smbclient
SMBCLIENT(1) SMBCLIENT(1)
NAME
smbclient - ftp-like client to access SMB/CIFS resources on servers
SYNOPSIS
smbclient servicename [ password ] [ -b <buffer size> ] [ -d debu-
glevel ] [ -D Directory ] [ -U username ] [ -W workgroup ] [ -M
<netbios name> ] [ -m maxprotocol ] [ -A authfile ] [ -N ] [ -l
logfile ] [ -L <netbios name> ] [ -I destinationIP ] [ -E <terminal
code> ] [ -c <command string> ] [ -i scope ] [ -O <socket options> ]
[ -p port ] [ -R <name resolve order> ] [ -s <smb config file> ] [
-T<c|x>IXFqgbNan ]
DESCRIPTION
This tool is part of the Samba 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, retrieving
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
"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 parame-
ter to smbclient or using the name resolve order parameter in
the smb.conf 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
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 pass-
word 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 pass-
words may be rejected by these servers.
Be cautious about including passwords in scripts.
-s smb.conf
Specifies the location of the all important smb.conf file.
-O socket options
TCP socket options to set on the client socket. See the socket
options parameter in the smb.conf (5) manpage for the list of
valid options.
-R <name resolve order>
This option is used by the programs in the Samba suite to deter-
mine 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 :
o 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.
o 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.
o 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.
o bcast : Do a broadcast on each of the known local interfaces
listed in the interfaces parameter. This is the least reliable
of the name resolution methods as it depends on the target
host being on a locally connected subnet.
If this parameter is not set then the name resolve order defined in the
smb.conf file parameter (name resolve order) will be used.
The default order is lmhosts, host, wins, bcast and without this param-
eter or any entry in the name resolve order parameter of the smb.conf
file the name resolution methods will be attempted in this order.
-M NetBIOS name
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.
-i scope
This specifies a NetBIOS scope that smbclient will use to commu-
nicate 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.
-N If specified, this parameter suppresses the normal password
prompt from the client to the user. This is useful when access-
ing 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.
-n NetBIOS name
By default, the client will use the local machine's hostname (in
uppercase) as its NetBIOS name. This parameter allows you to
override the host name and use whatever NetBIOS name you wish.
-d debuglevel
debuglevel is an integer from 0 to 10, or the letter 'A'.
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 client. At level 0, only crit-
ical 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. If
debuglevel is set to the letter 'A', then all debug messages
will be printed. This setting is for developers only (and people
who really want to know how the code works internally).
Note that specifying this parameter here will override the log
level parameter in the smb.conf (5) file.
-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
number for an SMB/CIFS server is 139, which is the default.
-l logfilename
If specified, logfilename specifies a base filename into which
operational data from the running client will be logged.
The default base name is specified at compile time.
The base name is used to generate actual log file names. For
example, if the name specified was "log", the debug file would
be log.client.
The log file generated is never removed by the client.
-h Print the usage message for the client.
-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 mecha-
nism 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 stan-
dard error stream (stderr) rather than to the standard output
stream.
By default, the client writes messages to standard output - typ-
ically the user's tty.
-U username[%pass]
Sets the SMB username or username and password. If %pass 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. Anything in
these variables following a '%' sign will be treated as the
password. If these environment variables are not found, the
username GUEST is used.
If the password is not included in these environment variables
(using the %pass syntax), smbclient will look for a PASSWD envi-
ronment variable from which to read the password.
A third option is to use a credentials file which contains the
plaintext of the domain name, username and password. This option
is mainly provided for scripts where the admin doesn't wish to
pass the credentials on the command line or via environment
variables. If this method is used, make certain that the permis-
sions on the file restrict access from unwanted users. See the
-A for more details.
Be cautious about including passwords in scripts or in the
PASSWD environment variable. Also, on many systems the command
line of a running process may be seen via the ps command to be
safe always allow smbclient to prompt for a password and type it
in directly.
-A filename
This option allows you to specify a file from which to read the
username, domain name, and password used in the connection. The
format of the file is
username = <value>
password = <value>
domain = <value>
If the domain parameter is missing the current workgroup name is
used instead. Make certain that the permissions on the file
restrict access from unwanted users.
-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
implementations use different character sets than SMB/CIFS
servers (EUC instead of SJIS for example). Setting this parame-
ter 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.
-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. Setting this value smaller (to 1200 bytes) has been
observed to speed up file transfers to and from a Win9x server.
-W WORKGROUP
Override the default workgroup (domain) specified in the work-
group parameter of the smb.conf file for this connection. This
may be needed to connect to some servers.
-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 :
o 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.
o 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.
o I - Include files and directories. Is the default behavior
when filenames are specified above. Causes tar 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.
o X - Exclude files and directories. Causes tar 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.
o 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.
o g - Incremental. Only back up files that have the archive bit
set. Useful only with the c flag.
o q - Quiet. Keeps tar from printing diagnostics as it works.
This is the same as tarmode quiet.
o 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 '?'.
o 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.
o 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 relative names, not absolute
names.
Tar Filenames
All file names can be given as DOS path names (with '\' as the compo-
nent separator) or as UNIX path names (with '/' as the component sepa-
rator).
Examples
Restore from tar file backup.tar into myshare on mypc (no password on
share).
smbclient //mypc/yshare "" -N -Tx backup.tar .PP
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 * .PP
-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
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 -'.
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 commands
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. Parameters 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
informative message about the specified command. If no command
is specified, 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 specified, 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.
cancel jobid0 [jobid1] ... [jobidN]
The client will request that the server cancel the printjobs
identified by the given numeric print job ids.
chmod file mode in octal
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.
chown file uid gid
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 owner-
ship 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
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.
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 direc-
tory on the server will be retrieved from the server and dis-
played.
exit Terminate the connection with the server and exit from the pro-
gram.
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 direc-
tory is inaccessible.
If no directory name is specified, the name of the current work-
ing directory on the local machine will be reported.
link source destination
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 source
and destination files. The source 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
useful 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 speci-
fied 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 directo-
ries 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 run-
ning the client.
Note that mask is interpreted differently during recursive oper-
ation 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
permitting) 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 oper-
ation 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 print-
able service on the server.
See also the printmode command.
printmode <graphics or text>
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.
prompt Toggle prompting for filenames during operation of the mget and
mput commands.
When toggled ON, the user will be prompted to confirm the trans-
fer 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
current 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 work-
ing directory on the source machine that match the mask speci-
fied 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 direc-
tory on the server.
rmdir <directory name>
Remove the specified directory (user access privileges permit-
ting) 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.
symlink source destination
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
source and destination files. The source 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 set-
tings. 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)
blocksize. Causes tar file to be written out in blocksize*TBLOCK
(usually 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, passwords,
share names (AKA service names) and machine names. If you fail to con-
nect 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 2.2 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/
<URL: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
19 November 2002 SMBCLIENT(1)
