nmblookup - Man Page

NetBIOS over TCP/IP client used to lookup NetBIOS names

Examples (TL;DR)

Synopsis

nmblookup [-M|--master-browser] [--recursion] [-S|--status] [-r|--root-port] [-A|--lookup-by-ip] [-B|--broadcast=BROADCAST-ADDRESS] [-U|--unicast=UNICAST-ADDRESS] [-T|--translate] [-f|--flags] [-?|--help] [--usage] [-d|--debuglevel=DEBUGLEVEL] [--debug-stdout] [--configfile=CONFIGFILE] [--option=name=value] [-l|--log-basename=LOGFILEBASE] [--leak-report] [--leak-report-full] [-R|--name-resolve=NAME-RESOLVE-ORDER] [-O|--socket-options=SOCKETOPTIONS] [-m|--max-protocol=MAXPROTOCOL] [-n|--netbiosname=NETBIOSNAME] [--netbios-scope=SCOPE] [-W|--workgroup=WORKGROUP] [--realm=REALM] {name}

Description

This tool is part of the samba(7) suite​.

nmblookup is used to query NetBIOS names and map them to IP addresses in a network using NetBIOS over TCP/IP queries​. The options allow the name queries to be directed at a particular IP broadcast area or to a particular machine​. All queries are done over UDP​.

Options

-M|--master-browser

Searches for a master browser by looking up the NetBIOS name with a type of 0x1d​. If name is "-" then it does a lookup on the special name __MSBROWSE__​. Please note that in order to use the name "-", you need to make sure "-" isn't parsed as an argument, e​.g​. use : nmblookup -M -- -​.

--recursion

Set the recursion desired bit in the packet to do a recursive lookup​. This is used when sending a name query to a machine running a WINS server and the user wishes to query the names in the WINS server​. If this bit is unset the normal (broadcast responding) NetBIOS processing code on a machine is used instead​. See RFC1001, RFC1002 for details​.

-S|--status

Once the name query has returned an IP address then do a node status query as well​. A node status query returns the NetBIOS names registered by a host​.

-r|--root-port

Try and bind to UDP port 137 to send and receive UDP datagrams​. The reason for this option is a bug in Windows 95 where it ignores the source port of the requesting packet and only replies to UDP port 137​. Unfortunately, on most UNIX systems root privilege is needed to bind to this port, and in addition, if the nmbd(8) daemon is running on this machine it also binds to this port​.

-A|--lookup-by-ip

Interpret name as an IP Address and do a node status query on this address​.

-B|--broadcast <broadcast address>

Send the query to the given broadcast address​. Without this option the default behavior of nmblookup is to send the query to the broadcast address of the network interfaces as either auto-detected or defined in the interfaces parameter of the smb.conf(5) file​.

-U|--unicast <unicast address>

Do a unicast query to the specified address or host unicast address​. This option (along with the -R option) is needed to query a WINS server​.

-T|--translate

This causes any IP addresses found in the lookup to be looked up via a reverse DNS lookup into a DNS name, and printed out before each

IP address ​.​.​.​. NetBIOS name

pair that is the normal output​.

-f|--flags

Show which flags apply to the name that has been looked up​. Possible answers are zero or more of: Response, Authoritative, Truncated, Recursion_Desired, Recursion_Available, Broadcast​.

name

This is the NetBIOS name being queried​. Depending upon the previous options this may be a NetBIOS name or IP address​. If a NetBIOS name then the different name types may be specified by appending '#<type>' to the name​. This name may also be '*', which will return all registered names within a broadcast area​.

-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 /etc/samba/smb​.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 /etc/samba/smb​.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​.

-R|--name-resolve=NAME-RESOLVE-ORDER

This option is used to determine what naming services and in what order to resolve host names to IP addresses​. The option takes a space-separated string of different name resolution options​. The best is to wrap the whole --name-resolve=NAME-RESOLVE-ORDER into quotes​.

The options are: "lmhosts", "host", "wins" and "bcast"​. They cause names to be resolved as follows:

  • lmhosts: Lookup an IP address in the Samba lmhosts file​. If the line in lmhosts has no name type attached to the NetBIOS name (see the lmhosts(5) for details) then any name type matches for lookup​.
  • host: Do a standard host name to IP address resolution, using the system /etc/hosts, NIS, or DNS lookups​. This method of name resolution is operating system dependent, for instance on IRIX or Solaris this may be controlled by the /etc/nsswitch​.conf file)​. Note that this method is only used if the NetBIOS name type being queried is the 0x20 (server) name type, otherwise it is ignored​.
  • wins: Query a name with the IP address listed in the wins server parameter​. If no WINS server has been specified this method will be ignored​.
  • bcast: Do a broadcast on each of the known local interfaces listed in the interfaces parameter​. This is the least reliable of the name resolution methods as it depends on the target host being on a locally connected subnet​.

If this parameter is not set then the name resolve order defined in the /etc/samba/smb​.conf file parameter (name resolve order) will be used​.

The default order is lmhosts, host, wins, bcast​. Without this parameter or any entry in the name resolve order parameter of the /etc/samba/smb​.conf file, the name resolution methods will be attempted in this order​.

-O|--socket-options=SOCKETOPTIONS

TCP socket options to set on the client socket​. See the socket options parameter in the /etc/samba/smb​.conf manual page for the list of valid options​.

-m|--max-protocol=MAXPROTOCOL

The value of the parameter (a string) is the highest protocol level that will be supported by the client​.

Note that specifying this parameter here will override the client max protocol parameter in the /etc/samba/smb​.conf file​.

-n|--netbiosname=NETBIOSNAME

This option allows you to override the NetBIOS name that Samba uses for itself​. This is identical to setting the netbios name parameter in the /etc/samba/smb​.conf file​. However, a command line setting will take precedence over settings in /etc/samba/smb​.conf​.

--netbios-scope=SCOPE

This specifies a NetBIOS scope that nmblookup will use to communicate with when generating NetBIOS names​. For details on the use of NetBIOS scopes, see rfc1001​.txt and rfc1002​.txt​. NetBIOS scopes are very rarely used, only set this parameter if you are the system administrator in charge of all the NetBIOS systems you communicate with​.

-W|--workgroup=WORKGROUP

Set the SMB domain of the username​. This overrides the default domain which is the domain defined in smb​.conf​. If the domain specified is the same as the servers NetBIOS name, it causes the client to log on using the servers local SAM (as opposed to the Domain SAM)​.

Note that specifying this parameter here will override the workgroup parameter in the /etc/samba/smb​.conf file​.

-r|--realm=REALM

Set the realm for the domain​.

Note that specifying this parameter here will override the realm parameter in the /etc/samba/smb​.conf file​.

-?|--help

Print a summary of command line options​.

--usage

Display brief usage message​.

Examples

nmblookup can be used to query a WINS server (in the same way nslookup is used to query DNS servers)​. To query a WINS server, nmblookup must be called like this:

nmblookup -U server -R 'name'

For example, running :

nmblookup -U samba​.org -R 'IRIX#1B'

would query the WINS server samba​.org for the domain master browser (1B name type) for the IRIX workgroup​.

Version

This man page is part of version 4​.25​.0 of the Samba suite​.

See Also

nmbd(8), samba(7), and smb.conf(5)​.

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​.

Info

10/01/2026 Samba 4.25.0