SMB in Python

Read and write files on SMB and Windows shares from Python services.

Your services reach Windows shares and other SMB servers through self.smb. Every remote path starts with the name of the share, e.g. Finance/invoices/2026-08.csv.

Upload and download

from zato.server.service import Service

class SyncInvoices(Service):

    def handle(self):

        conn = self.smb['My Share']

        # Upload a local file to the share
        conn.upload('/local/invoices/2026-08.csv', 'Finance/incoming/2026-08.csv')

        # Download a file from the share
        conn.download_file('Finance/reports/summary.csv', '/local/reports/summary.csv')

Read and write remote files directly

The data is text, bytes, a dict, a list or the service's own input, and the last three are written out as JSON:

from zato.server.service import Service

class ExportOrder(Service):

    def handle(self):

        conn = self.smb['My Share']

        data = self.request.input
        conn.write(data, 'Finance/orders/order-4711.json')

        ack = conn.read('Finance/acks/order-4711.txt')
        self.response.payload = {'ack': ack}

Guaranteed delivery

.publish spools the data locally and retries until the share accepts it:

from zato.server.service import Service

class PublishReport(Service):

    def handle(self):

        conn = self.smb['My Share']
        conn.publish(self.request.input, 'Finance/reports/daily.csv')

List and manage directories

Missing parent directories are created along with the one you ask for:

from zato.server.service import Service

class ArchiveInvoices(Service):

    def handle(self):

        conn = self.smb['My Share']

        conn.create_directory('Finance/archive/2026/08')

        for item in conn.list('Finance/incoming'):
            self.logger.info('%s %s', item.name, item.size_human)
            conn.move('Finance/incoming/' + item.name, 'Finance/archive/2026/08/' + item.name)

Configuration

The enmasse YAML for the connection:

smb:
  - name: My Share
    host: files.example.com
    port: 445
    username: zato
    password: Zato_Enmasse_Env.My_Share_Password

Feature	What it does
Connection API	Every method of SFTP and SMB connection objects
File transfer schedules	Have Zato watch a directory on the share and invoke a service per file
SFTP	The same API against SFTP servers
SharePoint and OneDrive	SharePoint and OneDrive files through the Graph API