Working with Samba user accounts

Working with something as simple as getting a couple users with various file permissions on Samba isn't as easy as I would have expected.

In order to control user permissions on a Samba file share, you need to do the following.

1. Create the user in unix. Use adduser or useradd. The user can have /usr/sbin/nologin to prevent console logins, if you desire. You can probably avoid giving them a password since the next command will take care of that.
2. Create the user with 'sudo smbpasswd -a User' and set the password AGAIN. This will sync it against the unix database.

After that, you can use 'sudo pdbedit -L' to see a list of valid Samba users.

Next, configure your smb.conf (/etc/samba) to use the following:

[global]

       security = user

[MyShare]

        comment = My Shared Storage

        path = /nas/MyShare

        browseable = yes

        guest ok = no

        writeable = yes

        create mask = 755

        read list = Home

        write list = Bob Fred Joe

        admin users = Sam

This will allow Sam to administer the share with root permissions. Bob, Fred, and Joe will be able to write files to the share. "Home" user will be able to read it, but not write data.