by the programs in the Samba suite
to determine what naming services and in what order to
resolve host names to IP addresses. The option takes a
space-separated string of different name resolution
options.
The options are :"lmhosts", "host", "wins" and "bcast".
They cause names to be resolved as follows :
o lmhosts : Lookup an IP address in the Samba lmhosts
file. If the line in lmhosts has no name type
attached to the NetBIOS name (see the lmhosts(5) for
details) then any name type matches for lookup.
o host : Do a standard host name to IP address
resolution, using the system /etc/hosts , NIS, or DNS
lookups. This method of name resolution is operating
system dependent, for instance on IRIX or Solaris
this may be controlled by the /etc/nsswitch.conf
file). Note that this method is only used if the
NetBIOS name type being queried is the 0x20 (server)
name type, otherwise it is ignored.
o wins : Query a name with the IP address listed in the
wins server parameter. If no WINS server has been
specified this method will be ignored.
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o bcast : Do a broadcast on each of the known local
interfaces listed in the interfaces parameter. This
is the least reliable of the name resolution methods
as it depends on the target host being on a locally
connected subnet.
If this parameter is not set then the name resolve order
defined in the smb.conf file parameter (name resolve order)
will be used.
The default order is lmhosts, host, wins, bcast and without
this parameter or any entry in the name resolve order
parameter of the smb.conf file the name resolution methods
will be attempted in this order.
-M NetBIOS name
This options allows you to send messages, using the
"WinPopup" protocol, to another computer. Once a
connection is established you then type your message,
pressing ^D (control-D) to end.
If the receiving computer is running WinPopup the user
will receive the message and probably a beep. If they
are not running WinPopup the message will be lost, and
no error message will occur.
The message is also automatically truncated if the
message is over 1600 bytes, as this is the limit of the
protocol.
One useful trick is to cat the message through
smbclient. For example: cat mymessage.txt | smbclient
-M FRED will send the message in the file
mymessage.txt to the machine FRED.
You may also find the -U and -I options useful, as they
allow you to control the FROM and TO parts of the
message.
See the message command parameter in the smb.conf(5)
for a description of how to handle incoming WinPopup
messages in Samba.
Note: Copy WinPopup into the startup group on your WfWg
PCs if you want them to always be able to receive
messages.
-i scope
This specifies a NetBIOS scope that smbclient will use
to communicate with when generating NetBIOS names. For
details on the use of NetBIOS scopes, see rfc1001.txt
and rfc1002.txt. NetBIOS scopes are very rarely used,
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only set this parameter if you are the system
administrator in charge of all the NetBIOS systems you
communicate with.
-N If specified, this parameter suppresses the normal
password prompt from the client to the user. This is
useful when accessing a service that does not require a
password.
Unless a password is specified on the command line or
this parameter is specified, the client will request a
password.
-n NetBIOS name
By default, the client will use the local machine's
hostname (in uppercase) as its NetBIOS name. This
parameter allows you to override the host name and use
whatever NetBIOS name you wish.
-d debuglevel
debuglevel is an integer from 0 to 10, or the letter
'A'.
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 client. 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. If debuglevel is set to
the letter 'A', then all debug messages will be
printed. This setting is for developers only (and
people who really want to know how the code works
internally).
Note that specifying this parameter here will override
the log level parameter in the smb.conf (5) file.
-p port
This number is the TCP port number that will be used
when making connections to the server. The standard
(well-known) TCP port number for an SMB/CIFS server is
139, which is the default.
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-l logfilename
If specified, logfilename specifies a base filename
into which operational data from the running client
will be logged.
The default base name is specified at compile time.
The base name is used to generate actual log file
names. For example, if the name specified was "log",
the debug file would be log.client.
The log file generated is never removed by the client.
-h Print the usage message for the client.
-I IP-address
IP address is the address of the server to connect to.
It should be specified in standard "a.b.c.d" notation.
