libsmbclient-php is a PHP extension that uses Samba's libsmbclient library to provide Samba related functions to PHP programs.

pecl install smbclient

Some distributions provide binary packages:

• RPM for Fedora / RHEL / CentOS: php-smbclient
• DEB for Debian: php-smbclient
• DEB for Ubuntu: php-smbclient

• Install the required libsmbclient header files, via package libsmbclient-dev (Debian/Ubuntu) or libsmbclient-devel (CentOS/Fedora/Red Hat).

• Download a release tarball or check out the source code using git:

git clone git://github.com/eduardok/libsmbclient-php.git

• phpize it:

cd libsmbclient-php ; phpize

• Build the module

./configure
make

• As root, install the module into the extensions directory:

sudo make install

• Or for packaging purposes, install to a specific root directory:

make install INSTALL_ROOT=/tmp/smbc

• Activate libsmbclient-php in php.ini:

extension="smbclient.so"

If you encounter a bug or want to contribute, please file an issue on GitHub. Sending pull requests on GitHub is the preferred method of contributing code.

Since version 0.7.0, libsmbclient-php is licensed under the BSD 2-clause license. See Issue #15 for background. The full license text can be found in the LICENSE file. Before that, libsmbclient-php was licensed under the PHP license, version 2.02.

URI's have the format smb://[[[workgroup;]user[:password@]]server[/share[/path[/file]]]]. They should be urlencoded to escape special characters. Use PHP's rawurlencode function to encode an URI. If you need to specify a workgroup, username or password, you can either include them in the URI, or specify them when you create a state resource. Examples of valid URI's:

smb://server
smb://server/share
smb://user:password@server/share/path/to/file.txt
smb://server/share/Moscow is written Москва.txt

As a low-level extension, libsmbclient-php does not throw exceptions. Success or failure is communicated the old-fashioned way, by the function's return value. You should always check if a function returns false for failure. If you really want exceptions, you can build your own high-level layer by translating return values and error codes to appropriate exceptions.

For errors that occur in the Samba layer, the smbclient_ functions will generally print a human-readable PHP warning with an interpretation of what went wrong. The interpretations come from Samba's libsmbclient.h header file. You can suppress the warnings by prefixing the function call with an @. Please don't attempt to parse the warning messages, their wording is not very consistent and likely to change in future versions.

For some unlikely errors encountered by the extension itself, no warning is printed and the function just returns false.

When an error occurs, you can get the error number with smbclient_state_errno. For errors outside of Samba (such as wrong arguments to the function), its value will be 0, but for errors originating within Samba, it will be a Unix errno value straight from the underlying library. For example, smbclient_open may set the error code to 13, which corresponds with EACCES, which means that permission was denied. Please refer to Samba's libsmbclient.h for documentation on which error codes you can expect to see; each function has its own list of things that can go wrong.

For convenience, here's a non-exhaustive list of popular error codes:

string smbclient_version ( )

Returns libsmbclient-php's own version string.

string smbclient_library_version ( )

Returns libsmbclient's version string, which is the same as the Samba version string.

resource smbclient_state_new ( )

Acquire a new smbclient state. Returns a state resource on success, or false on failure. The state resource holds persistent data about the current server connection, so that the backend can reuse the existing channel instead of reconnecting for every operation. The state resource must be passed on to most of the other functions in this extension. Before using the state resource in other functions, it must be initialized by calling smbclient_state_init. Between creating and initializing the resource, you can set certain options for the connection with smbclient_option_set. The state resource should be released when you're done with it by passing it to smbclient_state_free (although PHP will auto-destroy it when it goes out of scope).

bool smbclient_client_protocols ( resource $state, string $min_protocol = null, string $max_protocol = null )

Sets the minimum and maximum protocols (client min protocol and client max protocol) for negotiation. Either can be set to null. Returns true on success, false on failure.

bool smbclient_option_set ( resource $state, int option, mixed value )

Sets the value of an option to libsmbclient. Returns true if setting the option succeeded, false on failure. This function should be called before calling smbclient_state_init on your context. The second argument should be one of the constants below:

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_OPEN_SHAREMODE

  The share mode to use when opening files. The value can be one of these constants:

  • SMBCLIENT_SHAREMODE_DENY_DOS
  • SMBCLIENT_SHAREMODE_DENY_ALL
  • SMBCLIENT_SHAREMODE_DENY_WRITE
  • SMBCLIENT_SHAREMODE_DENY_READ
  • SMBCLIENT_SHAREMODE_DENY_NONE
  • SMBCLIENT_SHAREMODE_DENY_FCB

