Advanced Linux Networking

The Server Message Block (SMB)/Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS) protocols described in Chapter 7 are extremely useful for sharing files and printers with DOS, Windows, OS/2, and various other OSs. These protocols, however, lack support for features that are required on UNIX or Linux filesystems, such as full support for UNIX-style ownership and permissions. For this reason, when you want to share files with another UNIX or Linux system, you generally use another protocol: the Network Filesystem (NFS). (Chapter 9 discusses Linux's native printer-sharing protocol; NFS doesn't support printing, unlike SMB/CIFS.)