SAMBA+ 4.22 packages for various SUSE and Red Hat platforms as well as for Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu have been developed by SerNet’s Samba team and are now available.
This is the first stable SAMBA+ release of the new Samba 4.22 series. Please test thoroughly before upgrading and read the release notes carefully. They contain important information about changes and new features in this major release:
With this release, Samba 4.21 has entered "maintenance mode," while Samba 4.20 is now in "security fixes only mode." Samba 4.19 will likely not receive further updates, and the SAMBA+ 4.19 repositories will soon be disabled. Please upgrade to a recent SAMBA+ version.
New in Samba 4.22: SMB3 Directory Leases
A major enhancement in Samba 4.22 is the introduction of SMB3 Directory Leases. This is a milestone developed as part of the larger project funded by the Sovereign Tech Fund (STF). SerNet GmbH secured the funding and is managing the development.
SMB3 Directory Leases allow clients to cache directory listings, reducing network overhead and improving performance when working with shared files and folders. The new global smb.conf option "smb3 directory leases" controls this feature. It is enabled by default for non-clustered Samba installations and disabled for clustered environments. More details are available in man smb.conf.
Ralph Böhme will present "The Rocky Road to SMB3 Directory Leases" at sambaXP on April 7-8, 2025, in Göttingen, Germany.
For more information on the STF project and its contributions to Samba, visit: STF Project Overview
Upgrading
Details on package access and upgrading can be found in the SAMBA+ How-to collection: SAMBA+ How-to Guide
If you are upgrading from a SAMBA+ version older than 4.21 and use your own or third-party scripts that rely on Samba’s Python modules, you must install the sernet-samba-python3 package after upgrading to SAMBA+ 4.22 on Debian or Ubuntu systems. RHEL and SUSE-based systems are not affected.
For details on SAMBA+ pricing:
For further questions, contact the SAMBA+ Team.
