NMBD(8) NMBD(8)
NAME
nmbd - NetBIOS name server to provide NetBIOS over IP naming services to clients
SYNOPSIS
nmbd [-D] [-F] [-S] [-a] [-i] [-o] [-h] [-V] [-d <debug level>] [-H <lmhosts file>] [-l <log direc-
tory>] [-p <port number>] [-s <configuration file>]
DESCRIPTION
This program is part of the samba(7) suite.
nmbd is a server that understands and can reply to NetBIOS over IP name service requests, like those
produced by SMB/CIFS clients such as Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Lan-Manager LanManager
Manager clients. It also participates in the browsing protocols which make up the Windows "Network
Neighborhood" view.
SMB/CIFS clients, when they start up, may wish to locate an SMB/CIFS server. That is, they wish to
know what IP number a specified host is using.
Amongst other services, nmbd will listen for such requests, and if its own NetBIOS name is specified
it will respond with the IP number of the host it is running on. Its "own NetBIOS name" is by default
the primary DNS name of the host it is running on, but this can be overridden by the netbios name in
smb.conf. Thus nmbd will reply to broadcast queries for its own name(s). Additional names for nmbd to
respond on can be set via parameters in the smb.conf(5) configuration file.
nmbd can also be used as a WINS (Windows Internet Name Server) server. What this basically means is
that it will act as a WINS database server, creating a database from name registration requests that
it receives and replying to queries from clients for these names.
In addition, nmbd can act as a WINS proxy, relaying broadcast queries from clients that do not under-stand understand
stand how to talk the WINS protocol to a WINS server.
OPTIONS
-D
If specified, this parameter causes nmbd to operate as a daemon. That is, it detaches itself and
runs in the background, fielding requests on the appropriate port. By default, nmbd will operate
as a daemon if launched from a command shell. nmbd can also be operated from the inetd meta-dae-mon, meta-daemon,
mon, although this is not recommended.
-F
If specified, this parameter causes the main nmbd process to not daemonize, i.e. double-fork and
disassociate with the terminal. Child processes are still created as normal to service each con-nection connection
nection request, but the main process does not exit. This operation mode is suitable for running
nmbd under process supervisors such as supervise and svscan from Daniel J. Bernstein's daemontools
package, or the AIX process monitor.
-S
If specified, this parameter causes nmbd to log to standard output rather than a file.
-i
If this parameter is specified it causes the server to run "interactively", not as a daemon, even
if the server is executed on the command line of a shell. Setting this parameter negates the
implicit daemon mode when run from the command line. nmbd also logs to standard output, as if the
-S parameter had been given.
-h|--help
Print a summary of command line options.
-H <filename>
NetBIOS lmhosts file. The lmhosts file is a list of NetBIOS names to IP addresses that is loaded
by the nmbd server and used via the name resolution mechanism name resolve order described in
smb.conf(5) to resolve any NetBIOS name queries needed by the server. Note that the contents of
this file are NOT used by nmbd to answer any name queries. Adding a line to this file affects name
NetBIOS resolution from this host ONLY.
The default path to this file is compiled into Samba as part of the build process. Common defaults
are /usr/local/samba/lib/lmhosts, /usr/samba/lib/lmhosts or /etc/samba/lmhosts. See the lmhosts(5)
man page for details on the contents of this file.
-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
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.
-d|--debuglevel=level
level 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 reason-able reasonable
able 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 inves-tigating investigating
tigating 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.smb-client, log.smbclient,
client, log.smbd, etc...). The log file is never removed by the client.
-p <UDP port number>
UDP port number is a positive integer value. This option changes the default UDP port number (nor-mally (normally
mally 137) that nmbd responds to name queries on. Don't use this option unless you are an expert,
in which case you won't need help!
FILES
/etc/inetd.conf
If the server is to be run by the inetd meta-daemon, this file must contain suitable startup
information for the meta-daemon.
/etc/rc
or whatever initialization script your system uses).
If running the server as a daemon at startup, this file will need to contain an appropriate
startup sequence for the server.
/etc/services
If running the server via the meta-daemon inetd, this file must contain a mapping of service name
(e.g., netbios-ssn) to service port (e.g., 139) and protocol type (e.g., tcp).
/usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf
This is the default location of the smb.conf(5) server configuration file. Other common places
that systems install this file are /usr/samba/lib/smb.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf.
When run as a WINS server (see the wins support parameter in the smb.conf(5) man page), nmbd will
store the WINS database in the file wins.dat in the var/locks directory configured under wherever
Samba was configured to install itself.
If nmbd is acting as a
browse master (see the local master parameter in the smb.conf(5) man page, nmbd will store the
browsing database in the file browse.dat in the var/locks directory configured under wherever
Samba was configured to install itself.
SIGNALS
To shut down an nmbd process it is recommended that SIGKILL (-9) NOT be used, except as a last
resort, as this may leave the name database in an inconsistent state. The correct way to terminate
nmbd is to send it a SIGTERM (-15) signal and wait for it to die on its own.
nmbd will accept SIGHUP, which will cause it to dump out its namelists into the file namelist.debug
in the /usr/local/samba/var/locks directory (or the var/locks directory configured under wherever
Samba was configured to install itself). This will also cause nmbd to dump out its server database in
the log.nmb file.
The debug log level of nmbd may be raised or lowered using smbcontrol(1) (SIGUSR[1|2] signals are no
longer used since Samba 2.2). This is to allow transient problems to be diagnosed, whilst still run-ning running
ning at a normally low log level.
VERSION
This man page is correct for version 3.0 of the Samba suite.
SEE ALSO
inetd(8), smbd(8), smb.conf(5), smbclient(1), testparm(1), testprns(1), and the Internet RFC's
rfc1001.txt, rfc1002.txt. In addition the CIFS (formerly SMB) specification is available as a link
from the Web page http://samba.org/cifs/
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 devel-
oped.
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 conver-
sion 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.
NMBD(8)
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