NAME

       nmbd - NetBIOS name server to provide NetBIOS over IP naming services to clients

SYNOPSIS

       nmbd [-D|--daemon] [-F|--foreground] [-S|--log-stdout] [-i|--interactive] [-V]
        [-d <debug level>] [-H|--hosts <lmhosts file>] [-l <log directory>]
        [-p|--port <port number>] [-s <configuration file>] [--no-process-group]

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 LanManager 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 understand how to talk the WINS protocol to a WINS server.

OPTIONS

       -D|--daemon
           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-daemon, although this is not recommended.

       -F|--foreground
           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 connection 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|--log-stdout
           If specified, this parameter causes nmbd to log to standard output rather than a file.

       -i|--interactive
           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.

       -?|--help
           Print a summary of command line options.

       --usage
           Display brief usage message.

       -H|--hosts <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.

       -d|--debuglevel=level
           level is an integer from 0 to 10. The default value if this parameter is not specified
           is 0.

           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 log level parameter in the
           smb.conf file.

       -V|--version
           Prints the program version number.

       -s|--configfile=<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.

       -l|--log-basename=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.

       --option=<name>=<value>
           Set the smb.conf(5) option "<name>" to value "<value>" from the command line. This
           overrides compiled-in defaults and options read from the configuration file.

       -p|--port <UDP port number>
           UDP port number is a positive integer value. This option changes the default UDP port
           number (normally 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!

       --no-process-group
           Do not create a new process group for nmbd.

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 running at a normally low log level.

VERSION

       This man page is correct for version 3 of the Samba suite.

SEE ALSO

       inetd(8), smbd(8), smb.conf(5), smbclient(1), testparm(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 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.