Managing Network Printer Access

Each network printer should have only one server that provides access to the printer. This restriction enables the server to manage the access to the printer and keep jobs coherent.

The default device for the network printer is /dev/null. This device is sufficient when there is only one queue for the printer. Should more queues be required, set the device to a file. This setting enables the print system to restrict access to the printer across queues. The following commands create a device file and configure it as the network printer device.

touch /path/filename
chmod 600 /path/filename
lpadmin -p printer_name -v /path/filename

The following is an example of how to create a device file called devtreedown.

# touch /var/tmp/devtreedown
# chmod 600 /var/tmp/devtreedown
# lpadmin -p treedown -v /var/tmp/devtreedown