Printing remotely over TCP/IP

Setting up a client

The printer description file /etc/printcap on the client machine provides routing and other information about printers.

NOTE: If the printer to be set up is a local printer, that is, attached to the client for its private use, you should set it up following the instructions in ``Setting up a print server'' but ignore instructions regarding the /etc/hosts.equiv and /etc/hosts.lpd files.

For a full description of the /etc/printcap file format, see the printcap(SFF) manual page.

Here is an example of an entry in the /etc/printcap file, followed by an explanation of each field. Note that fields are separated by colons.

   laser::lp=:rm=ohio:rp=sunlaser:sd=/usr/spool/lpd/laser

Each of the fields is described below:

The first field, laser, is the name by which the client knows the printer. For a remote printer, the name that the client uses need not be the same as that used by the print server. In this example, laser is an alias for the printer named sunlaser on ohio.
The second field (before the first colon on the second line) is empty by default. When used, it defines the name of the error log file.
The third field, starting with lp=, must be empty (that is, followed immediately by a colon) for remote printing. This field specifies the device name for a local printer.
The fourth field, starting with rm=, specifies the network name of the print server. In this example, the print server is called ohio.
The fifth field, starting with rp=, specifies the name that the print server uses for the printer.
The last field, starting with sd=, is the name of the spooling directory on the client. It is in this directory that print jobs are stored before being sent over the network to the print server. This directory is always located in /usr/spool/lpd and bears the name of the printer. In this example, the spool directory is called /usr/spool/lpd/laser.