FreeBSD Handbook
: Printing
: What the Spooler Does
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7.1. What the Spooler Does
LPD controls everything about a host's printers. It is
responsible for a number of things:
- It controls access to attached printers and
printers attached to other hosts on the network.
- It enables users to submit files to be printed;
these submissions are known as jobs.
- It prevents multiple users from accessing a printer
at the same time by maintaining a queue for each
printer.
- It can print header pages (also known as
banner or burst pages) so users can easily
find jobs they have printed in a stack of printouts.
- It takes care of communications parameters for
printers connected on serial ports.
- It can send jobs over the network to another LPD
spooler on another host.
- It can run special filters to format jobs to be
printed for various printer languages or printer
capabilities.
- It can account for printer usage.
Through a configuration file, and by providing the special
filter programs, you can enable the LPD system to do all or
some subset of the above for a great variety of printer
hardware.
FreeBSD Handbook
: Printing
: What the Spooler Does
Previous: Printing
Next: Why You Should Use the Spooler
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Updated March 2, 1999