Point-and-print services with Samba

[Darrin M. Gorski]

On Mon, 6 Oct 1997, Joerg Lenneis wrote:

> Make all the printers available on the Samba server and make sure they
> all have correct "printer driver = .." entries (these tell Windows
> what printer driver to install automatically if that printer is accessed). 

When did we get a 'printer driver' directive!! I've not been paying
attention, it seems.

So, do I have to explicitly enter each queue in smb.conf in order to use
the 'printer driver' directive? This would mean I would have to give up
the ability to use 'auto services', and 'local printers= yes', AND that I
would have to create a seperate smb.conf style printcap, and keep this
version in sync with my /etc/printcap. That could be difficult to administer.

I noticed in smb.conf.5 that the printcap is searched for aliases AND
comments. Actually, it's written like this:

'The fact that the second alias has a space in it gives a hint to Samba 
that it's a comment.'

This leads me to believe that the 'comment' will be used as a comment for
the share (provided one isn't already defined). If this is the case,
wouldn't it be fairly simple to also use this string as the 'printer
driver', thus allowing the 'auto services' and 'load printers = yes'
directive to be used to provide browsing for all printers?

Sounds like we're that much closer to 'point-and-print' ala NT. If the
\\server\printer$ thing works, I'll be in heaven.

                                [Darrin]

 "I have no special gift. I am only passionately curious."
				- A. Einstein

Darrin M. Gorski, Research Computer Systems Network Support
Scientific Research Laboratories, Ford Motor Company
Internet: dgorski at ford.com | Tel/Fax: +1 (313) 248-3753