System Administration Guide, Volume 2

How the Print Software Locates Printers

As shown in the figure below, the print software use more options to locate printers and printer configuration information.

Figure 2-4 How the Print Client Software Locates Printers

Graphic

  1. A user submits a print request from a print client by using the lp or lpr command. The user can specify a destination printer name or class in any of three styles:

    • Atomic style, which is the print command and option followed by the printer name or class, as shown in this example.


      % lp -d neptune filename
      
    • POSIX style, which is the print command and option followed by server:printer, as shown in the following example.


      % lpr -P galaxy:neptune filename
      
    • Context-based style, as defined in the Federated Naming Service Programming Guide, shown in this example.


      % lpr -d thisdept/service/printer/printer-name filename
      
  2. The print command locates a printer and printer configuration information as follows:

    • It checks to see if the user specified a destination printer name or printer class in one of the three valid styles.

    • If the user didn't specify a printer name or class in a valid style, the command checks the user's PRINTER or LPDEST environment variable for a default printer name.

    • If neither environment variable for the default printer is defined, the command checks the sources configured for the printers database in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.