Samba

Samba is the standard Windows interoperability suite of programs for Linux and Unix. It provides secure, stable and fast file and print services for all clients using the SMB/CIFS protocol.

Unrated
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Unrated

Developed outside the platforms our data source measures, so there is no activity history to score. This says nothing about the project — many unrated projects are actively maintained.

Activity data

Not available for this project. Our source collects commit history from GitHub only, and Samba is developed elsewhere.

Starsnot measured
Latest release—
Repo updated—
LicenceGPL-3.0
Built withC

Is Samba actively maintained?

We cannot measure this one. Samba is developed outside the platforms our data source collects activity from, and its repository lives at git.samba.org — so there is no commit history or release cadence here to score.

Read that as missing data, not as a warning. Several of the best-maintained projects in this catalogue are unrated for exactly this reason. To judge it, open the repository and look at the date of the most recent commit yourself.

What Samba actually does

Samba is a software suite designed to bridge file and print sharing between Unix or Linux operating systems and Windows clients. It implements the SMB and CIFS protocols to allow non-Windows servers to act as standard file servers within a mixed-OS network environment. The application handles authentication, access control, and directory services across different platforms.

Best fit: Administrators managing mixed networks who need to serve files and printers from a Linux or Unix host to Windows clients using standard protocols.

Worth knowing: Configuration can be complex due to the extensive parameter options required to balance security and compatibility across different client operating systems. Additionally, improper configuration can expose sensitive file shares to unauthorized users.

Deployment notes

As a compiled C application, it typically requires persistent storage mounted locally for the shared directories and does not generally need a separate database engine for basic file sharing operations.


Alternatives to Samba

Projects in the same categories, ordered by health score.