MOUNT.CIFS(8)

NAME
mount.cifs - mount using the Common Internet File System (CIFS)

SYNOPSIS
mount.cifs service mount-point [ -o options]

DESCRIPTION

mount.cifs mounts a Linux CIFS filesystem. It is usually invoked as mount.cifs by the mount(8) command when using the "-t cifs" option. This command only works in Linux, and the kernel must support the cifs filesystem. The CIFS protocol is the successor to the SMB protocol and is supported by most Windows servers and many other commercial servers and Network Attached Storage appliances as well as by the popular Open Source server Samba.

Options to mount.cifs are specified as a comma-separated list of key=value pairs. It is possible to send options other than those listed here, assuming that cifs supports them. If you get mount failures, check your kernel log for errors on unknown options.

mount.cifs is a daemon. After mounting it keeps running until the mounted cifs is umounted. It will log things that happen when in daemon mode using the "machine name" mount.cifs, so typically this output will end up in log.mount.cifs.

OPTIONS

username=<arg>
    specifies the username to connect as. If this is not given, then the environment variable USER is used. This option can also take the form "user%password" or "user/workgroup" or "user/workgroup%password" to allow the password and workgroup to be specified as part of the username.

password=<arg>
    specifies the CIFS password. If this option is not given then the environment variable PASSWD is used. If it can find no password mount.cifs will prompt for a passeword, unless the guest option is given. Note that password which contain the arguement delimiter character (i.e. a comma ',') will failed to be parsed correctly on the command line. However, the same password defined in the PASSWD environment variable or a credentials file (see below) will be read correctly.

credentials=<filename>
    specifies a file that contains a username and/or password. The format of the file is:
    		username = <value>
    		password = <value>

    This is preferred over having passwords in plaintext in a shared file, such as /etc/fstab. Be sure to protect any credentials file properly.

uid=<arg>
    sets the uid that will own all files on the mounted filesystem. It may be specified as either a username or a numeric uid.

gid=<arg>
    sets the gid that will own all files on the mounted filesystem. It may be specified as either a groupname or a numeric gid.

port=<arg>
    sets the remote cifs port number. By default port 445 is tried then if no response port 139 is tried.

fmask=<arg>
    sets the file mask. This determines the permissions that remote files have in the local filesystem. The default is based on the current umask.

dmask=<arg>
    sets the directory mask. This determines the permissions that remote directories have in the local filesystem. The default is based on the current umask.

debug=<arg>
    sets the debug level. This is useful for tracking down cifs connection problems. A suggested value to start with is 4. If set too high there will be a lot of output, possibly hiding the useful output.

ip=<arg>
    sets the destination host or IP address.

domain=<arg>
    sets the domain (workgroup) of the user

guest
    don't prompt for a password

ro  mount read-only

rw  mount read-write

iocharset=<arg>
    sets the charset used by the Linux side for codepage to charset translations (NLS). Argument should be the name of a charset, like iso8859-1. (Note: only kernel 2.4.0 or later)

codepage=<arg>
    sets the codepage the server uses. See the iocharset option. Example value cp850. (Note: only kernel 2.4.0 or later)

ttl=<arg>
    how long a directory listing is cached in milliseconds (also affects visibility of file size and date changes). A higher value means that changes on the server take longer to be noticed but it can give better performance on large directories, especially over long distances. Default is 1000ms but something like 10000ms (10 seconds) is probably more reasonable in many cases. (Note: only kernel 2.4.2 or later)

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The variable USER may contain the username of the person using the client. This information is used only if the protocol level is high enough to support session-level passwords. The variable can be used to set both username and password by using the format username%password.

The variable PASSWD may contain the password of the person using the client. This information is used only if the protocol level is high enough to support session-level passwords.

The variable PASSWD_FILE may contain the pathname of a file to read the password from. A single line of input is read and used as the password.

BUGS

Passwords and other options containing , can not be handled. For passwords an alternative way of passing them is in a credentials file or in the PASSWD environment.

The credentials file does not handle usernames or passwords with leading space.

Note that the typical response to a bug report is suggestion to try the latest version first. So please try doing that first, and always include which versions you use of relevant software when reporting bugs (minimum: samba, kernel, distribution)

SEE ALSO

Documentation/filesystems/cifs.txt in the linux kernel source tree may contain additional options and information.

AUTHOR

Steve French The syntax and manpage were loosely based on that of smbmount.

The current maintainer of the Linux cifs vfs and the userspace tool mount.cifs is Steve French <URL:mailto:sfrench@samba.org>. The SAMBA Mailing list <URL:mailto:samba@samba.org> is the preferred place to ask questions regarding these programs.