lpr / lpd in raw mode

F. G. P. fgp at fgp.atnet.at
Wed Jan 21 19:02:29 GMT 1998


Hi

Printing in Samba is done this way:
	1) Win 95 / 3.1 / NT uses the printer driver you selected there
the same way, as if you would print directly to the parallel port, but
insted if sending the data to the parallel port, it is send over the
network to your samba server.
	2) Samba recieves the data, and stores it in a file on your
server.
	3) Then, lpr ist called with the file the data was stored in as a
parameter (you can change the command line for calling lpr in your
smb.conf).

Normally, if you call lpr, the data is sent through a "magic" filter (like
apsfilter). This filter recognizes the type of data you sent, and converts
it so that your printer understands it (e.g. if you send a postscript
file, it is sent through ghostscript). 
	"Raw" Modem simply means, that lpr doenst use any filter, it just
sends the data from the file directly to your printer. 

Your enable "raw" mode, by defining a new printer in your /etc/printcap
which doesn't use any filter (I creates a shell-script which uses it's
standard input as standard output, and I use this a my "filter")


Here is the definition which I use to print to my deskjet 500c:
 
rawc|lp8|djet500c-a4-raw|djet500c auto
raw:\
        :lp=/dev/lp1:\
        :sd=/var/spool/djet500c-raw:\
        :lf=/var/spool/djet500c-raw/log:\
        :af=/var/spool/djet500c-raw/acct:\
        :if=/usr/lib/apsfilter/filter/aps-djet500c-a4-raw:\
        :mx#0:\
        :sh:
 
After your configured a "raw" printer on yoru unix-box, you simply install
a network-printer on your windows-box, which prints to the appropriate
printer on your unix-box (of course you need to make an entry for the
raw-printer in your /etc/smb.conf too). In Windows, you choose the
printer-driver which fits for your printer, not generic/text..

				Hope this works,
					F.G.P.





More information about the samba mailing list