smbclient
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SMBCLIENT(1) SMBCLIENT(1)
NAME
smbclient - ftp-like client to access SMB/CIFS resources on servers
SYNOPSIS
smbclient [-b<buffersize>] [-ddebuglevel] [-L<netbiosname>] [-Uuser-
name] [-IdestinationIP] [-M<netbiosname>] [-mmaxprotocol] [-Aauth-
file] [-N] [-iscope] [-O<socketoptions>] [-pport] [-R<nameresolve-
order>] [-s<smbconfigfile>] [-k] [-P] [-c<command>]
smbclient {servicename} [password] [-b<buffersize>] [-ddebuglevel]
[-DDirectory] [-Uusername] [-Wworkgroup] [-M<netbiosname>] [-mmaxpro-
tocol] [-Aauthfile] [-N] [-llogdir] [-IdestinationIP] [-E] [-c<com-
mandstring>] [-iscope] [-O<socketoptions>] [-pport] [-R<nameresolve-
order>] [-s<smbconfigfile>] [-T<c|x>IXFqgbNan] [-k]
DESCRIPTION
This tool is part of the samba(7) 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)). Opera-
tions include things like getting files from the server to the local
machine, putting files from the local machine to the server, retriev-
ing directory information from the server and so on.
OPTIONS
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 "smb-
server", 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.
password
The password required to access the specified service on the speci-
fied 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.
-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:
· 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.
· 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/nss-
witch.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.
· 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.
· bcast: Do a broadcast on each of the known local interfaces
listed in the interfaces parameter. This is the least reli-
able of the name resolution methods as it depends on the tar-
get host being on a locally connected subnet.
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.
-M NetBIOS name
This options allows you to send messages, using the "WinPopup" pro-
tocol, 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 exam-
ple:
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.
-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 num-
ber for an SMB/CIFS server is 139, which is the default.
-P
Make queries to the external server using the machine account of
the local server.
-h|--help
Print a summary of command line options.
-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 - typi-
cally the user’s tty.
-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 implemen-
tations use different character sets than SMB/CIFS servers (EUC
instead of
SJIS for example). Setting this parameter will let smbclient con-
vert between the UNIX filenames and the SMB filenames correctly.
This option has not been seriously tested and may have some prob-
lems.
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.
-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. Set-
ting this value smaller (to 1200 bytes) has been observed to speed
up file transfers to and from a Win9x server.
-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
information such as what printcap file to use, as well as descrip-
tions 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.
-d|--debuglevel=level
level is an integer from 0 to 10. The default value if this parame-
ter 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.
-N
If specified, this parameter suppresses the normal password prompt
from the client to the user. This is useful when accessing a ser-
vice that does not require a password.
Unless a password is specified on the command line or this parame-
ter is specified, the client will request a password.
If a password is specified on the command line and this option is
also defined the password on the command line will be silently ing-
nored and no password will be used.
-k
Try to authenticate with kerberos. Only useful in an Active Direc-
tory environment.
-A|--authentication-file=filename
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.
-U|--user=username[%password]
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 pro-
vided for scripts where the admin does not wish to pass the creden-
tials 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 pass-
word and type it in directly.
-n <primary NetBIOS name>
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.
-i <scope>
This specifies a NetBIOS scope that nmblookup will use to communi-
cate 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.
-W|--workgroup=domain
Set the SMB domain of the username. This overrides the default
domain which is the domain defined in smb.conf. If the domain spec-
ified 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).
-O socket options
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.
-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 :
· 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 low-
est value -d0 to avoid corrupting your tar file. This flag is
mutually exclusive with the x flag.
· 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. Directo-
ries currently do not get their creation dates restored prop-
erly.
· I - Include files and directories. Is the default behavior
when filenames are specified above. Causes 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.
· X - Exclude files and directories. Causes files to be
excluded from an extract or create. See example below. File-
name globbing works in one of two ways now. See r below.
· F - File containing a list of files and directories. The F
causes the name following the tarfile to create to be read as
a filename that contains a list of files and directories 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.
· b - Blocksize. Must be followed by a valid (greater than
zero) blocksize. Causes tar file to be written out in block-
size*TBLOCK (usually 512 byte) blocks.
· g - Incremental. Only back up files that have the archive bit
set. Useful only with the c flag.
· q - Quiet. Keeps tar from printing diagnostics as it works.
This is the same as tarmode quiet.
· r - Regular expression include or exclude. Uses regular
expression matching for excluding or excluding files if com-
piled 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 ’?’.
· 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.
· 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 rel-
ative 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 com-
ponent separator).
Examples
Restore from tar file backup.tar into myshare on mypc (no pass-
word 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 the files listed in the file tarlist.
smbclient //mypc/myshare "" -N -TcF backup.tar tarlist
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 exe-
cuted 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
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 com-
mands are case-insensitive. 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. Param-
eters shown in angle brackets (e.g., "<parameter>") are required.
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 infor-
mative message about the specified command. If no command is speci-
fied, 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 spec-
ified, 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.
case_sensitive
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.
cancel jobid0 [jobid1] ... [jobidN]
The client will request that the server cancel the printjobs iden-
tified by the given numeric print job ids.
chmod file mode in octal
This command depends on the server supporting the CIFS UNIX exten-
sions 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 exten-
sions 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 opera-
tion will fail if for any reason the specified directory is inac-
cessible.
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 target linkname
This command depends on the server supporting the CIFS UNIX exten-
sions 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.
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 use-
ful when copying (say) MSDOS files from a server, because lowercase
filenames are the norm on UNIX systems.
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 opera-
tion 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 per-
mitting) 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 recursive opera-
tion 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.
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 cur-
rent 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 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.
stat file
This command depends on the server supporting the CIFS UNIX exten-
sions 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.
symlink target linkname
This command depends on the server supporting the CIFS UNIX exten-
sions 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.
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) block-
size. Causes tar file to be written out in blocksize*TBLOCK (usu-
ally 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).
NOTES
Some servers are fussy about the case of supplied usernames, pass-
words, 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 Net-
BIOS 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 LAN-
MAN2 protocol or above.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
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
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 write-
able 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 user-accessible port (typically
any port number over 1024) would provide a suitable test server.
DIAGNOSTICS
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 over-
ridden 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
This man page is correct for version 3 of the Samba suite.
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 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/) 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.
SMBCLIENT(1)
