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libsmbclient checks the user's shell environment for the USER parameter and uses its value when the user parameter is omitted from the URL.

The really nice feature of the libsmbclient library is that it authenticates access to the remote CIFS/SMB resource on a per-user basis. Each connection (SMB session) is independent, and access to folders and files is permitted just as if the user has logged onto a Windows desktop to perform this access.

Printing to printers on Windows systems

In the earlier years of Samba the sole mechanism for printing from a Unix/Linux system to a printer attached to a Windows machine involved the use of smbclient via a sample interface script called smbprint. This script is still available in the Samba tarball from the directory examples/printing, and remains in use even though it has been superseded by the smbspool utility.

When smbprint usage was at its prime, the two dominant printing systems in the Unix/Linux world were BSD lpr/lpd and AT&T SYSV printing. There was a new tool called LPRng that was trying to edge into the market. The LPRng package was a free open source printing solution that sought to replace the older BSD lpr/lpd technology, which was generally considered buggy and in need of replacement. There are still many Unix and Linux systems that use BSD lpr/lpd or LPRng. LPRng has a strong following in some areas. Systems that use LPRng tend to still use smbprint as the interface script that makes it possible to send a print job from the Unix/Linux spool to a remote Windows printer.

Commencing around 2000/2001, a new technology started to gain popularity. This package was called CUPS (the Common Unix Print System). The growth of adoption of CUPS has been dramatic. Meanwhile, the development team behind CUPS has gradually expanded its functionality as well as its utility. They created a printing API and have worked with many open source projects to gain a high degree of integration into each software project that requires a printing interface. The CUPS team worked together with the Samba team and contributed a direct interface methodology so that Samba can communicate with CUPS without requiring external interface scripts and utilities. Samba can pipe a print job directly to the CUPS spool management daemon cupsd.

In addition to the improved interface between Samba and CUPS, CUPS is a whole lot smarter than older print systems when sending print jobs to a network-attached Windows printer. Samba has gained a new printing utility (smbspool) that handles all printer interfacing between CUPS and a Windows print server.

Given that CUPS is now the dominant printing technology in Linux, it is best left to the configuration tools provided with either CUPS itself or with the Linux distribution to handle Linux-to-Windows printing. On the other hand, there will always be a situation that is not satisfied by this approach. When it is necessary to send a print job to a Windows printer, it is handy to have knowledge of a suitable tool. The tool of choice in this situation is smbspool.

In brief, here are the varieties of command syntax recognized by the smbspool utility:

smb://server[:port]/printer

smb://workgroup/server[:port]/printer

smb://username:password@server[:port]/printer

smb://username:password@workgroup/server[:port]/printer

One of these modes of use will meet all known needs. Each is followed by arguments:

This contains the job ID number, and is not presently used by smbspool.

This contains the print user's name, and is not presently used by smbspool.

This contains the job title string, and is passed as the remote file name when sending the print job.

This contains the number of copies to be printed. If no filename is provided (argument 6), this argument is not used by smbspool.

This contains the print options in a single string, and is currently not used by smbspool.

This contains the name of the file to print. If the argument is not specified, the material