Would anyone be so kind as to point me to a good reference for how use the command line to configure a directory to be shared in the directory properties?

I know how to do it using graphical tools such as Nautilus, Konqueror, and Gnome's shares-admin, but I'd like to know how to do with via command line, because, once you know the commands, the command line is always quicker.

I guess you could say I'm looking for a command line method for sharing directories in much the same way that chmod sets permissions from the command line.

Thanks.

Do you mean sharing as in over the network, or among multiple users on your local system?

Network sharing is generally handled by Samba, whose configuration file is /etc/samba/smb.conf.

I mean over the network. I have Samba up and running.

What I mean is this. If I want a directory to be configured to be share-able, I have to

1. open, for example, Konqueror,
2. find the directory,
3. highlight it,
4. right-click to bring up the menu,
5. select properties,
6. go to the sharing tab, and
7. as root, tell the directory that I want it to be shared and how I want it shared.

What I want to learn how to do is to do that process via the command line--a command that would do for sharing what chmod does for permissions. (If I can do it in a file manager, I should be able to do it from the command line. Inquiring minds want to know.)

Then I can make the directory available over the network using Samba. I normally share multiple directories from my file server.

There is no all in one command that will automatically create a shared directory. You need to edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. There are lots of howtos and typically several examples included via comments in the smb configuration file.