PSA: lpd/lpr will be removed from FreeBSD

What is the alternative? CUPS? Can a CUPS server receive data on port 515, for old-fashioned programs that have the printer protocol and port number baked in? Will CUPS be in base, or does this mean that base no longer has printing support at all? Will there be some instructions (handbook?) for transitioning existing configurations?

Note: I'm not at all against this. Even on my FreeBSD server machine, lpr/lpd were disabled years ago, because all printing today goes from desktop machine (which are all MacOS or Windows) directly to the printers. But YMMV.
 
ralphbsz said:
What is the alternative? CUPS? Can a CUPS server receive data on port 515, for old-fashioned programs that have the printer protocol and port number baked in? Will CUPS be in base, or does this mean that base no longer has printing support at all? Will there be some instructions (handbook?) for transitioning existing configurations?

Note: I'm not at all against this. Even on my FreeBSD server machine, lpr/lpd were disabled years ago, because all printing today goes from desktop machine (which are all MacOS or Windows) directly to the printers. But YMMV.
Click to expand...
Multiple opinions are in discussion I've introduced at my comment above.
 
I've been using CUPS for 20+ years (though nowadays I rarely print). CUPS has lpr, lprm, lpq, lpd etc as well, though prob. a subset of options are implemented as the standard versions.
 
I have an IP printer , brother, don't know how to print. Normally it should understand IPP protocol & postscript.
Maybe print pdf pipe it through goscript and send it raw to the printer port ?
 
scottro said:
Alain De Vos, two suggestions. One is using netcat, e.g., if your printer is at 192.168.1.50
Code: 
netcat 192.168.1.50 9100 < myfile.pdf

That's for pdf files. Secondly I'll spam my own page, which recommends the everywhere driver. https://srobb.net/cliscanprint.html#FreeBSD
Click to expand...
Sending PDF wouldn't work for at least old printers that listens jetdirect protocol but doesn't understand PDF format.

Recommend to use small enough PDF (i.e., only single ASCII or several non-ASCII printable character of preferred national langugage characters is shown), with only 1 paper set, not to waste too much papers.
 
I thought I saw a manpage with more instances, but 'man remind' mentions LPR. Does the sunsetting of these commands make all printcap files except the one(s) generated by cups obsolete? And if so, should not all the details be put into
/usr/src/UPDATING which many people who upgrade automatically may not check? And might it lessen the amount of printers that can be made compatible with FreeBSD, making it more restrictive?
 
Still using lpd and friends to print to my networked HP laser printer. At some point a port pulled in CUPS and it took me a fair while to workout why printing no longer worked. Uninstalled CUPS and printing was back to normal, so they obviously don't like to coexist :)
 
Cups uses /usr/local/bin which, at least sometimes, gets superseded by lp's /usr/bin

I say sometimes because I've found if I'm printing from firefox, it uses cups without me needing to specify the path.
I dunno if this is what caused your issue, but I've known it to be a problem in the past.
 
we would, in that situation, chmod 000 the old-style lp commands so they can't run. would have to be maintained over upgrades, at least until lp gets removed from base.
 
Why do they need removed? Just don't install them for pkg base so those who still want them can install. I get annoyed with this and this needs to be removed because of security. Sure let's be like Linux and just rewrite everything and stop the concept of finished software.
 
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