Normally the client would attempt to locate a named
SMB/CIFS server by looking it up via the NetBIOS name
resolution mechanism described above in the name
resolve order parameter above. Using this parameter
will force the client to assume that the server is on
the machine with the specified IP address and the
NetBIOS name component of the resource being connected
to will be ignored.
There is no default for this parameter. If not
supplied, it will be determined automatically by the
client as described above.
-E This parameter causes the client to write messages to
the standard error stream (stderr) rather than to the
standard output stream.
By default, the client writes messages to standard
output - typically the user's tty.
-U username[%pass]
Sets the SMB username or username and password. If
%pass is not specified, The user will be prompted. The
client will first check the USER environment variable,
then the LOGNAME variable and if either exists, the
string is uppercased. Anything in these variables
following a '%' sign will be treated as the password.
If these environment variables are not found, the
username GUEST is used.
If the password is not included in these environment
variables (using the %pass syntax), smbclient will look
for a PASSWD environment variable from which to read
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the password.
A third option is to use a credentials file which
contains the plaintext of the domain name, username and
password. This option is mainly provided for scripts
where the admin doesn't wish to pass the credentials on
the command line or via environment variables. If this
method is used, make certain that the permissions on
the file restrict access from unwanted users. See the
-A for more details.
Be cautious about including passwords in scripts or in
the PASSWD environment variable. Also, on many systems
the command line of a running process may be seen via
the ps command to be safe always allow smbclient to
prompt for a password and type it in directly.
-A filename
This option allows you to specify a file from which to
read the username, domain name, and password used in
the connection. The format of the file is
username = <value>
password = <value>
domain = <value>
If the domain parameter is missing the current
workgroup name is used instead. Make certain that the
permissions on the file restrict access from unwanted
users.
-L This option allows you to look at what services are
available on a server. You use it as smbclient -L host
and a list should appear. The -I option may be useful
if your NetBIOS names don't match your TCP/IP DNS host
names or if you are trying to reach a host on another
network.
-t terminal code
This option tells smbclient how to interpret filenames
coming from the remote server. Usually Asian language
multibyte UNIX implementations use different character
sets than SMB/CIFS servers (EUC instead of SJIS for
example). Setting this parameter will let smbclient
convert between the UNIX filenames and the SMB
filenames correctly. This option has not been seriously
tested and may have some problems.
The terminal codes include CWsjis, CWeuc, CWjis7,
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CWjis8, CWjunet, CWhex, CWcap. This is not a complete
list, check the Samba source code for the complete
list.
-b buffersize
This option changes the transmit/send buffer size when
getting or putting a file from/to the server. The
default is 65520 bytes. Setting this value smaller (to
1200 bytes) has been observed to speed up file
transfers to and from a Win9x server.
-W WORKGROUP
Override the default workgroup (domain) specified in
the workgroup parameter of the smb.conf file for this
connection. This may be needed to connect to some
servers.
-T tar options
smbclient may be used to create tar(1) compatible
backups of all the files on an SMB/CIFS share. The
secondary tar flags that can be given to this option
are :
o c - Create a tar file on UNIX. Must be followed by
the name of a tar file, tape device or "-" for
standard output. If using standard output you must
turn the log level to its lowest value -d0 to avoid
corrupting your tar file. This flag is mutually
exclusive with the x flag.
o x - Extract (restore) a local tar file back to a
share. Unless the -D option is given, the tar files
will be restored from the top level of the share.
Must be followed by the name of the tar file, device
or "-" for standard input. Mutually exclusive with
the c flag. Restored files have their creation times
(mtime) set to the date saved in the tar file.
Directories currently do not get their creation dates
restored properly.
o I - Include files and directories. Is the default
behavior when filenames are specified above. Causes
tar files to be included in an extract or create (and
therefore everything else to be excluded). See
example below. Filename globbing works in one of two
ways. See r below.
o X - Exclude files and directories. Causes tar files
to be excluded from an extract or create. See example
below. Filename globbing works in one of two ways
now. See r below.
