[Samba] re reading config

[John H Terpstra - Samba Team]

On 08/07/2009 07:05 PM, smb23wc at gmail.com wrote:
> Ryan Novosielski wrote:
>> Terry wrote:
>>> Hi I am using freebsd 6.2-RELEASE with Samba version 3.0.24 out of
>>> interest does it read the config periodically on its own with out
>>> restarting it ?
>>
>> Pretty sure it does, but I never wait.
> 
> I was troubleshooting some issues today and reading the "HowTo" book. In
> one location it warned about editing the .conf file on a running system,
> since it DOES re-read it on each new connection or at approx 60 second
> intervals.  Then in another chapter made an apparently conflicting
> statement about "remember to restart after the changes." From what I saw
> today on 3.3.x it did reconfig itself on the fly.
> 
> -RW

Ryan,

It may seem conflicting on the surface.  Really, if you make changes to
the smb.conf file that affects the way Samba works then smbd, nmbd,
and/or winbind must be restarted.

Consider for example, a change of:
	security = user
to
	security = ads

In the above case, the operating mode must be reset, and that happens
only on restarting the Samba daemons.

On the other hand, consider what happens when changing share stanza from:
	path = /somewhere/deep
to
	path = /somewhereelse/notsodeep

Any connections that existed prior to a connection being set up will
remain in effect with the previous setting while any new connection will
use the new setting.

I hope that helps to clarify.

Cheers,
John T.