Printcap

[Ken Cobler]

Wade Winright wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I have a question that I hope somebody out there can help with. Samba
> doesn't seem to see new printers added to the printcap until it is
> restarted. Am I doing something wrong or is there a way to set samba
> up to check the printcap periodically, or to force it to without
> restarting the service? I have 500 clients that will attach to this
> print server and would like to not have to interrupt there activities
> if I don't have to to add a new printer...
>
> Any ideas would be helpful,
>

I believe the printcap file is only read when the smb connection
starts.  There is a Unix signal you can send to all smbd processes to
tell them to re-read their initialization files (including the
/etc/printcap).

I've found the easiest way to do it is use SWAT and push the button
"Commit changes"  even if there are no changes.  This will properly send
the signal to all smbd processes to access new printcap printers or see
newly added shares.

Ken Cobler