FOOMATIC-COMPILEDB(1)

💖 NAME 💖

foomatic-compiledb — ok bestie, this one compiles the Foomatic printer/driver database. That's the whole job. She's a builder. 🛠️✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

foomatic-compiledb [ -t type ] [ -f ] [ -j n ] [ driver ... ]

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

So like, foomatic-compiledb generates all the PPD files or Foomatic combo XML files for every single possible printer/driver combo — or, if you're feeling selective, just for a range of drivers you pick. 💅

ngl though? You generally should not need this. Like, at all. The only people who actually want this are the ones generating a whole set of Foomatic data files for distribution. That's it. That's the demographic. 👑

If you're just out here configuring single printers, then foomatic-ppdfile(1) and especially foomatic-configure(1) will automagically compute exactly what they need. No compiling the whole universe required, bestie. 🦋

✨ Options ✨

• -t type — sets the output file type. It's either ppd or xml, pick your fighter. 💖
• -f — Force mode: write into the destination directory even if it already exists. She does not care. She's going in. 🔥
• -j n — where n = the number of work processes to run. Parallelize, queen. ⚡
• driver ... — only generate data files for these driver(s). List them out, one or many, and she'll stay in her lane. 🎯

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

foomatic-ppdfile(1), foomatic-configure(1)

💀 EXIT STATUS 💀

foomatic-compiledb returns 0 unless something unexpected happens. If it's not 0, something went sideways and we do NOT talk about it. 😭

🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

Manfred Wassmann <manolo@NCC-1701.B.Shuttle.de> and Till Kamppeter <till.kamppeter@gmail.com>, doing all this for the foomatic project, using output from the associated binary. Legends, fr fr. 👑🌸

🐛 BUGS 🐛

Heads up bestie, this is a real one: existing files are always conserved instead of older files getting overwritten. So the move is to delete the destination directory first with rm -rf dir, then call foomatic-compiledb without the -f option. That's the recommended path. Don't skip the rm -rf step and then act surprised. 🙈

Please post bug reports on

http://lists.freestandards.org/mailman/listinfo/printing-foomatic

Foomatic Project 🌈 2001-05-07 — yeah she's been iconic since '01, and that's the whole FOOMATIC-COMPILEDB(1) vibe. Stay compiled, bestie 💅🎀