Enabling SunSoft Print Clients to Access Existing Printers

Once you create a master /etc/printers.conf file that includes the existing printers at your site, you can enable all the SunSoft print clients to access the existing printers in two ways.

• If you don't use a name service, you can copy the master /etc/printers.conf file to all SunSoft print clients.

• If you use a name service, you can use the master /etc/printers.conf file to load the NIS or NIS+ master file, where the information becomes available to all SunSoft print clients.

How to Use the /etc/printers.conf File to Load NIS

1. Log in as root on the system that contains the /etc/printers.conf file to be copied to the NIS master server.

2. Copy the system's /etc/printers.conf file to the NIS master server's /etc directory.

3. Copy the usr/lib/print/Makefile.yp makefile to the NIS master server's /var/yp directory.

4. Log in as root on the NIS master server.

5. On this system, specify how to process the files.

   # make -f /var/yp/makefile -f /var/yp/Makefile.yp printers.conf

How to Use the /etc/printers.conf File to Load NIS+

1. Make sure you are a member of the NIS+ admin group. You must have the appropriate privileges to perform this task.

2. Log in as root on the system that contains the /etc/printers.conf file to be copied to the NIS+ master file.

3. Copy the system's /etc/printers.conf file to the NIS+ master file.

   # fncreate_printer -f /etc/printers.conf thisorgunit/service/printer

   See the Federated Naming Service Programming Guide in the Solaris 2.5 Software Developer AnswerBook if you need information about entering this command.