What's New In Printing

The Solaris 2.6 print software offers a better centralized print administration than the LP print software in previous Solaris releases. With the Solaris 2.6 release, you can easily set up and manage print clients using the NIS or NIS+ name services.

Solaris 2.6 print software features include:

• Redesign of Print Packages

• Print Protocol Adapter

• SunSoft Print Client

• Network Printer Support

The Solaris 2.6 print software limitations include:

• No support for print servers defined as s5 (the System V print protocol) in previous Solaris 2.x releases.

• No print filtering on print clients.

Redesign of Print Packages

The Solaris 2.6 print packages have been redesigned to provide greater flexibility and modularity of print software installation and to allow installation of a smaller print client footprint.

Redesign features include:

• It is possible with a custom installation to install only the client software on the print client, allowing for a smaller client footprint. All packages, client and server, are installed on print servers.

  The default state is to install everything, but you can choose to install client or server software only. Print servers require that the client software is installed.

• PostScript filter software is contained in the SUNWpsf print package.

Table 39-1 describes the new set of print packages.

Table 39-1 Solaris 2.6 Print Packages

Package Instance	Package Name	Base Directory
SUNWpcr	SunSoft Print - Client	root (/)
SUNWpcu	SunSoft Print - Client	usr
SUNWpsr	SunSoft Print - LP Server	root (/)
SUNWpsu	SunSoft Print - LP Server	usr
SUNWpsf	Postscript Filters	usr
SUNWscplp	SunSoft Print - Source Compatibility	usr

The removed print packages are:

• SUNWlpr - LP print service, (root)

• SUNWlpu - LP print service - Client, (usr)

• SUNWlps - LP print service - Server, (usr)

Print commands contained in SUNWscpu have been moved and placed into SUNWscplp (SunSoft Print - Source Compatibility).

Print Protocol Adaptor

The Solaris 2.6 print protocol adaptor replaces the Service Access Facility (SAF), the network listener, and lpNet on the inbound side of the LP spooler with a more modular, modern design.

This replacement provides the following features:

• Complete BSD print protocol implementation plus extended Solaris functionality.

• Allows multiple spooling systems to coexist on the same host and have access to the BSD print protocol.

• Extensible by third-party application developers to support other printing protocols such as Apple, Novell, etc.).

The new print protocol adaptor is compatible with print clients set up in previous Solaris 2.x releases if the "BSD" protocol was used to configure these clients. If not, you'll have to modify the previous Solaris 2.x print client configuration to use the "BSD" protocol using Admintool^TM, Solstice Printer Manager, or the lpsystem command.

SunSoft Print Client

The SunSoft Print Client software was previously released as an unbundled product. It was available on the Solaris Migration CD and as part of the AdminSuite 2.x suite of administration products. It is now bundled with the Solaris 2.6 release.

The SunSoft Print Client software uses a NIS map, NIS+ table, or a single file to provide centralized client administration in the Solaris 2.6 release. Features of the Print Client software include:

• The /etc/lp directory structure on client systems is replaced with a configuration database that can be stored in a:

  • User file ($HOME/.printers)

  • System file (/etc/prints.conf)

  • NIS map (printers.conf.byname)

  • NIS+ FNS context

• The client software utilizes a more streamlined implementation providing reduced client overhead and generally quicker and more accurate responses to print status requests.

• The lpset(1M) command is used to create the printers.conf file. See Chapter 41, Setting Up Printers (Tasks) for information on using the lpset command.

• Substantially smaller (183K total) than the previous Solaris release.

• Interoperable with BSD protocol as described in RFC-1179. This includes SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.X, HPUX, etc. The print client software packages are SUNWpcr and SUNWpcu.

Enhanced Network Printer Support

The Solaris 2.6 print software provides better support for network printers in previous Solaris releases. Features include:

• A new interface script, /usr/lib/lp/model/netstandard, is specifically designed to support network printers. This script collects the spooler and print database information needed to perform network printing and passes it to the print output module.

• A new print output module, netpr, is called from the netstandard interface script to print the print job by opening a network connection to the printer, creating the correct protocol instructions, and sending the data to the printer. The netpr program currently supports two protocols, BSD print protocol and a TCP pass-through.

• New arguments to the lpadmin -o command are used to specify destination name, protocol, and timeout values for the network printer.

• Solstice AdminSuite 2.3 Printer Manager can be used to set up and manage network printers.

See Chapter 41, Setting Up Printers (Tasks)or the Solstice AdminSuite 2.3 Administration Guide for more information about setting up a network printer.