Samba for Debian
----------------

This package was built by Eloy Paris <peloy@debian.org> and Steve Langasek
<vorlon@debian.org>, current maintainers of the Samba packages for Debian,
based on previous work from Bruce Perens <Bruce@Pixar.com>, Andrew
Howell <andrew@it.com.au>, Klee Dienes <klee@debian.org> and Michael
Meskes <meskes@topsystem.de>, all previous maintainers of the packages
samba and sambades (merged together for longer than we can remember.)

Contents of this README file:

1. Notes
2. Packages Generated from the Samba Sources
3. Support for NT Domains
4. Samba and LDAP
5. Reporting bugs


1. Notes
--------

- As of Samba 2.0.6-1, the Debian version of Samba is compiled with
  Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) support. PAM support was 
  discontinued during the libc5 -> libc6 migration process and I never
  brought it back until 2.0.6-1.

- The smbfs package does not support the 2.0.x Linux kernels anymore.
  This has been the case since the very first packages of the CVS sources
  that eventually became Samba 2.2. To use the smbfs package you need to
  run a 2.2.x kernel or later.

- Starting with the Debian packages for Samba 2.2, the Samba log files (for
  nmbd and smbd) have been moved to a new location: /var/log/samba/. The
  files also have new names: log.nmbd and log.smbd. The old files
  (/var/log/{nmb,smb} were moved to the new location.


2. Packages Generated from the Samba Sources
--------------------------------------------

Currently, the Samba sources produce the following binary packages:

samba: A LanManager like file and printer server for Unix.
samba-common: Samba common files used by both the server and the client.
smbclient: A LanManager like simple client for Unix.
swat: Samba Web Administration Tool
samba-doc: Samba documentation.
smbfs: Mount and umount commands for the smbfs (works with 2.2.x and
	above kernels, not with 2.0.x kernels.)
libpam-smbpass: pluggable authentication module for SMB password
	database.
libsmbclient: Shared library that allows applications to talk to SMB servers.
libsmbclient-dev: libsmbclient shared libraries.
winbind: Service to resolve user and group information from a Windows NT 
	server.

Please note that the package smbwrapper (a shared library that provides
SMB client services that existed between Samba 2.0.0-1 and Samba-2.0.5a-4
does not exist any more. The reason is that starting with Samba 2.0.6-1, that
code does not even compile, and the upstream author (Andrew Tridgell)
recommended to disable the compilation of smbwrapper until some issues
with glibc2.1 get cleared out (the problem is with glibc, not with Samba
itself).


3. Support for NT Domains
-------------------------

Samba 2.2 includes preliminary support for NT domains. A Samba server
can now be part of a Windows NT domain whose Primary Domain Controller
is a Windows NT server. This feature is supposed to be stable although I
haven't tried it myself. Read the documentation in the samba-doc package
for help on how to do this (hint: "security = domain" in the smb.conf
file).

Samba 2.2 has also experimental support for Primary Domain
Controller. This means that a Samba server can act now as a PDC. There
are no special flags needed to compile Samba with NT domain PDC
support. Please read the NTDOM PDC FAQ at www.samba.org (Documentation
section).

Please note that NT domain PDC support is far from complete and is still 
experimental.


4. Samba and LDAP
-----------------

Samba 2.2 has experimental LDAP code. However, the official Debian
packages have not been compiled with LDAP support for a good reason: if
LDAP support is compiled in then the other authentication methods (PAM,
smbpasswd, etc.) cannot be used, only LDAP will work. So, while LDAP
cannot coexist peacefully with the other methods we will not provide
LDAP-enabled packages. The workaround is, of course, to build your own
packages. We can help with this if you don't know how to build packages.

We follow Samba development, so please do not file bug reports asking
for LDAP, we will add support for it when it doesn't break other
things.

update (2002/10/16): the Debian Samba packages in Debian unstable have
been compiled with --ldapsam support. If you need LDAP support you can
use those packages, or as we said, build your own 2.2.x packages.


5. Reporting Bugs
-----------------

If you believe you have found a bug please make sure the possible bug
also exists in the latest version of Samba that is available for the
unstable Debian distribution. If you are running Debian stable this
means that you will probably have to build your own packages. And if the
problem does not exist in the latest version of Samba we have packaged it
means that you will have to run the version of Samba you built yourself
since it is not easy to upload new packages to the stable distribution,
unless they fix critical security problems.

If you can reproduce the problem in the latest version of Samba then
it is likely to be a real bug. Your best shot is to search the Samba
mailing lists to see if it is something that has already been reported
and fixed - if it is a simple fix we can add the patch to our packages
without waiting for a new Samba release.

If you decide that your problem deserves to be submitted to the Debian
Bug Tracking System (BTS) we expect you to be responsive if we request
more information. If we request more information and do not receive
any in a reasonable time frame expect to see your bug closed without
explanation - we can't fix bugs we can't reproduce, and most of the
time we need more information to be able to reproduce them.

When submitting a bug to the Debian BTS please include the version of
the Debian package you are using as well as the Debian distribution you
are using. Think _twice_ about the severity you assign to the bug: we
are _very_ sensitive about bug severities; the fact that it doesn't
work for you doesn't mean that the severity must be such that it holds
a major Debian release. In fact, that it doesn't work for you it
doesn't mean that it doesn't work for others. So again: think _twice_.


Eloy A. Paris <peloy@debian.org>
Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org>

