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.

The default printers entry in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file for files, NIS, and NIS+ environments are described in the following table. 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:

• user - Represents the user's $HOME/.printers file

• files - Represents the /etc/printers.conf file

• nis - Represents the printers.conf.byname table

See nsswitch.conf(4) and Solaris Naming Administration Guide for more information.