Once you've got your Samba server up and running, you can access it
via Microsoft Windows, Linux, and other operating systems. This
section shows you how to do so and also how to use your Samba server
to create backups of important data files on client systems.
Microsoft Windows 3.11, 9x, and NT have built-in support for the
SMB protocol, so systems running these operating systems can easily
access your Samba server's resources. Under Microsoft Windows 9x and
NT, you can access Samba resources by using the Windows Explorer. Log
on using a userid that's authorized to access Samba resources. Then
click on Network Neighborhood and you should see a subtree that
corresponds to your Samba server. By expanding the subtree, you can
see the browseable file and printer shares that are available. You can
easily drag and drop files to and from a shared directory, assuming
your userid is permitted the necessary access.
To use a shared printer, click on Start 
Settings
Printers and then double click on Add Printer. The wizard will guide
you through the setup procedure. Simply choose the Network Printer
option and then browse to select the desired printer. If you
configured the printer share without the browseable option, you cannot
browse and therefore must type the name of the printer share. To do
so, type two backslashes, followed by the name of your Samba
server, followed by a single backslash, followed by the name of the
printer share. For example, if you want to access a printer share
named
lp on the Samba server known as
SERVER, you'd type
\\SERVER\lp.
You can map a file share to a drive letter by using the Tools
Map Network Drive menu item of the Windows Explorer. Simply select an
available drive letter and type the name of the file share, which
consists of two backslashes, followed by the name of your Samba
server, followed by a single backslash, followed by the name of the
file share. For example, if you want to access a file share named
db on the Samba server known as
SERVER, you'd type
\\SERVER\db.
If you have difficulty
connecting to your Samba server, follow the procedure given in the
preceding section on troubleshooting.
Of course, an SMB client is available for Linux; you'll learn about it
in the next subsection. SMB clients are also available for most
popular operating systems, including IBM OS/2 and Mac OS. You
shouldn't expect to have trouble getting them to work with Samba. If
your client seems not to work, simply follow the procedure given in
the troubleshooting section.
The Samba packages include a simple SMB client that can access your
Samba server and other SMB servers accessible to your system. To
demonstrate that your client and server are working, log on using a
userid that has Samba authorization and issue the following
command:
smbclient -L localhost
You should see a list of the browseable shares available on your
server. To query a different SMB server, issue the following
command:
smbclient -L
server
where
server is the name of the SMB
server you want to contact. Rather than log on using a authorized
userid, you can explicitly specify a userid by using this command
form:
smbclient -L
server -U
userid
To actually access resources via SMB, use the following command
form:
smbclient -L
service -U
userid
where
service specifies the name of
the SMB host and share and
userid specifies
the userid to be used. The name of the SMB host should be preceded by
two backslashes and followed by one backslash.
If the SMB server accepts your request, the client displays a
special prompt:
smb:
dir>
where
dir indicates the current
working directory on the SMB server.
To download a file from the server, issue the command:
get
file
where
file specifies the name of the
file. To upload a file to the server, issue the command:
put
file
where
file specifies the name of the
file. To list the contents of the current directory, issue the
command:
dir
where
file specifies the name of the
file. To enter a subdirectory, issue the command:
cd
dir
where
dir specifies the name of the
subdirectory. You can return to the parent directory by issuing the
command:
cd ..
To exit the SMB client, issue the command
exit. You can obtain a list of commands by issuing
the command
help or obtain help on a particular
command by issuing the command:
help
command:
where
command specifies the command
for which you want help.
Ivan Volosuk has written an X11 interface for
smbclient, which you may find easier to use. You
can learn more about it from his web page, available at
https://www.rt.mipt.ru/frtk/ivan/.
You can use
smbprint script included in the Samba
package to print Linux files by using a printer share. However, you'll
probably have to do some tweaking of configuration files and adjusting
of shell scripts to get
smbprint to work. This
might be a good project for you to tackle after you've read Chapter 13,
Conquering the BASH Shell.
One of the most practical uses of the Linux SMB client is creating
backup copies of files stored on a Microsoft Windows system. To do so,
simply share the drive or directory containing the files you want to
backup: using the Windows Explorer, right click on the drive or
directory, click on Properties, click on the Sharing tab, and select
the desired share options. Then, access the share from Linux using
smbclient. Once you have the SMB prompt, move to
the directory you want to backup, and issue the following SMB
command:
tar c backup.tar
The files of the current directory and all its subdirectories will be
backed up and stored in the file
backup.tar on
your Linux system. Of course, you can specify a filename other than
backup.tar, if you wish. Once you've created the
backup file, you can write it to a tape, a writable CD-ROM, or other
media, if you need an offsite copy. If your backup requirements are
meager, it may be sufficient merely to have a copy of the file on both
your Windows system and your Linux system.
To restore a backup, move to the directory to which you want the
files restored and issue the following SMB command:
tar x backup.tar
The SMB client restores each file from the tar file. Of course,
you must have write access to the shared directory in order to be able
to write the restored files.
