FreeBSD Manual Pages
PDBEDIT(8) System Administration tools PDBEDIT(8) NAME pdbedit - manage the SAM database (Database of Samba Users) SYNOPSIS pdbedit [-L|--list] [-v|--verbose] [-w|--smbpasswd-style] [-u|--user=USER] [-N|--account-desc=STRING] [-f|--fullname=STRING] [-h|--homedir=STRING] [-D|--drive=STRING] [-S|--script=STRING] [-p|--profile=STRING] [-I|--do- main=STRING] [-U|--user SID=STRING] [-M|--machine SID=STRING] [-a|--cre- ate] [-r|--modify] [-m|--machine] [-x|--delete] [-b|--backend=STRING] [-i|--import=STRING] [-e|--export=STRING] [-g|--group] [-y|--policies] [--policies-reset] [-P|--account-policy=STRING] [-C|--value=LONG] [-c|--account-control=STRING] [--force-initialized-passwords] [-z|--bad-password-count-reset] [-Z|--logon-hours-reset] [--time-for- mat=STRING] [-t|--password-from-stdin] [-K|--kickoff-time=STRING] [--set-nt-hash=STRING] [-?|--help] [--usage] [-d|--debuglevel=DEBUGLEVEL] [--debug-stdout] [--configfile=CONFIGFILE] [--option=name=value] [-l|--log-basename=LOGFILEBASE] [--leak-report] [--leak-report-full] DESCRIPTION This tool is part of the samba(7) suite. The pdbedit program is used to manage the users accounts stored in the sam database and can only be run by root. The pdbedit tool uses the passdb modular interface and is independent from the kind of users database used (currently there are smbpasswd, ldap, nis+ and tdb based and more can be added without changing the tool). There are five main ways to use pdbedit: adding a user account, removing a user account, modifying a user account, listing user accounts, importing users accounts. OPTIONS -L|--list This option lists all the user accounts present in the users database. This option prints a list of user/uid pairs separated by the ':' char- acter. Example: pdbedit -L sorce:500:Simo Sorce samba:45:Test User -v|--verbose This option enables the verbose listing format. It causes pdbedit to list the users in the database, printing out the account fields in a descriptive format. Used together with -w also shows passwords hashes. Example: pdbedit -L -v --------------- username: sorce user ID/Group: 500/500 user RID/GRID: 2000/2001 Full Name: Simo Sorce Home Directory: \\BERSERKER\sorce HomeDir Drive: H: Logon Script: \\BERSERKER\netlogon\sorce.bat Profile Path: \\BERSERKER\profile --------------- username: samba user ID/Group: 45/45 user RID/GRID: 1090/1091 Full Name: Test User Home Directory: \\BERSERKER\samba HomeDir Drive: Logon Script: Profile Path: \\BERSERKER\profile -w|--smbpasswd-style This option sets the "smbpasswd" listing format. It will make pdbedit list the users in the database, printing out the account fields in a format compatible with the smbpasswd file format. (see the smbpasswd(5) for details). Instead used together with (-v) displays the passwords hashes in verbose output. Example: pdbedit -L -w sorce:500:508818B733CE64BEAAD3B435B51404EE: D2A2418EFC466A8A0F6B1DBB5C3DB80C: [UX ]:LCT-00000000: samba:45:0F2B255F7B67A7A9AAD3B435B51404EE: BC281CE3F53B6A5146629CD4751D3490: [UX ]:LCT-3BFA1E8D: -u|--user username This option specifies the username to be used for the operation re- quested (listing, adding, removing). It is required in add, remove and modify operations and optional in list operations. -f|--fullname fullname This option can be used while adding or modifying a user account. It will specify the user's full name. Example: -f "Simo Sorce" -h|--homedir homedir This option can be used while adding or modifying a user account. It will specify the user's home directory network path. Example: -h "\\\\BERSERKER\\sorce" -D|--drive drive This option can be used while adding or modifying a user account. It will specify the windows drive letter to be used to map the home direc- tory. Example: -D "H:" -S|--script script This option can be used while adding or modifying a user account. It will specify the user's logon script path. Example: -S "\\\\BERSERKER\\netlogon\\sorce.bat" --set-nt-hash This option can be used while modifying a user account. It will set the user's password using the nt-hash value given as hexadecimal string. Useful to synchronize passwords. Example: --set-nt-hash 8846F7EAEE8FB117AD06BDD830B7586C -p|--profile profile This option can be used while adding or modifying a user account. It will specify the user's profile directory. Example: -p "\\\\BERSERKER\\netlogon" -M|'--machine SID' SID|rid This option can be used while adding or modifying a machine account. It will specify the machines' new primary group SID (Security Identifier) or rid. Example: -M S-1-5-21-2447931902-1787058256-3961074038-1201 -U|'--user SID' SID|rid This option can be used while adding or modifying a user account. It will specify the users' new SID (Security Identifier) or rid. Example: -U S-1-5-21-2447931902-1787058256-3961074038-5004 Example: '--user SID' S-1-5-21-2447931902-1787058256-3961074038-5004 Example: -U 5004 Example: '--user SID' 5004 -c|--account-control account-control This option can be used while adding or modifying a user account. It will specify the users' account control property. Possible flags are listed below. * N: No password required * D: Account disabled * H: Home directory required * T: Temporary duplicate of other account * U: Regular user account * M: MNS logon user account * W: Workstation Trust Account * S: Server Trust Account * L: Automatic Locking * X: Password does not expire * I: Domain Trust Account Example: -c "[X ]" -K|--kickoff-time This option is used to modify the kickoff time for a certain user. Use "never" as argument to set the kickoff time to unlimited. Example: pdbedit -K never user -a|--create This option is used to add a user into the database. This command needs a user name specified with the -u switch. When adding a new user, pdbe- dit will also ask for the password to be used. Example: pdbedit -a -u sorce new password: retype new password Note pdbedit does not call the unix password synchronization script if unix password sync has been set. It only updates the data in the Samba user database. If you wish to add a user and synchronise the password that immedi- ately, use smbpasswd's -a option. -t|--password-from-stdin This option causes pdbedit to read the password from standard input, rather