  The default is SMBCLIENT_SHAREMODE_DENY_NONE.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_ENCRYPT_LEVEL

  The encryption level to adopt for the connection. The value can be one of these constants:

  • SMBCLIENT_ENCRYPTLEVEL_NONE
  • SMBCLIENT_ENCRYPTLEVEL_REQUEST
  • SMBCLIENT_ENCRYPTLEVEL_REQUIRE

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_CASE_SENSITIVE

  Boolean. What to do when we can't determine from the file system attributes whether the file system is case sensitive. Assume that the filesystem is case sensitive (true), or that it isn't (false). Defaults to false, because only really old file systems aren't autodetected, and most of those are case insensitive.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_BROWSE_MAX_LMB_COUNT

  From how many servers to retrieve the list of workgroups, if you're doing that. See Samba's libsmbclient.h for details.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_URLENCODE_READDIR_ENTRIES

  Boolean. Whether the entries returned by smbclient_readdir are urlencoded. Defaults to false, the entries are returned "raw".

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_USE_KERBEROS

  Boolean. Whether to use Kerberos authentication.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_FALLBACK_AFTER_KERBEROS

  Boolean. Whether to fall back on regular authentication if Kerberos didn't work out. The regular username and password given in smbclient_state_init will be queried.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_AUTO_ANONYMOUS_LOGIN

  Boolean. Whether to automatically select anonymous login.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_USE_CCACHE

  Boolean. Whether to use the Winbind cache.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_USE_NT_HASH

  Boolean. Whether the password supplied in smbclient_state_init is actually an NT hash. If you set this to true and work with NT hashes, you can avoid passing around plaintext passwords.

  The smbc_getOptionUseNTHash function is relatively new to libsmbclient (June 2012), so the configure script tests whether your libsmbclient has that symbol, and conditionally activates this option. If the option is not available, trying to set it will return false.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_NETBIOS_NAME

  String. The NetBIOS (host) name used for making connections.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_WORKGROUP

  String. The workgroup used for making connections.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_USER

  String. The username used to make connections. This appears to be something different from the username given in smbclient_state_init, and appears to correspond to the system user running PHP.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_PORT

  Int. The TCP port to connect to. 0 means "use the default".

  The smbc_setPort function is relatively new to libsmbclient (April 2013), so the configure script tests whether your libsmbclient has that symbol, and conditionally activates this option. If the option is not available, trying to set it will return false.

• SMBCLIENT_OPT_TIMEOUT

  Int. The timeout value for connections and responses in milliseconds.

mixed smbclient_option_get ( resource $state, int option )

This is a mirror function of smbclient_option_set. Everything settable is also gettable. See that function for the description of the available options and their return types/values. If a given option is not available, this function will return null and not false, to distinguish it from an option's legitimate false value.

int smbclient_state_init ( resource $state [, string $workgroup = null [, string $username = null [, string $password = null ] ] ] )

Initialize the smbclient state resource. Returns 0 on success, 1 on failure. Before using the state resource in other functions, it must be initialized. Workgroup, username and password are optional parameters. You can specify any of them as null or false to indicate that the credential is not available. Such might be the case for anonymous or guest access.

bool smbclient_state_free ( resource $state )

Release the state resource passed to it. Returns true on success, false on failure.

int smbclient_state_errno ( resource $state )

Returns the error number of the last error encountered by libsmbclient. Returns 0 on failure (invalid resource) or if no error has yet occurred for this resource. The numbers returned are the standard Posix constants as returned by libsmbclient itself, so check your system's errno.h or man errno for documentation.

resource smbclient_opendir ( resource $state, string $uri )

Opens the given directory for reading with smbclient_readdir.

Returns either a directory resource, or false on failure. The directory resource should be closed after use with smbclient_closedir.

array smbclient_readdir ( resource $state, resource $dir )

Reads the next entry from the given directory resource obtained with smbclient_opendir. Call this in a while loop to read all entries in the directory.

Returns an array with details for the directory entry on success, or false on failure or end-of-file. The returned array has the following structure:

array(
  'type'    => 'type string',
  'comment' => 'comment string',
  'name'    => 'name string'
)

Comment and name are passed through from libsmbclient. By default, the name is not returned in urlencoded format, it's been decoded for convenience. You can toggle that by setting the SMBCLIENT_OPT_URLENCODE_READDIR_ENTRIES option to true. type is one of the following strings:

• 'workgroup'
• 'server'
• 'file share'
• 'printer share'
• 'communication share'
• 'IPC share'
• 'directory'
• 'file'
• 'link'
• 'unknown'

bool smbclient_closedir ( resource $state, resource $dir )

