Name
nmbd
Synopsis
The nmbd program is Samba’s
NetBIOS name service and browsing daemon. It replies to NetBIOS over
TCP/IP (also called NetBT or NBT) name-service requests broadcast
from SMB clients, and optionally to Microsoft’s
Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) requests. Both are versions of
the name-to-address lookup required by SMB clients. The broadcast
version uses UDP broadcast on the local subnet only, while WINS uses
TCP, which can be routed. If running as a WINS server,
nmbd keeps a current name and address database
in the file /usr/local/samba/var/locks/wins.dat.
An active nmbd daemon also responds to browsing
protocol requests used by the Windows Network Neighborhood. This
protocol provides a dynamic directory of servers, as well as the
disks and printers that the servers are providing. As with WINS, this
was initially done by making UDP broadcasts on the local subnet. With
the addition of the local master browser to the network architecture,
it is done by making TCP connections to a server. If
nmbd is acting as a local master browser, it
stores the browsing database in the file
/usr/local/samba/var/locks/browse.dat.
Some clients (especially older ones) cannot use the WINS protocol. To support these clients, nmbd can act as a WINS proxy, accepting broadcast requests from the non-WINS clients, contacting a WINS server on their behalf, and returning the WINS server’s response to them.
Signals
Like smbd, the nmbd program responds to several Unix signals. Sending nmbd a SIGHUP ...
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