Samba Cheatsheet

Table Of Contents

1. Related Posts
2. User Management
   1. List Users
   2. Add Users
   3. Set User Password
3. Configuration
   1. Add Another Share
   2. Logging
4. Checking Status
   1. List Shares / Services Available To User
   2. LIst Current Connections
5. References

Related Posts

• Mounting Samba (CIFS) Share In Linux
• Debian 11 - Create Samba Share
• Lecture - Ubuntu 18.04 - Set Up Samba As Active Directory Domain Controller

User Management

List Users

sudo pdbedit --list --verbose

... or for more detailed information

sudo pdbedit --list --verbose | less

Add Users

This is the "samba way" to add SAMBA users (and definitely the way to use if you are using SAMBA for active directory).

samba-tool user create myUserName

However, I have been using the following in the past to create linux users don't have a home directory and can't login with SSH, which works with how I set up SAMBA for file sharing.

sudo useradd \
  --no-create-home  \
  --shell /usr/sbin/nologin  \
   steve

You should see the user like so in the /etc/passwd file:

richard:x:1029:1029::/home/richard:/usr/sbin/nologin

Set User Password

Then set a password for the user for the first time:

sudo smbpasswd -a $USERNAME

I had an issue when configuring Proxmox to use a SAMBA share when I had special characters in the password, so I would recommend using a long alphanumeric password.

pnbedit

smbpasswd

Samba Service

Restart Samba Service

sudo service smbd start

You don't have to restart the service after creating a user and setting their password. It should immediately take effect.

Configuration

Add Another Share

Add a section like below to the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. Obviously tweak the values as necessary.

[MyShare]
  comment = Read only share except for authorized users
  path = /mydata/mystuff/
  public = no
  guest ok = no
  read only = yes
  create mask = 0644
  directory mask = 0755
  force group = mygroup
  write list = myname, @mygroup

Logging

Refer to my Samba Logging tutorial.

Checking Status

List Shares / Services Available To User

smbclient --list $SAMBA_HOST --user $SAMBA_USER

This will ask you for your user's password before listing the shares/services available to you. Below is some example output:

    Sharename       Type      Comment
    ---------       ----      -------
    docker-volumes  Disk      Docker volumes
    print$          Disk      Printer Drivers
    IPC$            IPC       IPC Service (Samba 4.17.8-Debian)
SMB1 disabled -- no workgroup available

List Current Connections

If you want to see who is currently connected and to what, you can use the following command:

sudo smbstatus

If you are only interested in people being connected to the shared, you can do:

sudo smbstatus --shares

References

• samba.org - pdbedit
• Ubuntu forums - Samba force create/directory mode/mask not replicating in file system
• Ask Ubuntu - List samba shares and current users