smbclient 3.2.3 does not handle the -N option consistently with past versions.

Binary package hint: smbclient

The -N flag, which suppresses the login prompt, and is used by backuppc's template configuration file /etc/backuppc/config.pl in the strings $Conf{SmbClientFullCmd}, $Conf{SmbClientIncrCmd}, and $Conf{SmbClientRestoreCmd}, which do full backups, incremental backups and restores respectively. Beginning with version 3.2.3, smbclient has stopped passing the backup user's password to authenticate with Window's LAN Manager, causing backups and restores to fail when the -N flag is specified (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/backuppc/+bug/283652).

The purpose of the flag is to suppress the login prompt when the password has already been passed, and is certainly not supposed to prevent the password from being passed.

I have edited my /etc/backuppc/config.pl to make backups work, because I am guessing that the prompt is automatically suppressed when the password has already been passed. However, it would save many users a great deal of time trying to figure out what broke backuppc if the prior behavior of smbclient were restored (as well as no longer requiring the -N fag if the password has been passed).

Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid)
Linux CERTIBY1 2.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP Tue Nov 4 19:33:06 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

smbclient:
  Installed: 2:3.2.3-1ubuntu3
  Candidate: 2:3.2.3-1ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 2:3.2.3-1ubuntu3 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status