I've been trying a script of mine (which helps identifying possible symbol collisions between libraries and executables), and I've found samba duplicating lots of symbols, and thus of functions, between various binaries.

Example:

Symbol lp_passwd_chat_debug@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
  /usr/bin/ntlm_auth
  /usr/bin/smbtree
  /usr/bin/smbspool
  /usr/bin/smbget
  /usr/bin/rpcclient
  /usr/bin/smbcontrol
  /usr/lib64/samba/security/pam_smbpass.so
  /usr/lib64/samba/libmsrpc.so
  /usr/lib64/samba/libsmbclient.so
  /usr/bin/smbclient
  /lib64/security/pam_smbpass.so
  /usr/bin/eventlogadm
  /usr/bin/testparm
  /usr/bin/smbcquotas
  /usr/bin/smbpasswd
  /usr/bin/smbcacls
  /usr/bin/profiles
  /usr/bin/pdbedit
  /usr/bin/net
  /usr/bin/nmblookup
  /usr/bin/smbstatus
  /usr/bin/smbmount


Symbol lp_dos_charset@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_dos_filemode@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_dos_filetime_resolution@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_dos_filetimes@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_dump@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_dump_one@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_ea_support@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_enable_asu_support@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_enable_core_files@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_enable_privileges@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_encrypted_passwords@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_enhanced_browsing@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_enumports_cmd@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_eventlog_list@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_failed_convert_char@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_fake_dir_create_times@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_fake_oplocks@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_file_list_changed@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_force_create_mode@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_force_dir_mode@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_force_dir_security_mode@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_force_group@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_force_printername@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_force_security_mode@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_force_unknown_acl_user@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_force_user@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_fstype@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_get_quota_command@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_get_spoolss_state@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_guest_ok@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_guest_only@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_guestaccount@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_hide_dot_files@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_hide_files@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_hide_special_files@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_hideunreadable@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_hideunwriteable_files@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_host_msdfs@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_hostname_lookups@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_hostsallow@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_hostsdeny@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_idmap_alloc_backend@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_idmap_backend@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times
Symbol lp_idmap_cache_time@@ (64-bit UNIX System V ABI AMD x86-64 architecture) present 22 times

and a lot more.

As you an see in http://farragut.flameeyes.is-a-geek.org/articles/2008/01/21/what-to-do-with-shared-code , even just using --gc-sections option of the linker helps reducing the amount of code put into the final executables. If you could split this in a libsambacore, it would probably be a very nice improvement.