smbnetfs

FUSE filesystem for SMB network browsing

TLDR

Mount SMB shares at a mountpoint

$ smbnetfs [mountpoint]

Mount with a custom config file

$ smbnetfs -o config=[~/.smb/smbnetfs.conf] [mountpoint]

Mount with debug output

$ smbnetfs -d [mountpoint]

Mount in foreground

$ smbnetfs -f [mountpoint]

Unmount

$ fusermount -u [mountpoint]

smbnetfs is a FUSE filesystem that provides Windows Network Neighborhood-like functionality on Linux and FreeBSD. It mounts SMB/CIFS shares interactively, allowing browsing and accessing network resources through the filesystem hierarchy.Once mounted, navigating to the mountpoint reveals available workgroups, servers, and shares as directories. Authentication is handled automatically or through configuration files. The filesystem integrates with standard file operations, making network shares accessible to any application.

PARAMETERS

-f

Run in foreground (do not daemonize).

-d

Enable debug output (implies -f).

-o options

Mount options (FUSE and smbnetfs options).

-o config= PATH

Path to configuration file (default: ~/.smb/smbnetfs.conf).

-o smbnetfs_debug= N

SMBNetFS debug level (N <= 10).

-o smb_debug_level= N

Samba debug level (N <= 10).

-o smb_timeout= T

Samba reply timeout in ms (default: 20000).

-o smb_tree_scan_period= T

Network tree scanning interval in seconds (default: 300).

-o show_$_shares= BOOL

Show hidden shares (default: off).

-h, --help

Display help.

-V, --version

Display version.

CONFIGURATION

The configuration directory ~/.smb should contain at least smb.conf (may be copied from /etc/samba/) and smbnetfs.conf. Configuration includes:- Default credentials for shares- Workgroup settings- Server-specific authentication- Mount optionsCredentials can also be stored in ~/.smb/smbnetfs.auth for automatic authentication to specific servers or shares. When built with libsecret support, passwords can be retrieved from a keyring.

CAVEATS

Requires FUSE support in the kernel. Performance may be slower than direct mount.cifs mounts. Authentication credentials in config files should have restricted permissions. Some SMB features may not be fully supported through the FUSE layer.

HISTORY

smbnetfs was created as an open-source project to provide easy network browsing similar to Windows. It is built on FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) and libsmbclient from Samba. The project has been actively developed since the mid-2000s and is released under GPL-2.0.