A.P. Lawrence

setting default printer

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From - Sat Apr 29 08:23:22 2000
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From: Bill Campbell <bill@celestial.com>
Subject: Re: How do I set default printers?
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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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