LMHOSTS(5) File Formats and Conventions LMHOSTS(5)
NAME
lmhosts - The Samba NetBIOS hosts file
SYNOPSIS
lmhosts is the samba(7) NetBIOS name to IP address mapping file.
DESCRIPTION
This file is part of the samba(7) suite.
lmhosts is the Samba NetBIOS name to IP address mapping file. It is very
similar to the /etc/hosts file format, except that the hostname
component must correspond to the NetBIOS naming format.
FILE FORMAT
It is an ASCII file containing one line for NetBIOS name. The two fields
on each line are separated from each other by white space. Any entry
beginning with '#' is ignored. Each line in the lmhosts file contains
the following information:
• IP Address - in dotted decimal format.
• NetBIOS Name - This name format is a maximum fifteen
character host name, with an optional trailing '#' character
followed by the NetBIOS name type as two hexadecimal digits.
If the trailing '#' is omitted then the given IP address will
be returned for all names that match the given name, whatever
the NetBIOS name type in the lookup.
An example follows:
#
# Sample Samba lmhosts file.
#
192.9.200.1 TESTPC
192.9.200.20 NTSERVER#20
192.9.200.21 SAMBASERVER
Contains three IP to NetBIOS name mappings. The first and third will be
returned for any queries for the names "TESTPC" and "SAMBASERVER"
respectively, whatever the type component of the NetBIOS name requested.
The second mapping will be returned only when the "0x20" name type for a
name "NTSERVER" is queried. Any other name type will not be resolved.
The default location of the lmhosts file is in the same directory as the
smb.conf(5) file.
FILES
lmhosts is loaded from the configuration directory. This is usually
/etc/samba or /usr/local/samba/lib.
VERSION
This man page is part of version 4.22.11-Debian-4.22.11+dfsg-0+deb13u1
of the Samba suite.
SEE ALSO
smbclient(1), smb.conf(5), and smbpasswd(8)
AUTHOR
The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew
Tridgell. Samba is now developed by the Samba Team as an Open Source
project similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed.
Samba 4.22.11-Debian-4.22.11+d 07/28/2026 LMHOSTS(5)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Sat Oct 3 04:57:51 CEST 2026.