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o b - Blocksize. Must be followed by a valid (greater
than zero) blocksize. Causes tar file to be written
out in blocksize*TBLOCK (usually 512 byte) blocks.
o g - Incremental. Only back up files that have the
archive bit set. Useful only with the c flag.
o q - Quiet. Keeps tar from printing diagnostics as it
works. This is the same as tarmode quiet.
o r - Regular expression include or exclude. Uses
regular expression matching for excluding or
excluding files if compiled with HAVE_REGEX_H.
However this mode can be very slow. If not compiled
with HAVE_REGEX_H, does a limited wildcard match on
'*' and '?'.
o N - Newer than. Must be followed by the name of a
file whose date is compared against files found on
the share during a create. Only files newer than the
file specified are backed up to the tar file. Useful
only with the c flag.
o a - Set archive bit. Causes the archive bit to be
reset when a file is backed up. Useful with the g and
c flags.
Tar Long File Names
smbclient's tar option now supports long file names both on
backup and restore. However, the full path name of the file
must be less than 1024 bytes. Also, when a tar archive is
created, smbclient's tar option places all files in the
archive with relative names, not absolute names.
Tar Filenames
All file names can be given as DOS path names (with '\' as
the component separator) or as UNIX path names (with '/' as
the component separator).
Examples
Restore from tar file backup.tar into myshare on mypc (no
password on share).
smbclient //mypc/yshare "" -N -Tx backup.tar
Restore everything except users/docs
smbclient //mypc/myshare "" -N -TXx backup.tar users/docs
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Create a tar file of the files beneath users/docs.
smbclient //mypc/myshare "" -N -Tc backup.tar users/docs
Create the same tar file as above, but now use a DOS path
name.
smbclient //mypc/myshare "" -N -tc backup.tar users\edocs
Create a tar file of all the files and directories in the
share.
smbclient //mypc/myshare "" -N -Tc backup.tar *
-D initial directory
Change to initial directory before starting. Probably
only of any use with the tar -T option.
-c command string
command string is a semicolon-separated list of
commands to be executed instead of prompting from
stdin. -N is implied by -c.
This is particularly useful in scripts and for printing
stdin to the server, e.g. -c 'print -'.
OPERATIONS [Toc] [Back]
Once the client is running, the user is presented with a
prompt :
smb:\>
The backslash ("\") indicates the current working directory
on the server, and will change if the current working
directory is changed.
The prompt indicates that the client is ready and waiting to
carry out a user command. Each command is a single word,
optionally followed by parameters specific to that command.
Command and parameters are space-delimited unless these
notes specifically state otherwise. All commands are caseinsensitive.
Parameters to commands may or may not be case
sensitive, depending on the command.
You can specify file names which have spaces in them by
quoting the name with double quotes, for example "a long
file name".
Parameters shown in square brackets (e.g., "[parameter]")
are optional. If not given, the command will use suitable
defaults. Parameters shown in angle brackets (e.g.,
"<parameter>") are required.
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Note that all commands operating on the server are actually
performed by issuing a request to the server. Thus the
behavior may vary from server to server, depending on how
the server was implemented.
The commands available are given here in alphabetical order.
? [command]
If command is specified, the ? command will display a
brief informative message about the specified command.
If no command is specified, a list of available
commands will be displayed.
! [shell command]
If shell command is specified, the ! command will
execute a shell locally and run the specified shell
command. If no command is specified, a local shell will
be run.
altname file
The client will request that the server return the
"alternate" name (the 8.3 name) for a file or
directory.
cancel jobid0 [jobid1] ... [jobidN]
The client will request that the server cancel the
printjobs identified by the given numeric print job
ids.
chmod file mode in octal
This command depends on the server supporting the CIFS
UNIX extensions and will fail if the server does not.
