Linux in a Windows World

Chapter 4. File and Printer Shares

Chapter 3 described basic Samba configuration—assigning NetBIOS and workgroup names to the Samba server, setting password options, and so on. In most cases, though, a Samba server’s primary responsibility is to provide file and printer shares to clients. This is the topic of this chapter.

This chapter begins with a look at file shares—how to define them, set access options, and so on. Printer shares are basically just variants of file shares, but because they must interface with the Linux printing system, this chapter describes a few details of Linux’s printing architecture, including the basics of configuring the Common Unix Printing System, the most popular printing software on Linux. Another printing-related feature is the delivery of printer drivers to Windows systems; SMB/CIFS and Samba support special options to handle this task. Finally, this chapter concludes with several example shares that demonstrate common file- and printer-sharing scenarios.

Common File Share Options

At many sites, file sharing is the most important duty of a Samba server. File shares can store users’ data files and programs run by many users, exchange data between users, be part of a network backup system, and serve other purposes. (Examples of shares for many of these roles appear in the later Section 4.5.) You can create a basic file share with just one line in smb.conf, but fine-tuning it to do what you want will take more lines. Options you may want to tune include ...