Using Samba

Chapter 8. Additional Samba Information

This chapter wraps up our coverage of the smb.conf configuration file with some miscellaneous options that can perform a variety of tasks. We will talk briefly about options for supporting programmers, internationalization, messages, and common Windows bugs. For the most part, you will use these options only in isolated circumstances. We also cover performing automated backups with the smbtar command at the end of this chapter. So without further ado, let’s jump into our first subject: options to help programmers.

Supporting Programmers

If you have programmers accessing your Samba server, you’ll want to be aware of the special options listed in Table 8.1.

Table 8-1. Programming Configuration Options

Option	Parameters	Function	Default	Scope
time server	boolean	If yes, nmbd announces itself as a SMB time service to Windows clients.	no	Global
time offset	numerical (number of minutes)	Adds a specified number of minutes to the reported time.	0	Global
dos filetimes	boolean	Allows non-owners of a file to change its time if they can write to it.	no	Share
dos filetime resolution	boolean	Causes file times to be rounded to the next even second.	no	Share
fake directory create times	boolean	Sets directory times to avoid a MS nmake bug.	no	Share

Time Synchronization

Time synchronization can be very important to programmers. Consider the following options:

time service = yes dos filetimes = yes fake directory ...