CIFS Protocol

  • Article

Purpose

Client systems use the Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol to request file and print services from server systems over a network.

CIFS is based on the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. Several dialects of the SMB protocol are in use by a variety of servers with differing capabilities. When it first negotiates a session with the server, a CIFS client determines an acceptable dialect to use and the capabilities of the server.

This documentation is a sample of the MCPP technical documentation and is available for implementation licensing under MCPP. The license included in this sample is not part of the documentation if licensed under MCPP. For more information about MCPP licensing, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=16880.

Contents

This documentation contains the following:

  • CIFS

    A description of CIFS, including its supported features. Legal information and a royalty-free technical reference license agreement are also included.

  • Royalty-Free CIFS Technical Reference License Agreement

    A copy of the license agreement that is required for users who want to implement the CIFS Technical Reference.

  • Document Conventions

    A description of document conventions used throughout the protocol documentation.

  • Common Data Types

    A description of common data types referenced throughout the protocol documentation.