How to mount samba drive in Linux using command line

Question

I've got a shared folder on a Windows computer, and I'd like to mount it on a server running Ubuntu Server.

How can I mount a samba drive from the command line?

Solution

First, unless already installed, install cifs-utils as follows:

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

Then, choose a path where to place a file containing the credentials to access your shared folder. Let's say /home/.smbcredentials, as an instance.
So, open that file and write your credentials as follows:

usename=yourUsername
password=yourPassword

Also, decide where to mount your shared folder. Let's say /myfolder, as an instance.

Now, assuming you want your network folder to be accessible as soon as your Linux system is started, edit the /etc/fstab file. You can use nano as follows:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Then, you should be able to see something already written to that file. Therefore, just append one line to the bottom:

//yourHostNameOrIpAddress/path/to/your/shared/folder  /your/mount/point  cifs  guest,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,credentials=/path/to/the/credentials/file

That's all, reboot your Linux system by typing reboot -f and your network drive will be mounted.

As an alternative to rebooting, running /etc/fstab as superuser should work:

sudo /etc/fstab

Comments

[Nate C-K]

Other ways to mount the new drive: sudo mount /your/mount/point (mount that drive using the settings in /etc/fstab) or sudo mount -a (mount all drives listed in /etc/fstab)