The level of logging that Samba uses can be set in the
smb.conf file using the global
log
level or
debug
level option; they are equivalent. The logging level is an integer which ranges from 0 (no logging), and increases the logging to voluminous by
log
level
=
3. For example, let's assume that we are going to use a Windows client to browse a directory on a Samba server. For a small amount of log information, you can use
log
level
=
1, which instructs Samba to show only cursory information, in this case only the connection itself:
105/25/98 22:02:11 server (192.168.236.86) connect to service public as user pcguest (uid=503,gid=100) (pid 3377)
Higher debug levels produce more detailed information. Usually you won't need any more than level 3; this is more than adequate for most Samba administrators. Levels above 3 are for use by the developers and dump enormous amounts of cryptic information.
Here is example output at levels 2 and 3 for the same operation. Don't worry if you don't understand the intricacies of an SMB connection; the point is simply to show you what types of information are shown at the different logging levels:
/* Level 2 */
Got SIGHUP
Processing section "[homes]"
Processing section "[public]"
Processing section "[temp]"
Allowed connection from 192.168.236.86 (192.168.236.86) to IPC$
Allowed connection from 192.168.236.86 (192.168.236.86) to IPC/
/* Level 3 */
05/25/98 22:15:09 Transaction 63 of length 67
switch message SMBtconX (pid 3377)
Allowed connection from 192.168.236.86 (192.168.236.86) to IPC$
ACCEPTED: guest account and guest ok
found free connection number 105
Connect path is /tmp
chdir to /tmp
chdir to /
05/25/98 22:15:09 server (192.168.236.86) connect to service IPC$ as user pcguest (uid=503,gid=100) (pid 3377)
05/25/98 22:15:09 tconX service=ipc$ user=pcguest cnum=105
05/25/98 22:15:09 Transaction 64 of length 99
switch message SMBtrans (pid 3377)
chdir to /tmp
trans <\PIPE\LANMAN> data=0 params=19 setup=0
Got API command 0 of form <WrLeh> <B13BWz> (tdscnt=0,tpscnt=19,mdrcnt=4096,mprcnt=8)
Doing RNetShareEnum
RNetShareEnum gave 4 entries of 4 (1 4096 126 4096)
05/25/98 22:15:11 Transaction 65 of length 99
switch message SMBtrans (pid 3377)
chdir to /
chdir to /tmp
trans <\PIPE\LANMAN> data=0 params=19 setup=0
Got API command 0 of form <WrLeh> <B13BWz> (tdscnt=0,tpscnt=19,mdrcnt=4096,mprcnt=8)
Doing RNetShareEnum
RNetShareEnum gave 4 entries of 4 (1 4096 126 4096)
05/25/98 22:15:11 Transaction 66 of length 95
switch message SMBtrans2 (pid 3377)
chdir to /
chdir to /pcdisk/public
call_trans2findfirst: dirtype = 0, maxentries = 6, close_after_first=0, close_if_end = 0 requires_resume_key = 0 level = 260, max_data_bytes = 2432
unix_clean_name [./DESKTOP.INI]
unix_clean_name [desktop.ini]
unix_clean_name [./]
creating new dirptr 1 for path ./, expect_close = 1
05/25/98 22:15:11 Transaction 67 of length 53
switch message SMBgetatr (pid 3377)
chdir to /
[...]
We cut off this listing after the first packet because it runs on for many pages. However, you should be aware that log levels above 3 will quickly fill your disk with megabytes of excruciating detail concerning Samba internal operations. Log level 3 is extremely useful for following exactly what the server is doing, and most of the time it will be obvious where an error is occurring by glancing through the log file.
A word of warning: using a high log level (3 or above) will
seriously slow down the Samba server. Remember that every log message generated causes a write to disk (an inherently slow operation) and log levels greater than 2 produce massive amounts of data. Essentially, you should turn on logging level 3 only when you're actively tracking a problem in the Samba server.
