692 Part V . Running Servers Common UNIX (Professional web hosting)
692 Part V . Running Servers Common UNIX Printing Service CUPS has become the standard for printing from Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. It was designed to meet today s needs for standardized printer definitions and sharing on IP-based networks (as most computer networks are today). Nearly every Linux distribution today comes with CUPS as its printing service. Here are some of the service s features: . IPP CUPS is based on the Internet Printing Protocol (www.pwg.org/ipp), a standard that was created to simplify how printers can be shared over IP networks. In the IPP model, printer servers and clients who want to print can exchange information about the model and features of a printer using HTTP (that is, Web content) protocol. A server can also broadcast the availability of a printer so a printing client can easily find a list of locally available printers. . Drivers CUPS also standardized how printer drivers are created. The idea was to have a common format that could be used by printer manufacturers so that a driver could work across all different types of UNIX systems. That way, a manufacturer had to create the driver only once to work for Linux, Mac OS X, and a variety of UNIX derivatives. . Printer classes You can use printer classes to create multiple print server entries that point to the same printer or one print server entry that points to multiple printers. In the first case, multiple entries can each allow different options (such as pointing to a particular paper tray or printing with certain character sizes or margins). In the second case, you can have a pool of printers so that printing is distributed, decreasing the occurrence of congested print queues often caused by a malfunctioning printer or a printer that is dealing with very large documents. . UNIX print commands To integrate into Linux and other UNIX environments, CUPS offers versions of standard commands for printing and managing printers that have been traditionally offered with UNIX systems. Many Linux distributions come with simplified methods of configuring CUPS printers. Here are two examples: . In Fedora and other Red Hat Linux systems, the Printer Configuration window (system-config-printer command) enables you to configure printers that use the CUPS facility. . In SUSE, the YaST facility includes a printer configuration module. From the YaST Control Center, select Hardware.Printer. For distributions that don t have their own printer configuration tools, there are several ways to configure CUPS using tools that aren t specific to a Linux distribution. Here are a couple of them:
In case you need affordable webhost to host your website, our recommendation is ecommerce web host services.