macos-smb-serverlisted

# macOS SMB server (com.apple.smb.server) Validated on macOS 26 (Darwin 25.6), Mac mini M2, 2026-08. Two facts drive everything here: - **Virtual shares**: beyond the explicit sharepoints, smbd automatically offers every mounted volume to admin users ("Macintosh HD", external drives) and each authenticating user's own home folder. They never appear in System Settings or `sharing -l`, so they can't be removed there. - **Commit, don't write**: smbd never reads `/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.smb.server.plist` off disk. A `defaults write` there is invisible until reboot. Changes apply only when committed through the SCPreferences API, whose commit fires the `com.apple.smb.preferences` launchd event that runs `/usr/libexec/smb-sync-preferences`. ## 1 — Classify what clients see `sharing -l` lists the explicit sharepoints and their per-share guest flags. Anything a client sees beyond that list is a virtual share. Done when every share visible from a client is classified as sharepoint or virtual — the two are fixed by different mechanisms. ## 2 — Change settings Sharepoints use the `sharing` tool directly, effective immediately: `sudo sharing -r <name>` removes one, `sudo sharing -e <name> -g 000` turns off its guest access, `-a <path>` adds one. Server-level keys go through an SCPreferences commit, then a restart: sudo swift scripts/smb-prefs.swift VirtualAdminShares=false VirtualHomeShares=false AllowGuestAccess=false sudo launchctl