From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:0.9.2.1) Gecko/20010901 Description of problem: Each SMBD process takes up lots of memory compared to other versions of samba. If the [printers] share is enabled with a large printcap file, the problem is ampified. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.use large printcap file 2.enbale [printers] share in smb.conf 3.#service smb restart 4.ps aux | grep smbd 5.note memory usage 6.remove [printers] share in smb.conf 7.ps aux | grep smbd 8.note memory usage 9.repeate with contemporary samba build and note how much each smbd process takes. 5.# Actual Results: smbd processes take large amounts of memory, 10x previous samba builds. Expected Results: smbd processes should take a resonable amount of memory. Additional info: It the amount of memory used per smbd process seems to be related to the number of shares. Previous samba builds 1.9.x and 2.2.x do not take 1/10 to 1/2 the memory of smbd processes in 2.0.7 - 2.0.10
As the Google thread indicates, this bug has been fixed in the currently maintained branches of 2.2 and HEAD - Including (I think) the version RedHat is now shipping.
There are 2.2.3a rpms available at http://people.redhat.com/teg/samba/ - can you give them a try?
Since the samba developer says it's fixed and no feedback to the contrary is given, I'll close this.