Mount an SMB network share on Linux

mount -t cifs attaches a NAS/Samba/Windows share to a local directory; uid/gid options make the files writable by your user.

Linuxnasnetwork-drivemountMedium risk

Create the mountpoint (`sudo mkdir -p /mnt/nas`), then run the mount command with your share's username; unmount with `sudo umount /mnt/nas`.

01Command

Command

$ sudo mount -t cifs //192.168.1.10/share /mnt/nas -o username=myuser,uid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g)

02What it does

The cifs kernel client speaks SMB to NAS boxes, Samba servers and Windows shares. Passing `uid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g)` maps remote files to your local user so you can write without root. Store the password in a credentials file (`-o credentials=/home/you/.smbcred`, chmod 600) instead of on the command line, and add an /etc/fstab entry with `noauto,x-systemd.automount` for boot-time mounting.

03Risk

RiskMedium risk

Requirementscifs-utils package; root required

!Warning: Mounting makes the share behave like local disk — an interrupted network can hang file operations. SMB1 (`vers=1.0`) is insecure and disabled on modern servers; specify `vers=2.1` or `vers=3.0` if negotiation fails.

04Undo

Undo

$ sudo umount /mnt/nas

05Sources

Samba — ArchWiki
Arch Linux · community · 2026-09-17
Evidence: covers mounting SMB/CIFS shares with mount.cifs and cifs-utils
mount.cifs(8) — mount a CIFS/SMB share
man7.org · community · 2026-09-17
Evidence: documents -t cifs mount options including credentials and uid/gid

Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: Files & Folders