Solstice AdminSuite Print Administration Guide

Limiting User Access to a Printer

You may want to control which users can access some or all of the available printers. For example, you may want to prevent some users from printing on a high-quality printer to minimize expense. To restrict user access to printers, you can create allow and deny lists using the lpadmin -u command. (Printer Manager enables you to create only allow lists.) If you create neither, a printer is available to all users who can access the printer.

An allow list contains the names of users allowed access to the specified printer; a deny list contains the names of users denied access to the specified printer.

The rules for allow and deny lists are:

When You ...	Then ...
Do not create allow and deny lists, or if you leave both lists empty	All users may access the printer.
Specify `all` in the allow list	All users may access the printer.
Specify `all` in the deny list	All users, except root and lp, are denied access to the printer.
Make any entry in the allow list	The deny list is ignored. Only those users who are listed can access the printer.
Create a deny list, but you do not create an allow list or you leave the allow list empty	Users who are listed in the deny list are denied access to the printer.

It is best to create allow and deny lists on the print server only and not set up allow and deny lists on print clients. If you create allow and deny lists on the print server only, the print server exclusively controls user access to printers. The benefit of using this strategy is that you do not have to coordinate changes to the print server's allow and deny lists with print clients.