Printing

This section describes new features in the Solaris 8 operating environment that affect printer configuration and management.

Print Naming Enhancement

This Solaris release supports the printers database in /etc/nsswitch.conf, the name service switch file. The printers database provides centralized printer configuration information to print clients on the network.

By including the printers database and corresponding sources of information in the name service switch file, print clients automatically have access to printer configuration information without having to add it to their own systems.

If you use Solaris Print Manager to set up printing in your network, the source of the printer configuration information is selected from the Select Naming Service menu rather than the printers database in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.

The following table describes the default printers entry in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file for the files, NIS, and NIS+ environments. The nisplus keyword represents the printers.org_dir table. The xfn keyword represents the FNS printer contexts.

For example, if your name service is NIS, printer configuration information on print clients is looked up in the following sources in this order:

1. user -- represents the user's $HOME/.printers file

2. files -- represents the /etc/printers.conf file

3. nis -- represents the printers.conf.byname table

For more information, see the man page nsswitch.conf(4) and the Solaris Naming Administration Guide.

Solaris Print Manager

Solaris Print Manager is a Java-based graphical user interface that enables you to manage local and remote printer access. This tool can be used in the following name service environments: NIS, NIS+, NIS+ with Federated Naming Service (FNS), and files. You must be logged in as superuser to use this tool.

Using Solaris Print Manager is the preferred method for managing printer access instead of Admintool:Printers because Solaris Print Manager centralizes printer information when it is used in a name service environment.

Solaris Print Manager recognizes existing printer information on the printer servers, print clients, and in the name service databases. There are no conversion tasks required to use the new Solaris Print Manager as long as the print clients are running the Solaris 2.6 release or a compatible version.

For more information, see the System Administration Guide, Volume 2.