Description of the LP Print Service

The LP print service is a set of software utilities that enables users to print files while continuing to work. Originally, the print service was called the LP spooler. LP represents line printer, but the meaning now includes many other types of printers, such as laser printers. Spool is an acronym for Simultaneous Peripheral Operations Online.

The LP print service consists of the LP print service software, any print filters you might provide, and the hardware, such as the printer, system, and network connections.

Solaris 10 5/08: The LP print client commands make use of the PAPI to interact with Solaris LP (lpsched), RFC-1179 (BSD/LPD protocol), and IPP-based servers. IPP support is capable of interacting with CUPS servers by using its native IPP service. With the introduction of this API support, several common BSD and SysV printing commands use the PAPI interface. As a result, the new command implementations work with a number of existing print services. A portion of this development includes server-side support for IPP that is also layered on the API. This support is implemented as a set of protocol-specific libraries and as an Apache module, Versions 1 and 2. Similar to the print command implementation, the IPP listening service can be used with any print service that has PAPI support. The RFC-1179 server-side support is also layered on the PAPI.

For additional information about the LP print service, see LP Print Service.