Chapter Summary

   

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Depending on how a printer is physically attached to a system, it may be a local, remote, or network printer. A local printer is attached directly to the system where a user is logged in. A remote printer is a printer configured on another system on a network. Network printers are directly connected to network media and have a network interface card installed inside.

A printer may be member of a printer class. The lp command is used to send print requests to a particular printer or a printer class. A submitted print job may be canceled or altered using the cancel and lpalt commands, respectively. The printing system has a large directory hierarchy where different subdirectories hold specific types of files. A printer can be added or modified using the lpadmin command or SAM. To add a remote printer, you should know the remote host name and printer name defined on that host. The rlpdaemon must also be running on the host to which the printer is attached. The /etc/ hosts , /etc/inetd.conf , and /etc/services files must also be configured properly.

Every print request has a priority associated with it. This priority is used by the lp scheduler process ( lpsched ) to queue print jobs. If no priority is specified when a print request is sent, a default priority is used. A priority may be a number from 0 to 7 where 0 shows the lowest priority and 7 shows the highest priority.

The lpshut command is used to shut down the print spooler daemon. The scheduler can be started again using the lpsched command. Print jobs can be moved from one printer to another using the lpmove command. The enable and disable commands are used to enable or disable the printer itself, while the accept and reject commands are used to allow or deny new print requests. The lpstat command is used to check printer status at any time.

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