Listing available smb shares on a network through the command line in linux

Question

I was wondering if there is a way of listing all the smb servers on a local network (like looking at a network neighborhood in windows) via the command line in fedora.

Kurt Pfeifle · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-02T13:40:15.710

This command is a very little known secret of Samba. It returns IP adresses of all Samba servers in one's own broadcast domain:

nmblookup __SAMBA__

This one returns a list of all NetBIOS names and their aliases of all Samba servers in the neighbourhood (it does a 'node status query'):

nmblookup -S __SAMBA__

This one returns a list of all IP adresses of SMB servers (that is, Linux+Unix/Samba or Windows) in the neighbourhood:

nmblookup '*'

Finally, all NetBIOS names and their aliases of all SMB servers (Linux+Unix/Samba or Windows):

nmblookup -S '*'

The command given in the other answer nmblookup -S WORKGROUP does NOT return all Samba or all SMB servers from the neighbourhood. Instead, it returns all servers' NetBIOS names who happen to be members of a workgroup named 'WORKGROUP'. The results are independent of the servers' OS (wether that is Windows, or wether that is Linux/Samba) -- and it is a well known fact that sometimes lots of Windows member server are part of a Samba-controlled domain or workgroup. [Yes, it happens that Samba's default workgroup name is 'WORKGROUP'... but so what??]. -- But the question was 'How do I get to know all SMB (Samba?!?) servers in my network neighbourhood?'

score 15 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 11 '17 at 10:54

15

nmblookup -S WORKGROUP

from the: https://web.archive.org/web/20101121043732/http://brneurosci.org/linuxsetup38b.html

edited Jul 11 '17 at 10:54

nkef

103

answered Jul 14 '10 at 17:00

andyortlieb

1,102

score 12 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 21 '14 at 16:51

On my network - as of this writing (things do change) - smbtree is my preferred solution. It asks for your password (meaning your Samba password), and then it gives a nicely detailed list that includes netbios name, available shares, and the share description.

nmblookup, on the other hand, does not list all the available shares on my network. I do not know why it does not, but it doesn't.

From the smbtree man page:

smbtree is a smb browser program in text mode. It is similar to the "Network Neighborhood" found on Windows computers. It prints a tree with all the known domains, the servers in those domains and the shares on the servers.

The nmblookup command does have more switches and options. The nmblookup man page: nmblookup man page

Noted for posterity - as these answers do stick around - and as I said, I find that smbtree would be a better answer to the OP on my network.

score 9 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 12 '18 at 16:22

9

In samba version 4, nmblookup '*' no longer works; it only gives the local server. It used to work in samba version 3.

Now, you have to use nmblookup WORKGROUP, which as Kurt mentioned, only returns servers in workgroup WORKGROUP.

edited Jun 12 '18 at 16:22

ifconfig

103

answered Apr 10 '18 at 18:29

Doke

131

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 05 '17 at 23:32

6

Another way to do this is via Avahi (Bonjour), as long as the servers are publishing:

avahi-browse -r _smb._tcp

answered Feb 05 '17 at 23:32

hooby3dfx

173

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 29 '17 at 09:14

a better way, more fiendly printed, is to use smbtree.

$ smbtree
Enter user01's password: DOMAIN_A
        \\FREEBOX_SERVER                Freebox Server
                \\FREEBOX_SERVER\IPC$                   IPC Service (Freebox Server)
                \\FREEBOX_SERVER\Disque dur             AutoShare of fbxhdiskd partition 2

Listing available smb shares on a network through the command line in linux

6 Answers6