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setting default printer

This is similar to using customized default printers but also accounys for local vs. remote printing.

It is also similar to Users and their printers.

You can do this kind of thing with CUPS and Sys V interface scripts to handle the redirection.

Newsgroups: comp.unix.sco.misc
From: Bill Campbell <bill@celestial.com>
Subject: Re: How do I set default printers?
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 18:17:50 GMT
Message-ID: <20000428111750.A6666@kstarr.celestial.com> 

On Fri, Apr 28, 2000 at 10:52:04AM -0700, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>On Fri, 28 Apr 2000 17:18:22 GMT, "jmt" <jmtcode@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>I forgotten to mention if the running application has the printer name
>>hardcoded into there application to which printer to print to, how can I
>>change that printer? I know what the printer name is, just need to redirect
>>there print job to another printer name.
>
>If your unspecified application has something like:
>    lp -d printer_name
>imbedded in some configuration file, then you're stuck.  It takes priority
>over $LPDEST and over the print spoolers default printer.
>
>However, I know of no application, written by mortals, that cannot be
>twisted into doing what I want it to do.  First, find the configuration file
>that goes with your unspecified application, and see if you can find the
>place where the printer is defined.  If it looks like:

I have a system that does exactly that.  I have a file, /etc/printers
that has entries mapping logical printer names to real printer names,
and the system on which to print them.  The file looks like this:

default laser localhost
laser   laser localhost
oldprn  printer someotherhost
...

I then have /usr/local/bin/lp that's in the PATH before /usr/bin/lp
and further I move the original /usr/bin/lp to /usr/bin/lp.original,
and link it to /usr/local/bin/lp to make sure that everybody uses it.
My script then reads the /etc/printers file, and maps the printer name
to the real printer.  If the printer's local, then it forwards the job
to the local with a pipe to ``/usr/bin/lp.original -ddestination''.
If it's a different system, then it pipes to the remote system using:

        "|ssh someotherhost /usr/local/bin/lp @ARGV"

This is in perl so it passes the appropriate arguments to the remote
system's /usr/local/bin/lp program which goes through exactly the same
process.  It would even be possible to have the job get in a loop if
each system redirected the job to the other (I suppose this could be
done intentionally if there were a printer problem, breaking the loop
when the printer was working again :-).

Bill
--
INTERNET:   bill@Celestial.COM  Bill Campbell; Celestial Systems, Inc.
UUCP:               camco!bill  PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
FAX:            (206) 232-9186  Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 236-1676
URL: http://www.celestial.com/

Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity.  It
eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the
business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation.
                -- Johnny Hart

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