legacy-printer-app(8)

📦 version 1.0~b2, in ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 legacy-printer-app — the manual, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, so this is legacy-printer-app, and it lives in section 8 of the manual (that's the "sysadmin / daemons & stuff" section, iykyk). It's brought to you by the OpenPrinting girlies. Pull up a chair, grab a boba, and let's get into it 🧋✨

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

legacy-printer-app [ SUB-COMMAND ] [ OPTIONS ] [ FILES ]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So. legacy-printer-app is a Printer Application, and she can run either standalone or as a whole dedicated IPP Everywhere network service. Main character energy honestly. What she does is map arbitrary classic CUPS drivers into the Printer Application format. It's giving translator, it's giving bridge, it's giving "I speak both languages fluently" 💅

Here's the situation she's solving, bestie: imagine a system where there's no classic installation of CUPS 2.x or older (you know, the DEB / RPM / ... packages, or installation from source). Instead, that system is running CUPS 3.x or newer and/or the CUPS Snap. And on those systems, classic CUPS drivers are not supported any more — printer drivers can only be provided by means of Printer Applications. 😭

So legacy-printer-app goes hunting for classic CUPS drivers in all the places they'd usually be installed, the exact spots where the distribution's classic CUPS 2.x installation would look for them:

  • filters, typically in /usr/lib/cups/filter
  • backends in /usr/lib/cups/backend
  • PPD files (and files that generate PPDs) in /usr/share/ppd, /usr/share/cups/model/, /usr/share/cups/drv, and /usr/lib/cups/driver

Then when you open up the Printer Application's web interface — that's http://localhost:8000/, http://localhost:8001/, ... you get the vibe — and click "Add Printer", printers get discovered and the available classic drivers get offered to you. ✨

And once you've set up a printer? It becomes available as an emulation of a driverless IPP printer, while the Printer Application underneath is using that classically installed driver. Obsessed with the duality honestly.

🫶 The big flex: a classic installation of CUPS or any general CUPS filters (the cups-filters package) is not needed.

This is the whole point, bestie: classic CUPS drivers that don't have an equivalent Printer Application yet — especially manufacturer-supplied proprietary drivers for legacy printers — can keep on being used with CUPS 3.x or the CUPS Snap. Legacy printer, but make it fashion. 👑

🎀 SUB-COMMANDS 🎀

If you don't specify a sub-command at all, submit is just assumed. She's got a default, she's confident, she knows what you want.

The following sub-commands are recognized by legacy-printer-app:

  • add — Add a printer queue. 🖨️
  • cancel — Cancel one or more print jobs.
  • default — Get/Set the default printer queue.
  • delete — Delete a printer queue. 💀
  • devices — List connected printers.
  • drivers — List the supported drivers.
  • jobs — List pending print jobs.
  • modify — Modify a printer queue.
  • options — List supported options.
  • printers — List the printer queues.
  • server — Start a server. 🌈
  • shutdown — Shutdown a running server.
  • status — Show the status of a printer or all printers.
  • submit — Submit a file for printing.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

The following options are recognized by legacy-printer-app:

  • -a — Cancel all jobs. Just all of them. Gone. Periodt.
  • -d PRINTER — Specify printer.
  • -h HOST — Specify hostname.
  • -j JOB-ID — Specify job ID.
  • -m DRIVER-NAME — Specify driver.
  • -n COPIES — Specify number of copies.
  • -o NAME=VALUE — Specify option.
  • -t TITLE — Specify job title.
  • -u URI — Specify ipp: or ipps: printer/server.
  • -v DEVICE-URI — Specify socket: or usb: device.

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

Go look, bestie, the source is right there and it's iconic 💜

Copyright © 2020 by Till Kamppeter. Copyright © 2020 by Michael R Sweet.

okay that's the whole page fr fr 🍓 this was legacy-printer-app(8), from the OpenPrinting girlies, dated 2023-08-17 — and remember, no cap, she's still out here keeping your legacy printers alive with CUPS 3.x and the CUPS Snap. Slay, print, repeat. 🎀✨🖨️💖

📦 where this page comes from