Printing

The Solaris 2.6 print software offers a better solution than the LP print software in previous Solaris releases. System administrators can easily set up and manage print clients using the NIS or NIS+ name services. This means you can centralize print administration for a network of systems and printers.

Solaris 2.6 print software features include:

• Redesign of print packages

• Print protocol adapter

• SunSoft Print Client

• Network printer support

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 client footprint.

Redesign features include:

• The ability, 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 by default on all machines. You can choose to install client software only on print client machines by customizing your installation.

• PostScript filter software contained in the print package SUNWpsf.

The new set of print packages is:

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 SUNWsclplp (SunSoft Print - Source Compatibility).

Print Protocol Adapter

The Solaris 2.6 print protocol adapter 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

• Can be extended by third-party application developers to support other printing protocols such as Apple, Novell, and so on.

The new print protocol adapter 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 have to modify the previous Solaris 2.x print client configuration to the BSD protocol using the Solstice AdminTools utility, Solstice AdminSuite 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 Solstice AdminSuite 2.x suite of administration products. It is now bundled with the Solaris 2.6 release.

The SunSoft Print Client software is

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

• Interoperable with BSD protocol as described in RFC-1179. This includes SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x, HP-UX, and other operating environments.

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.

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

  • Printer not in the client database (server:printer)

  • User file ($HOME/.printers)

  • System file (/etc/printers.conf)

  • NIS map (printers.conf.byname)

  • NIS+ FNS context

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

• The printers.conf file is administered like a standard NIS map or NIS+ table.

The lpset(1M) command is used to create the printers.conf file.

The print client software packages are SUNWpcr and SUNWpcu.

Enhanced Network Printer Support

The Solaris 2.6 print software provides base-level support for network-attached printers. This is achieved with the following features:

• 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 binary currently supports two protocols: BSD print protocol and TCP pass-through.

See (Solaris) System Administration Guide and Solstice AdminSuite 2.3 Administration Guide for more information.