Selecting the Protocol

The print subsystem uses BSD print protocol and raw TCP to communicate with the printer. The printer vendor documentation provides the information about which protocol to use. In general, the TCP protocol is more generic across printers.

Type the following command to select the protocol:

lpadmin -p printer_name -o protocol=bsd

or

lpadmin -p printer_name -o protocol=tcp

If the protocol that is selected is the BSD print protocol, you can further select the order of sending the control file to the printer. Some printers expect the control file, then the data file. Others expect the reverse. For this information, see the printer vendor documentation. The default is to send the control file first.

Type the following command to select the order:

lpadmin -p printer_name -o bsdctrl=first

or

lpadmin -p printer_name -o bsdctrl=last