The BSD Printing Protocol

The SunSoft print client commands use the BSD printing protocol. One of the big pluses of this protocol is that it can communicate with a variety of print servers:

• SunOS 4.x BSD (lpd) print servers

• SunOS 5.x SVR4 (LP) print servers

• Any other print server or printer that accepts the BSD printing protocol

The BSD printing protocol is an industry standard. It is widely used and it provides compatibility between different types of systems from various manufacturers. Sun has chosen to support the BSD printing protocol to provide interoperability in the future.

By comparison, the print commands in Solaris support both the BSD and System V printing protocols. System V protocol is not as widely used and it does not provide compatibility with BSD print servers.