cups-lpd(8) Easy Software Products cups-lpd(8)NAMEcups-lpd - receive print jobs and report printer status to lpd clients
SYNOPSIScups-lpd [ -o option=value ]
DESCRIPTIONcups-lpd is the CUPS Line Printer Daemon ("LPD") mini-server that sup‐
ports legacy client systems that use the LPD protocol. cups-lpd does
not act as a standalone network daemon but instead operates using the
Internet "super-server" inetd(8). Add the following line to the
inetd.conf file to enable the cups-lpd daemon:
printer stream tcp nowait lp /path/to/cups/daemon/cups-lpd cups-lpd-o document-format=application/octet-stream
If you are using the newer xinetd(8) daemon, add the following lines to
the xinetd.conf file:
service printer
{
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
wait = no
user = lp
group = sys
passenv =
server = /path/to/cups/daemon/cups-lpd
server_args = -o document-format=application/octet-stream
}
The /path/to/cups/daemon is usually /usr/lib/cups/daemon or
/usr/libexec/cups/daemon, depending on the operating system. Consult
the cupsd.conf file for the local setting.
OPTIONS
The -o option to cups-lpd inserts options for all print queues. Most
often this is used to disable the "l" filter so that remote print jobs
are filtered as needed for printing:
printer stream tcp nowait lp /usr/lib/cups/daemon/cups-lpd cups-lpd-o document-format=application/octet-stream
server = /usr/lib/cups/daemon/cups-lpd
server_args = -o document-format=application/octet-stream
The example shown resets the document format to be application/octet-
stream, which forces auto-detection of the print file type.
PERFORMANCEcups-lpd performs well with small numbers of clients and printers. How‐
ever, since a new process is created for each connection and since each
process must query the printing system before each job submission, it
does not scale to larger configurations. We highly recommend that large
configurations use the native IPP support provided by CUPS instead.
SECURITYcups-lpd currently does not perform any access control based on the
settings in cupsd.conf(5) or in the hosts.allow(5) or hosts.deny files
used by TCP wrappers. Therefore, running cups-lpd on your server will
allow any computer on your network (and perhaps the entire Internet) to
print to your server.
While xinetd has built-in access control support, you should use the
TCP wrappers package with inetd to limit access to only those computers
that should be able to print through your server.
cups-lpd is not enabled by the standard CUPS distribution. Please con‐
sult with your operating system vendor to determine whether it is
enabled in their distributions.
COMPATIBILITYcups-lpd does not enforce the restricted source port number specified
in RFC 1179, as using restricted ports does not prevent users from sub‐
mitting print jobs. While this behavior is different than standard
Berkeley LPD implementations, it should not affect normal client opera‐
tions.
The output of the status requests follows RFC 2569, Mapping between LPD
and IPP Protocols. Since many LPD implementations stray from this defi‐
nition, remote status reporting to LPD clients may be unreliable.
SEE ALSOcupsd(8), inetd(8), xinetd(8), CUPS Software Administrators Manual,
http://localhost:631/documentation.html
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1993-2005 by Easy Software Products, All Rights Reserved.
11 August 2004 Common UNIX Printing System cups-lpd(8)
