Basic Network Printing

In many computing environments, the computer itself doesn't have a printer directly connected over a parallel or USB port, but instead sends jobs to the printer over the network, using TCP/IP communications as with any web host or other client-server application. To configure FreeBSD to send print jobs to a remote printer over the network, you just need to add an appropriate entry to /etc/printcap, defining the printer's parameters so FreeBSD can find it.

laserjet8150|lp|local line printer (but not really):\         :lp=::rm=nova:rp=lj8150:sd=/var/spool/lpd/laserjet8150=/var/log/lpd-errs:

This entry will connect to a remote printer named lj8150 that's defined on the host named nova. Note that the local name (on line 1) does not have to be the same as the remote name of the printer. You can call the local name whatever you want. What printer the job is actually sent to is controlled by the rm and rp enTRies in line 2, which define the remote host and queue instead of the local device name. The local spool directory will hold the file only until the remote spool directory has room. Then, the file will be moved into the remote host's spool directory.

Note

Notice that you did not have to specify an input filter here. That is because all the filtering will be handled by the remote host.

The printer on the remote host should be configured using the instructions provided earlier in the chapter for configuring a printer, if it's a UNIX system using lpr. However, if it's a Windows machine that's managing your network's central printer, you might need to move to another printing system altogether in order to access the Windows-centric printing protocols that are by now becoming much more widespread. The most widely recognized successor to lpr in this regard is CUPS.