LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Objective 4: Install and Configure Local and Remote Printers

If you've been able to run the commands listed in Objectives 2 and 3, you already have the printing system installed on your system. However, if you don't have the package, you can get the source code from ibiblio.org (ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/printing), along with the other software mentioned later in this Objective. You should be able to build the software simply using make followed by make install.

The printing system implemented by the lpd suite is primitive by today's standards. It provides for queuing, administrative control, and some handling of special file formats but doesn't directly address the recent trend away from character-oriented printers to more programmable machines. Fortunately, the software is modular, making its foundation easy to build upon, making it sufficient for most printing situations.

/etc/printcap

The printing process on Linux systems is governed by the printer capability file /etc/printcap. This text file defines all of the system's available print queues and their characteristics. The file is parsed by lpd, which ignores blank lines and comments beginning with a pound sign (#). Each printer definition in the file comprises one logical line, which is often broken up among multiple physical lines in the file using the \ line-continuation character. The definition itself is made up of fields delimited by colons. The first field, which begins in the first column of the file, holds ...