Closes a directory resource obtained with smbclient_opendir. Returns true on success, false on failure.

bool smbclient_rename ( resource $state_old, string $uri_old, resource $state_new, string $uri_new )

Renames the old file/directory to the new file/directory. $state_old and $state_new refer to the states belonging to the old and new URI's. Due to a limitation of the underlying library, old and new locations must be on the same share. Due to the same limitation, $state_old and $state_new should point to the same resource. Returns true on success, false on failure.

bool smbclient_unlink ( resource $state, string $uri )

Unlinks (deletes) the file. Does not work on directories; to delete those, use smbclient_rmdir. Returns true on success, false on failure.

bool smbclient_mkdir ( resource $state, string $uri [, int $mask = 0777 ] )

Creates the given directory. If $mask is given, use that as the creation mask (after subtracting the umask). Support for $mask may be absent; libsmbclient notes in its header file that umasks are not supported by SMB servers. Returns true on success, false on failure.

bool smbclient_rmdir ( resource $state, string $uri )

Deletes the given directory if empty. Returns true on success, false on failure.

array smbclient_stat ( resource $state, string $uri )

Returns information about the given file or directory. Returns an array with information on success, false on failure. The structure of the return array is the same as PHP's native stat. See that manual for a complete description.

array smbclient_fstat ( resource $state, resource $file )

Returns information about the given file or directory. Returns an array with information on success, false on failure. The structure of the return array is the same as PHP's native stat. See that manual for a complete description.

resource smbclient_open ( resource $state, string $uri, string $mode [, int $mask = 0666 ] )

Opens a file for reading or writing according to the $mode specified. Applies the creation mask in $mask (after subtracting the umask) if the file had to be created. Support for $mask may be absent; libsmbclient notes in its header file that umasks are not supported by SMB servers.

$mode is in the same format as the $mode argument in PHP's native fopen. See that manual for more information. Summary:

Returns a file resource on success, or false on failure.

resource smbclient_creat ( resource $state, string $uri [, int $mask = 0666 ] )

Almost the same as calling smbclient_open with mode 'c', but will truncate the file to 0 bytes if it already exists. Opens the file write-only and creates it if it doesn't already exist.

Returns a file resource on success, or false on failure.

string smbclient_read ( resource $state, resource $file, int $bytes )

Reads data from a file resource obtained through smbclient_open or smbclient_creat. Tries to read the amount of bytes given in $bytes, but may return less. Returns a string longer than 0 bytes on success, a string of 0 bytes on end-of-file, or false on failure.

Checking the string length to figure out EOF is primitive, but libsmbclient does not expose an feof equivalent. strlen in PHP is relatively efficient because PHP tracks string lengths internally.

int smbclient_write ( resource $state, resource $file, string $data [, int $length ] )

Writes data to a file resource obtained through smbclient_open or smbclient_creat. If $length is not specified, write the whole contents of $data. If $length is specified, write either the whole content of $data or $length bytes, whichever is less. $length, if specified, must be larger than 0. If you want to write zero bytes for some reason, write the empty string and omit $length.

Returns the number of bytes written on success, or false on failure.

int smbclient_lseek ( resource $state, resource $file, int offset, int whence )

Places the internal file pointer at the given byte offset. The whence parameter indicates from where to count. It can take three possible constants, which are the same as for PHP's native fseek:

• SEEK_SET: set position equal to offset bytes;
• SEEK_CUR: set position to current location plus offset;
• SEEK_END: set position to end of file plus offset.

Returns the new file offset as measured from the start of the file on success, false on failure.

bool smbclient_ftruncate ( resource $state, resource $file, int size )

Truncates the given file to the given file size. Returns true on success, false on failure.

bool smbclient_close ( resource $state, resource $file )

Close a file resource obtained with smbclient_open or smbclient_creat. Returns true on success, false on failure.

bool smbclient_chmod ( resource $state, string $uri, int mode )

Set the DOS attributes for a file. According to the libsmbclient header file, this function is not implemented. However, the Samba sources do seem to implement it, and use the following mapping:

So to set a file to readable and hidden, you would use o wx, or mode 003. This function is a Posix compatibility shim; if you want better control over file attributes, use the more powerful xattr functions.

bool smbclient_utimes ( resource $state, string $uri [, int $mtime = time() [, int $atime = $mtime ] ] )

Set the write time and access time for the given file or directory. These correspond to Unix mtime and atime. Timestamps are in Unix timestamp format. Returns true on success, false on failure.

