Overview of the RFC-1179 Printing Protocol

The RFC-1179 protocol is an existing over-the-wire protocol that is widely used for communicating between print clients and servers and network-attached printers. The Request for Comments (RFC) 1179 describes the protocol that a line printer daemon client uses to control printing. Developed originally for BSD UNIX, the RFC-1179 printing protocol has long been the cross-platform standard for printing. You can use this protocol to perform basic printing tasks, such as submitting and canceling print jobs, and obtaining print job status. The RFC-1179 protocol is able to communicate with LPD-based print servers and any other print server that accepts the BSD printing protocol. Many network-attached printers offer this protocol as an option for transferring job data.