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(5) file, allowing an administrator to change the order and methods by which server names are looked up.

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.

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.

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:

If this parameter is not set then the name resolve order defined in the smb.conf(5) 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(5) file the name resolution methods will be attempted in this order.

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.

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.

Print a summary of command line options.

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.

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.

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.

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, CWjis8, CWjunet, CWhex, CWcap. This is not a complete list, check the Samba source code for the complete list.

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.

Prints the program version number.

The file specified contains the configuration details required by the server. The information in this file includes server-specific information 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 information. The default configuration file name is determined at compile time.

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.

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.

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.

Try to authenticate with kerberos. Only useful in an Active Directory environment.

This option allows you to specify a file from which to read the username and password used in the connection. The format of the file is

username = <value>
password = <value>
domain   = <value>

Make certain that the permissions on the file restrict access from unwanted users.

Sets the SMB username or username and password.

If %password 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. If these environmental variables are not found, the username GUEST is used.

A third option is to use a credentials file which contains the plaintext of the username and password. This option is mainly provided for scripts where the admin does not 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. Also, on many systems the command line of a running process may be seen via the ps command. To be safe always allow rpcclient to prompt for a password and type it in directly.

This option allows you to override the NetBIOS name that Samba uses for itself. This is identical to setting the parameter in the smb.conf file. However, a command line setting will take precedence over settings in smb.conf.

This specifies a NetBIOS scope that nmblookup 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, only set this parameter if you are the system administrator in charge of all the NetBIOS systems you communicate with.

Set the SMB domain of the username. This overrides the default domain which is the domain defined in smb.conf. If the domain specified is the same as the servers NetBIOS name, it causes the client to log on using the servers local SAM (as opposed to the Domain SAM).

TCP socket options to set on the client socket. See the socket options parameter in the smb.conf manual page for the list of valid 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 :

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

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 *

Change to initial directory before starting. Probably only of any use with the tar -T option.

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 -'.

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.

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.

The client will request that the server return the "alternate" name (the 8.3 name) for a file or directory.

Toggles the setting of the flag in SMB packets that tells the server to treat filenames as case sensitive. Set to OFF by default (tells file server to treat filenames as case insensitive). Only currently affects Samba 3.0.5 and above file servers with the case sensitive parameter set to auto in the smb.conf.

The client will request that the server cancel the printjobs identified by the given numeric print job ids.

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.

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.

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.

If no directory name is specified, the current working directory on the server will be reported.

The client will request that the server attempt to delete all files matching mask from the current working directory on the server.

A list of the files matching mask in the current working directory on the server will be retrieved from the server and displayed.

Terminate the connection with the server and exit from the program.

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.

See the ? command above.

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.

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 linkname and target files. The linkname file must not exist.

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.

See the dir command above.

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.

See the mkdir command.

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.

Create a new directory on the server (user access privileges permitting) with the specified name.

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 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 the specified file from the local machine through a printable service on the server.

See also the printmode command.

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.

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.

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.

Displays the print queue, showing the job id, name, size and current status.

See the exit command.

See the rmdir command.

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 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.

Remove all files matching mask from the current working directory on the server.

Remove the specified directory (user access privileges permitting) from the server.

A version of the DOS attrib command to set file permissions. For example:

setmode myfile +r

would make myfile read only.

This command depends on the server supporting the CIFS UNIX extensions and will fail if the server does not. The client requests the UNIX basic info level and prints out the same info that the Linux stat command would about the file. This includes the size, blocks used on disk, file type, permissions, inode number, number of links and finally the three timestamps (access, modify and change). If the file is a special file (symlink, character or block device, fifo or socket) then extra information may also be printed.

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 target and linkname files. The linkname 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.

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. Must be followed by a valid (greater than zero) blocksize. Causes tar file to be written out in blocksize*TBLOCK (usually 512 byte) blocks.

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).