Beware of inconsistencies in how Samba stores and retrieves timestamps. When you change the mtime and atime for a file, then stat the file with smbclient_stat, the stat output will indicate that you changed ctime and mtime, in that order, instead. (This is likely a bug somewhere, but it's hard to pinpoint the cause.) When you use mount.cifs to mount the share and check the results of this function with the stat commandline tool, the mtime argument will set both the mtime and ctime, and the atime argument will set the atime. This is a Posix compatibility shim. Use the more powerful xattr functions if you need more control, such as setting the ctime.

array smbclient_listxattr ( resource $state, string $uri )

This function should, according to Samba documentation, return a list of all names of extended attributes applicable to the given file or directory. Instead, the function returns an array of the names of all extended attributes known to Samba, regardless of what the filesystem actually supports or which attributes are actually available on the resource. Since the underlying function always returns a static string without looking, don't take the output as gospel. It does provide you with a list of attribute names that you can use to fetch individually. Returns false on failure.

string smbclient_getxattr ( resource $state, string $uri, string $key )

Returns the value of the given extended attribute with name $key, or false on failure. The value returned is always a string.

For example, to get a file's extended attributes, query the system.dos_attr.mode key.

bool smbclient_setxattr ( resource $state, string $uri, string $key, string $value [, int flags = 0 ] )

Sets the extended attribute with name $key to value $value. For now, see libsmbclient.h, the section on smbc_setxattr, for details on how to specify keys and values. flags defaults to zero, meaning that the attribute will be created if it does not exist, and replaced if it already exists. You can also set flags to one of these values:

Returns true on success, false on failure.

bool smbclient_removexattr ( resource $state, string $uri, string $key )

Removes the extended attribute with name $key from the file or directory pointed to by the URI. Returns true on success, false on failure.

array smbclient_statvfs ( resource $state, string $uri )

Returns an array with file system statistics for the given URI, or false on failure. The array contains the keys listed below, each with an integer value. See the manpage for the Unix statvfs function for more information on how to interpret the values.

• bsize: file system block size;
• frsize: fragment size;
• blocks: size of filesystem in frsize units;
• bfree: number of free blocks;
• bavail: number of free blocks for unprivileged users;
• files: number of inodes;
• ffree: number of free inodes;
• favail: number of free inodes for unprivileged users;
• fsid: file system ID;
• flag: mount flags;
• namemax: maximum filename length.

The flag value can contain a boolean OR of the following constants:

• SMBCLIENT_VFS_RDONLY;
• SMBCLIENT_VFS_DFS;
• SMBCLIENT_VFS_CASE_INSENSITIVE;
• SMBCLIENT_VFS_NO_UNIXCIFS;

array smbclient_fstatvfs ( resource $state, resource $file_or_dir )

Returns an array with file system statistics for the given file or directory resource, or false on failure. See smbclient_statvfs for a description of the returned array.

Starting with version 0.8.0, streams support is enabled. Most of standard functions work transparently with 'smb' URIs.

  readfile('smb://user:password@smbserver/share/file.txt');
  scandir('smb://user:password@smbserver/share/somedir/');

Which include: copy, file_get_contents, file_put_contents, fileperms, fopen, mkdir, opendir, rmdir, rename, stat, unlink... Notice: touch and chmod functions require PHP >= 5.4

Some bare-bones examples of how to use libsmbclient-php. These have deliberately been kept simple. In production, you should at least check whether the extension has been loaded. Also, you should urlencode your URI's, check the return value of each function, and handle errors appropriately.

List the contents of a directory:

<?php

// Create new state:
$state = smbclient_state_new();

// Initialize the state with workgroup, username and password:
smbclient_state_init($state, null, 'testuser', 'password');

// Open a directory:
$dir = smbclient_opendir($state, 'smb://localhost/testshare');

// Loop over the directory contents, print each node:
while (($entry = smbclient_readdir($state, $dir)) !== false) {
	echo "{$entry['name']} : {$entry['type']}\n";
}
// Close the directory handle:
smbclient_closedir($state, $dir);

// Free the state:
smbclient_state_free($state);

Dump a file to standard output:

<?php

// Create new state:
$state = smbclient_state_new();

// Initialize the state with workgroup, username and password:
smbclient_state_init($state, null, 'testuser', 'password');

// Open a file for reading:
$file = smbclient_open($state, 'smb://localhost/testshare/testdir/testfile.txt', 'r');

// Read the file incrementally, dump contents to output:
while (true) {
	$data = smbclient_read($state, $file, 100000);
	if ($data === false || strlen($data) === 0) {
		break;
	}
	echo $data;
}
// Close the file handle:
smbclient_close($state, $file);

// Free the state:
smbclient_state_free($state);