What command can you use to check the status of a Samba daemon?

The command to check the status of a Samba daemon is "systemctl status smb." This command utilizes the systemd init system, which is commonly used in modern Linux distributions to manage services. By using the status option with systemctl, you are requesting detailed information about the current running state of the Samba daemon (smb). This includes whether the service is active, any error messages if it has failed, and other relevant information about its operation.

In contrast, the other choices do not serve the same purpose: "systemctl start smb" is used to start the service rather than check its status, "service smb check" is not a valid command in most systems that use systemd, and "status smb service" is not correctly formatted for either systemd or service management commands. Thus, "systemctl status smb" is the appropriate command for monitoring the status of the Samba service.