[Samba] How to build just one tool from sources

[Rowland Penny]

On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:54:38 +0100
"R. Diez via samba" <samba at lists.samba.org> wrote:

> Hi all:
> 
> I need a newer version of tool smbcacls because of its new options
> '--save savefile' and '--recurse'.

They are hardly new, the options were added at Samba 4.20.0 and 4.24.0
is in RC, so you must be using an older version of Samba if you do not
have those options.

> 
> So I downloaded the sources (samba-4.23.4.tar.gz) and built Samba
> like this:
> 
> ./configure --prefix="$HOME/somewhere/samba-4.23.4-bin"
> make
> make install
> 
> The trouble is, building takes a long time.
> 
> The "make" phase does not seem to build everything, because "make
> install" builds other things too, so I had to specify -j to "make
> install" or it would take even longer. That in itself makes me wonder
> whether the build system is properly written. But this is another
> matter.
> 
> Is there a way to build just the smbcacls tool? I know some Samba
> libraries smbcacls depends on will have to be built too, but
> hopefully not everything in Samba, like other tools or the server
> parts.
> 
> I tried this based on an old answer I found on the Internet:
> 
> make bin/smbcacls
> 
> But I got this error:
> 
> PYTHONHASHSEED=1 WAF_MAKE=1  ./buildtools/bin/waf --targets=9
> bin/smbcacls No function 'bin/smbcacls' defined in
> /home/rdiez/somewhere/samba-4.23.4/wscript make: *** [Makefile:131: 9
> bin/smbcacls] Error 1
> 
> Thanks in advance,
>    rdiez
> 

You certainly can build Samba yourself, but I doubt if it is a good
idea to do it for just one binary. You may be able to build it, but
then find it doesn't actually work because it relies on something else
in the code that you haven't got.

Is there some reason why you cannot upgrade your version of Samba ?

Rowland