Using Samba, Second Edition

Configuration Options

Options in the Samba configuration files fall into one of two categories: global options or share options. Each category dictates where an option can appear in the configuration file.

Global options

Global options must appear in the [global] section and nowhere else. These are options that typically apply to the behavior of the Samba server itself and not to any of its shares.

Share options

Share options can appear in share definitions, the [global] section, or both. If they appear in the [global] section, they will define a default behavior for all shares unless a share overrides the option with a value of its own.

In addition, configuration options can take three kinds of values. They are as follows:

Boolean

These are simply yes or no values, but can be represented by any of the following: yes, no, true, false, 1, or 0. The values are case-insensitive: YES is the same as yes.

Numeric

This is a decimal, hexadecimal, or octal number. The standard 0x nn syntax is used for hexadecimal and 0 nnn for octal.

String

This is a string of case-sensitive characters, such as a filename or a username.

Configuration File Options

You can instruct Samba to include or replace configuration options as it is processing them. The options to do this are summarized in Table 6-3.

Table 6-3. Configuration file options

Option	Parameters	Function	Default	Scope
config file	string (name of file)	Sets the location of a configuration file to use instead of the current one	None	Global