The client requests that the server change the UNIX
permissions to the given octal mode, in standard UNIX
format.
chown file uid gid
This command depends on the server supporting the CIFS
UNIX extensions and will fail if the server does not.
The client requests that the server change the UNIX
user and group ownership to the given decimal values.
Note there is currently no way to remotely look up the
UNIX uid and gid values for a given name. This may be
addressed in future versions of the CIFS UNIX
extensions.
cd [directory name]
If "directory name" is specified, the current working
directory on the server will be changed to the
directory specified. This operation will fail if for
any reason the specified directory is inaccessible.
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If no directory name is specified, the current working
directory on the server will be reported.
del <mask>
The client will request that the server attempt to
delete all files matching mask from the current working
directory on the server.
dir <mask>
A list of the files matching mask in the current
working directory on the server will be retrieved from
the server and displayed.
exit Terminate the connection with the server and exit from
the program.
get <remote file name> [local file name]
Copy the file called remote file name from the server
to the machine running the client. If specified, name
the local copy local file name. Note that all transfers
in smbclient are binary. See also the lowercase
command.
help [command]
See the ? command above.
lcd [directory name]
If directory name is specified, the current working
directory on the local machine will be changed to the
directory specified. This operation will fail if for
any reason the specified directory is inaccessible.
If no directory name is specified, the name of the
current working directory on the local machine will be
reported.
link source destination
This command depends on the server supporting the CIFS
UNIX extensions and will fail if the server does not.
The client requests that the server create a hard link
between the source and destination files. The source
file must not exist.
lowercase
Toggle lowercasing of filenames for the get and mget
commands.
When lowercasing is toggled ON, local filenames are
converted to lowercase when using the get and mget
commands. This is often useful when copying (say) MSDOS
files from a server, because lowercase filenames are
the norm on UNIX systems.
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ls <mask>
See the dir command above.
mask <mask>
This command allows the user to set up a mask which
will be used during recursive operation of the mget and
mput commands.
The masks specified to the mget and mput commands act
as filters for directories rather than files when
recursion is toggled ON.
The mask specified with the mask command is necessary
to filter files within those directories. For example,
if the mask specified in an mget command is "source*"
and the mask specified with the mask command is "*.c"
and recursion is toggled ON, the mget command will
retrieve all files matching "*.c" in all directories
below and including all directories matching "source*"
in the current working directory.
Note that the value for mask defaults to blank
(equivalent to "*") and remains so until the mask
command is used to change it. It retains the most
recently specified value indefinitely. To avoid
unexpected results it would be wise to change the value
of mask back to "*" after using the mget or mput
commands.
md <directory name>
See the mkdir command.
mget <mask>
Copy all files matching mask from the server to the
machine running the client.
Note that mask is interpreted differently during
recursive operation and non-recursive operation - refer
to the recurse and mask commands for more information.
Note that all transfers in smbclient are binary. See
also the lowercase command.
mkdir <directory name>
Create a new directory on the server (user access
privileges permitting) with the specified name.
mput <mask>
Copy all files matching mask in the current working
directory on the local machine to the current working
directory on the server.
Note that mask is interpreted differently during
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recursive operation and non-recursive operation - refer
to the recurse and mask commands for more information.
Note that all transfers in smbclient are binary.
print <file name>
Print the specified file from the local machine through
a printable service on the server.
See also the printmode command.
printmode <graphics or text>
Set the print mode to suit either binary data (such as
graphical information) or text. Subsequent print
commands will use the currently set print mode.
prompt
Toggle prompting for filenames during operation of the
mget and mput commands.
When toggled ON, the user will be prompted to confirm
the transfer of each file during these commands. When
toggled OFF, all specified files will be transferred
without prompting.
put <local file name> [remote file name]
Copy the file called local file name from the machine
running the client to the server. If specified, name
the remote copy remote file name. Note that all
transfers in smbclient are binary. See also the
lowercase command.
queue
Displays the print queue, showing the job id, name,
size and current status.
quit See the exit command.
rd <directory name>
See the rmdir command.
recurse
Toggle directory recursion for the commands mget and
mput.
