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FreeBSD Handbook : Printing : Advanced Printer Setup : Networked Printing
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7.6.3. Networked Printing

FreeBSD supports networked printing: sending jobs to remote printers. Networked printing generally refers to two different things:

7.6.3.1. Printers Installed on Remote Hosts

The LPD spooling system has built-in support for sending jobs to other hosts also running LPD (or are compatible with LPD). This feature enables you to install a printer on one host and make it accessible from other hosts. It also works with printers that have network interfaces that understand the LPD protocol.

To enable this kind of remote printing, first install a printer on one host, the printer host, using the simple printer setup described in Simple Printer Setup. Do any advanced setup in Advanced Printer Setup that you need. Make sure to test the printer and see if it works with the features of LPD you have enabled. Also ensure that the local host has authorization to use the LPD service in the printer host (see Restricting Jobs from Remote Printers).

If you are using a printer with a network interface that is compatible with LPD, then the printer host in the discussion below is the printer itself, and the printer name is the name you configured for the printer. See the documentation that accompanied your printer and/or printer-network interface.

Then, on the other hosts you want to have access to the printer, make an entry in their /etc/printcap files with the following:

  1. Name the entry anything you want. For simplicity, though, you probably want to use the same name and aliases as on the printer host.
  2. Leave the lp capability blank, explicitly (:lp=:).
  3. Make a spooling directory and specify its location in the sd capability. LPD will store jobs here before they get sent to the printer host.
  4. Place the name of the printer host in the rm capability.
  5. Place the printer name on the printer host in the rp capability.
That is it. You do not need to list conversion filters, page dimensions, or anything else in the /etc/printcap file.

Here is an example. The host rose has two printers, bamboo and rattan. We will enable users on the host orchid to print to those printers. Here is the /etc/printcap file for orchid (back from section Enabling Header Pages). It already had the entry for the printer teak; we have added entries for the two printers on the host rose:


#
#  /etc/printcap for host orchid - added (remote) printers on rose
#

#
#  teak is local; it is connected directly to orchid:
#
teak|hp|laserjet|Hewlett Packard LaserJet 3Si:\
	:lp=/dev/lpt0:sd=/var/spool/lpd/teak:mx#0:\
	:if=/usr/local/libexec/ifhp:\
	:vf=/usr/local/libexec/vfhp:\
	:of=/usr/local/libexec/ofhp:

#
#  rattan is connected to rose; send jobs for rattan to rose:
#
rattan|line|diablo|lp|Diablo 630 Line Printer:\
	:lp=:rm=rose:rp=rattan:sd=/var/spool/lpd/rattan:

#
#  bamboo is connected to rose as well:
#
bamboo|ps|PS|S|panasonic|Panasonic KX-P4455 PostScript v51.4:\
	:lp=:rm=rose:rp=bamboo:sd=/var/spool/lpd/bamboo:

Then, we just need to make spooling directories on orchid:
mkdir -p /var/spool/lpd/rattan /var/spool/lpd/bamboo
chmod 770 /var/spool/lpd/rattan /var/spool/lpd/bamboo
chown daemon.daemon /var/spool/lpd/rattan /var/spool/lpd/bamboo

Now, users on orchid can print to rattan and bamboo. If, for example, a user on orchid typed

lpr -P bamboo -d sushi-review.dvi
the LPD system on orchid would copy the job to the spooling directory /var/spool/lpd/bamboo and note that it was a DVI job. As soon as the host rose has room in its bamboo spooling directory, the two LPDs would transfer the file to rose. The file would wait in rose's queue until it was finally printed. It would be converted from DVI to PostScript (since bamboo is a PostScript printer) on rose.

7.6.3.2. Printers with Networked Data Stream Interfaces

Often, when you buy a network interface card for a printer, you can get two versions: one which emulates a spooler (the more expensive version), or one which just lets you send data to it as if you were using a serial or parallel port (the cheaper version). This section tells how to use the cheaper version. For the more expensive one, see the previous section Printers Installed on Remote Hosts.

The format of the /etc/printcap file lets you specify what serial or parallel interface to use, and (if you are using a serial interface), what baud rate, whether to use flow control, delays for tabs, conversion of newlines, and more. But there is no way to specify a connection to a printer that is listening on a TCP/IP or other network port.

To send data to a networked printer, you need to develop a communications program that can be called by the text and conversion filters. Here is one such example: the script netprint takes all data on standard input and sends it to a network-attached printer. We specify the hostname of the printer as the first argument and the port number to which to connect as the second argument to netprint. Note that this supports one-way communication only (FreeBSD to printer); many network printers support two-way communication, and you might want to take advantage of that (to get printer status, perform accounting, etc.).


#!/usr/bin/perl
#
#  netprint - Text filter for printer attached to network
#  Installed in /usr/local/libexec/netprint
#

$#ARGV eq 1 || die "Usage: $0 <printer-hostname> <port-number>";

$printer_host = $ARGV[0];
$printer_port = $ARGV[1];

require 'sys/socket.ph';

($ignore, $ignore, $protocol) = getprotobyname('tcp');
($ignore, $ignore, $ignore, $ignore, $address)
    = gethostbyname($printer_host);

$sockaddr = pack('S n a4 x8', &AF_INET, $printer_port, $address);

socket(PRINTER, &PF_INET, &SOCK_STREAM, $protocol)
    || die "Can't create TCP/IP stream socket: $!";
connect(PRINTER, $sockaddr) || die "Can't contact $printer_host: $!";
while (<STDIN>) { print PRINTER; }
exit 0;

We can then use this script in various filters. Suppose we had a Diablo 750-N line printer connected to the network. The printer accepts data to print on port number 5100. The host name of the printer is scrivener. Here is the text filter for the printer:
#!/bin/sh
#
#  diablo-if-net - Text filter for Diablo printer `scrivener' listening
#  on port 5100.  Installed in /usr/local/libexec/diablo-if-net
#

exec /usr/libexec/lpr/lpf "$@" | /usr/local/libexec/netprint scrivener 5100


FreeBSD Handbook : Printing : Advanced Printer Setup : Networked Printing
Previous: Header Pages
Next: Restricting Printer Usage
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Updated March 2, 1999