Editing Server Message Block (section)

== Third-party implementations ==

=== Samba ===
{{Main article|Samba (software)}}
{{Update section|date=April 2016}}

In 1991, [[Andrew Tridgell]] started the development of Samba, a [[free-software]] re-implementation (using [[reverse engineering]]) of the SMB/CIFS networking protocol for [[Unix-like]] systems,  initially to implement an SMB server to allow PC clients running the [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] [[Pathworks]] client to access files on [[SunOS]] machines.<ref name='tridgemyths' /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rxn.com/services/faq/smb/samba.history.txt|title=A bit of history and a bit of fun|author=Tridgell, Andrew|author-link=Andrew Tridgell|date=June 27, 1997|access-date=July 26, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717071846/http://www.rxn.com/services/faq/smb/samba.history.txt|archive-date=July 17, 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> Because of the importance of the SMB protocol in interacting with the widespread [[Microsoft Windows]] platform, Samba became a popular [[free software]] implementation of a compatible SMB client and server to allow non-Windows operating systems, such as [[Unix-like]] operating systems, to interoperate with Windows.

As of version 3 (2003), Samba provides file and print services for Microsoft Windows clients and can integrate with a [[Windows NT 4.0]] server domain, either as a [[Primary Domain Controller]] (PDC) or as a domain member. Samba4 installations can act as an [[Active Directory]] domain controller or member server, at Windows 2008 domain and [[Active Directory|forest]] functional levels.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://samba.2283325.n4.nabble.com/Samba-4-functional-levels-td3322760.html |title=Samba 4 functional levels <!--copy of Google Goups(?), not |publisher=Samba.2283325.n4.nabble.com --> |date=February 25, 2011 |access-date=January 12, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729014411/http://samba.2283325.n4.nabble.com/Samba-4-functional-levels-td3322760.html |archive-date=July 29, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Package managers in Linux distributions can search for the ''cifs-utils'' package.  The package is from the Samba maintainers.

=== Netsmb ===
NSMB (Netsmb and SMBFS) is a family of in-kernel SMB client implementations in BSD operating systems. It was first contributed to [[FreeBSD]] 4.4 by Boris Popov, and is now found in a wide range of other BSD systems including [[NetBSD]] and [[macOS]].<ref>{{cite web |title=netsmb(4) |url=https://man.netbsd.org/NetBSD-8.0/man4/netsmb.4 |website=NetBSD 8.0 manual pages |access-date=5 January 2020 |archive-date=17 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221117092107/https://man.netbsd.org/NetBSD-8.0/man4/netsmb.4 |url-status=live }}</ref> The implementations have diverged significantly ever since.<ref>{{man|5|nsmb.conf|FreeBSD}}.</ref>

The macOS version of NSMB is notable for its now-common scheme of representing symlinks. This "Minshall-French" format shows symlinks as textual files with a {{code|.symlink}} extension and a {{code|Xsym\n}} magic number, always 1067 bytes long. This format is also used for storing symlinks on native SMB servers or unsupported filesystems. Samba supports this format with an {{code|mfsymlink}} option.<ref>{{cite web |title=UNIX Extensions |url=https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/UNIX_Extensions#Storing_symlinks_on_Windows_servers |website=SambaWiki |access-date=March 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612000308/https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/UNIX_Extensions#Storing_symlinks_on_Windows_servers |archive-date=June 12, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> Docker on Windows also seems to use it.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}

=== NQ ===
NQ is a family of portable SMB client and server implementations developed by [http://www.visualitynq.com/ Visuality Systems], an Israel-based company established in 1998 by Sam Widerman, formerly the CEO of [[Siemens]] Data Communications. The NQ family comprises an embedded SMB stack (written in C), a Pure Java SMB Client, and a storage SMB Server implementation. All solutions support the latest SMB&nbsp;3.1.1 dialect. [https://visualitynq.com/resources/articles/smb3-for-linux NQ for Linux], [https://visualitynq.com/resources/articles/smb3-for-wince NQ for WinCE], iOS, Android, VxWorks and other real-time operating systems are all supported by the configurable NQ solution.

=== MoSMB ===
MoSMB is a user space SMB implementation for Linux. It supports  SMB 2.x and SMB 3.x. Key features include Cloud-scale Active-Active Scale-out Clusters, SMB Direct (RDMA), SMB Multichannel, Transparent Failover and Continuous Availability. MoSMB also supports [[Amazon S3]] object storage as storage backend in addition to POSIX file systems such as [[ext4]], [[ZFS]], [[Lustre (file system)|Lustre]], [[Ceph (software)|Ceph]], etc.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snia.org/sites/default/files/SDC/2016/presentations/smb/Sunu_Engineer_Building_Highly_Scalable_Performant_SMB_Protocol_Server.pdf|title=Building a Highly Scalable and Performant SMB Protocol Server|author=Sunu Engineer|access-date=September 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160927162136/http://www.snia.org/sites/default/files/SDC/2016/presentations/smb/Sunu_Engineer_Building_Highly_Scalable_Performant_SMB_Protocol_Server.pdf|archive-date=September 27, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Fusion File Share by Tuxera ===
Fusion File Share by Tuxera is a proprietary SMB server implementation developed by [[Tuxera]] that can be run either in kernel or [[user space]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Microsoft and Tuxera strengthen partnership through Tuxera SMB Server|url=https://news.microsoft.com/2016/09/14/microsoft-and-tuxera-strengthen-partnership-through-tuxera-smb-server|website=Microsoft|date=14 September 2016|publisher=Microsoft News Center|access-date=6 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117044100/http://news.microsoft.com/2016/09/14/microsoft-and-tuxera-strengthen-partnership-through-tuxera-smb-server/|archive-date=November 17, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> It supports SMB 3.1.1 and all previous versions, additionally advanced SMB features like continuous availability (persistent handles) scale-out, [[Remote direct memory access|RDMA]] (SMB Direct), SMB multichannel, transparent compression, [[shadow copy]].

=== Likewise ===

Likewise developed a CIFS/SMB implementation (versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.1 and SMB 3.0) in 2009 that provided a multiprotocol, identity-aware platform for network access to files used in [[Original equipment manufacturer|OEM]] storage products built on Linux/Unix based devices. The platform could be used for traditional NAS, Cloud Gateway, and Cloud Caching devices for providing secure access to files across a network.  Likewise was purchased by [[EMC Isilon]] in 2012.

=== KSMBD ===
[[KSMBD]] is an open source in-kernel CIFS/SMB server implementation for the Linux kernel. Compared to user-space implementations, it provides better performance and makes it easier to implement some features such as SMB Direct. It supports SMB 3.1.1 and previous versions.