When toggled ON, these commands will process all
directories in the source directory (i.e., the
directory they are copying from ) and will recurse into
any that match the mask specified to the command. Only
files that match the mask specified using the mask
command will be retrieved. See also the mask command.
When recursion is toggled OFF, only files from the
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current working directory on the source machine that
match the mask specified to the mget or mput commands
will be copied, and any mask specified using the mask
command will be ignored.
rm <mask>
Remove all files matching mask from the current working
directory on the server.
rmdir <directory name>
Remove the specified directory (user access privileges
permitting) from the server.
setmode <filename> <perm=[+|-]rsha>
A version of the DOS attrib command to set file
permissions. For example:
setmode myfile +r
would make myfile read only.
symlink source destination
This command depends on the server supporting the CIFS
UNIX extensions and will fail if the server does not.
The client requests that the server create a symbolic
hard link between the source and destination files. The
source file must not exist. Note that the server will
not create a link to any path that lies outside the
currently connected share. This is enforced by the
Samba server.
tar <c|x>[IXbgNa]
Performs a tar operation - see the -T command line
option above. Behavior may be affected by the tarmode
command (see below). Using g (incremental) and N
(newer) will affect tarmode settings. Note that using
the "-" option with tar x may not work - use the
command line option instead.
blocksize <blocksize>
Blocksize. Must be followed by a valid (greater than
zero) blocksize. Causes tar file to be written out in
blocksize*TBLOCK (usually 512 byte) blocks.
tarmode <full|inc|reset|noreset>
Changes tar's behavior with regard to archive bits. In
full mode, tar will back up everything regardless of
the archive bit setting (this is the default mode). In
incremental mode, tar will only back up files with the
archive bit set. In reset mode, tar will reset the
archive bit on all files it backs up (implies
read/write share).
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NOTES [Toc] [Back]
Some servers are fussy about the case of supplied usernames,
passwords, share names (AKA service names) and machine
names. If you fail to connect try giving all parameters in
uppercase.
It is often necessary to use the -n option when connecting
to some types of servers. For example OS/2 LanManager
insists on a valid NetBIOS name being used, so you need to
supply a valid name that would be known to the server.
smbclient supports long file names where the server supports
the LANMAN2 protocol or above.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES [Toc] [Back]
The variable USER may contain the username of the person
using the client. This information is used only if the
protocol level is high enough to support session-level
passwords.
The variable PASSWD may contain the password of the person
using the client. This information is used only if the
protocol level is high enough to support session-level
passwords.
The variable LIBSMB_PROG may contain the path, executed with
system(), which the client should connect to instead of
connecting to a server. This functionality is primarily
intended as a development aid, and works best when using a
LMHOSTS file
INSTALLATION [Toc] [Back]
The location of the client program is a matter for
individual system administrators. The following are thus
suggestions only.
It is recommended that the smbclient software be installed
in the /usr/local/samba/bin/ or /usr/samba/bin/ directory,
this directory readable by all, writeable only by root. The
client program itself should be executable by all. The
client should NOT be setuid or setgid!
The client log files should be put in a directory readable
and writeable only by the user.
To test the client, you will need to know the name of a
running SMB/CIFS server. It is possible to run smbd(8) as an
ordinary user - running that server as a daemon on a useraccessible
port (typically any port number over 1024) would
provide a suitable test server.
DIAGNOSTICS [Toc] [Back]
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Most diagnostics issued by the client are logged in a
specified log file. The log file name is specified at
compile time, but may be overridden on the command line.
The number and nature of diagnostics available depends on
the debug level used by the client. If you have problems,
set the debug level to 3 and peruse the log files.
VERSION [Toc] [Back]
This man page is correct for version 2.2 of the Samba suite.
AUTHOR [Toc] [Back]
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
Page 16 (printed 2/13/04)
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