than from /dev/tty (like the passwd(1) program does). The pass- word has to be submitted twice and terminated by a newline each. -r|--modify This option is used to modify an existing user in the database. This command needs a user name specified with the -u switch. Other options can be specified to modify the properties of the specified user. This flag is kept for backwards compatibility, but it is no longer necessary to specify it. -m|--machine This option may only be used in conjunction with the -a option. It will make pdbedit to add a machine trust account instead of a user account (-u username will provide the machine name). Example: pdbedit -a -m -u w2k-wks -x|--delete This option causes pdbedit to delete an account from the database. It needs a username specified with the -u switch. Example: pdbedit -x -u bob -i|--import passdb-backend Use a different passdb backend to retrieve users than the one specified in smb.conf. Can be used to import data into your local user database. This option will ease migration from one passdb backend to another. Example: pdbedit -i smbpasswd:/etc/smbpasswd.old -e|--export passdb-backend Exports all currently available users to the specified password data- base backend. This option will ease migration from one passdb backend to another and will ease backing up. Example: pdbedit -e smbpasswd:/root/samba-users.backup -g|--group If you specify -g, then -i in-backend -e out-backend applies to the group mapping instead of the user database. This option will ease migration from one passdb backend to another and will ease backing up. -b|--backend passdb-backend Use a different default passdb backend. Example: pdbedit -b xml:/root/pdb-backup.xml -l -P|--account-policy account-policy Display an account policy Valid policies are: minimum password age, reset count minutes, discon- nect time, user must logon to change password, password history, lock- out duration, min password length, maximum password age and bad lockout attempt. Example: pdbedit -P "bad lockout attempt" account policy value for bad lockout attempt is 0 -C|--value account-policy-value Sets an account policy to a specified value. This option may only be used in conjunction with the -P option. Example: pdbedit -P "bad lockout attempt" -C 3 account policy value for bad lockout attempt was 0 account policy value for bad lockout attempt is now 3 -y|--policies If you specify -y, then -i in-backend -e out-backend applies to the ac- count policies instead of the user database. This option will allow one to migrate account policies from their de- fault tdb-store into a passdb backend, e.g. an LDAP directory server. Example: pdbedit -y -i tdbsam: -e ldapsam:ldap://my.ldap.host --force-initialized-passwords This option forces all users to change their password upon next login. -N|--account-desc description This option can be used while adding or modifying a user account. It will specify the user's description field. Example: -N "test description" -Z|--logon-hours-reset This option can be used while adding or modifying a user account. It will reset the user's allowed logon hours. A user may login at any time afterwards. Example: -Z -z|--bad-password-count-reset This option can be used while adding or modifying a user account. It will reset the stored bad login counter from a specified user. Example: -z --policies-reset This option can be used to reset the general password policies stored for a domain to their default values. Example: --policies-reset -I|--domain This option can be used while adding or modifying a user account. It will specify the user's domain field. Example: -I "MYDOMAIN" --time-format This option is currently not being used. -?|--help Print a summary of command line options. --usage Display brief usage message. -d|--debuglevel=level level is an integer from 0 to 10. The default value if this parameter is not specified is 1 for client applications. The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the log files about the activities of the server. At level 0, only critical errors and serious warnings will be logged. Level 1 is a reasonable level for day-to-day running - it generates a small amount of information about operations carried out. Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log data, and should only be used when investigating a problem. Levels above 3 are designed for use only by developers and generate HUGE amounts of log data, most of which is extremely cryptic. Note that specifying this parameter here will override the log level parameter in the /usr/local/etc/smb4.conf file. --debug-stdout This will redirect debug output to STDOUT. By default all clients are logging to STDERR. --configfile=<configuration file> The file specified contains the configuration details required by the client. The information in this file can be general for client and server or only provide client specific like options such as client smb encrypt. See /usr/local/etc/smb4.conf for more information. The default configuration file name is determined at compile time. --option=<name>=<value> Set the smb.conf(5) option "<name>" to value "<value>" from the command line. This overrides compiled-in defaults and options read from the configuration file. If a name or a value includes a space, wrap whole --option=name=value into quotes. -l|--log-basename=logdirectory Base directory name for log/debug files. The extension ".progname" will be appended (e.g. log.smbclient, log.smbd, etc...). The log file is never removed by the client. --leak-report Enable talloc leak reporting on exit. --leak-report-full Enable full talloc leak reporting on exit. -V|--version Prints the program version number. NOTES This command may be used only by root. VERSION This man page is part of version 4.23.6 of the Samba suite. SEE ALSO smbpasswd(5), samba(7) 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. The pdbedit manpage was written by Simo Sorce and Jelmer Vernooij. Samba 4.23.6 06/12/2026 PDBEDIT(8)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | NOTES | VERSION | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR
Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pdbedit&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports.quarterly>