300. Briefly: Sharing a folder using SAMBA on Debian

I don't ever use samba, but it's not a bad thing to know how to set up in case you need to share files with someone using Windows in a pinch.

First install samba:

sudo apt-get install samba samba-common smbclient

To get a share up with samba, create an /etc/samba/smb.conf and stick the following in it:

[global]
workgroup=WORKGROUP
guest account=nobody
security=shared

[asharedfolder]
path=/home/lindqvist/shared
guest ok=yes
read only=no
writable=yes
browsable=yes
comment= SMB share

Restart samba:

sudo service samba restart

1. This is an insecure share i.e. <b>anyone can access it</> and edit everything.
2.. Also, by omitting "netbios name=  " you can use the IP address of the server as the hostname, but you could also specify e.g. "netbios name=niobium" and use that as the hostname in nautilus when you connect to the host server.

To set up a user- and password-based share, do

[global]
workgroup=WORKGROUP
security=user

[asharedfolder]
path=/home/lindqvist/shared
guest ok=no
read only=no
writable=yes
browsable=yes
comment= SMB share

You need to add and set the samba password, and enable the linux user you want to give access as well:

sudo smbpasswd -L -a -e lindqvist

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There are a lot of other options that can be set. Two of the more interesting ones are probably

[asharedfolder]
createmask=0755
valid users=me myself irene

which means that any new files created in that share via samba gets chmod 755, and only the users me, myself and irene can connect.

But often a basic smb.conf is easier to manage and will do what you want it to.