Appendix A • LPR Notes

◊ This section is designed to give the InterPrint user some background on LPR, the mechanism InterPrint uses to print. It is not a guide for configuring your system’s print spooler. If you are having trouble setting up LPR, consult your server’s operating system documentation.

The UNIX printer spooling system, sometimes called LPR or LPD after two of its major components, is based on software originally written at AT&T and later modified at the University of California at Berkeley. LPR software is shipped as part of most vendors’ UNIX releases. If you are not working in a UNIX environment, LPR software is often available as a TCP/IP package add-on for other platforms.

Because LPD comes pre-compiled with most vendors’ UNIX system releases, the system administrator need only edit the /etc/printcap file to reflect the local printer environment, then kill and restart LPD or reboot the machine. This enables all changes made to the printcap file to take effect.

All printers that you want to access using InterPrint, or with LPR, must have an entry in the /etc/printcap file. Since InterPrint accesses LPR from a remote host, the host must have an entry in the /etc/hosts.equiv or /etc/host.lpd file.

To learn more about LPR, consult the following UNIX man pages:

•
lpr
•
lprm
•
lpc
•
lpd 
•
printcap