Using IPP/SMB with CUPS to print to file

[lazyrunner50]

Ok, so I'm trying to get more familiar with CUPS, and I've been trying to figure out how to print to a file, and what exactly that is in the first place. I know that when you print to a file, you're not actually printing a file on a printer, but creating a document. Outside of that, I don't really know what it is.

Ideally I'd like to be able to print to a file on my Windows XP machine from my CentOS 5 (2.6.18-53.1.4.el5) machine. I've been using system-config-printer, and was guessing at the configuration.

1. Which do I use IPP/SMB to print to an XP machine?
2. If I try to use IPP, how can I specify the username/password to access the Windows machine. Also, what do I put for the address? (I was guessing ipp://<ip address>/printers/test with test being the name of the resulting file)
3. If I use SMB, I understand how I put in the username/password, but how do I specify the address (same problem as #2)
4. Is there any setup required on the XP machine? For instance, does there have to be a "test" file already on the machine?

 

[itsp1965]

You say you are attempting to send printer output from CentOS to an XP file? Try to the following;

1. Create a printer on XP and choose Local and select File as your printer port. Then share the printer
2. On the Linux side, I usually use Printtool from GUI based terminal which will help configure the appropriate /etc/printcap settings for you. Have it point to this print share
3. Print your document from CentOS

HTH

 

[lazyrunner50]

Not really...I'm not sure I really understand it, but I think you can just print to a file. For instance, if you're printing something off in Windows XP, but don't have a physical printer attached to your computer (locally or on the network), a default "printer" is set up which actually just creates a document on your computer.

I am trying to do the same through Linux. I've gotten to the point where I've added a generic "text-only printer", but can't figure out where to go from there.

 

[Annihilannic]

I've not tried printing from CUPS to Windows via SMB, and it's probably fine, but an alternative that I have used is the LPD protocol.

You can create the CUPS print queue using this command:

[tt]lpadmin -p cupsqueuename -v /dev/null -i lpd://windowsservername/windowsqueuename[/tt]

Then configure LPD support in Windows by following my instructions in this post:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1442549&page=1

And then configure the 'print to file' printer on the Windows server as the other guys have described.

I'm sure there should be a way to print to file just using CUPS, but I don't know how off the top of my head. Possibly by just using an output filename as the parameter to the lpadmin -v option.

Annihilannic.