CUPS - missing printer model

I do not know if this is the correct place to ask but it seems to me to be a port issue.

Using the CUPS web interface I some time previously configured my desktop workstation to use a Lexmark MS711dn printer over the network. This printer shows as currently using the Lexmark MS710 series as the printer type. When I went in to look at the settings in order to configure a similar printer I discovered that the Lexmark MS710 series is no longer displayed as an option.

Where did it go?
 
The ppd files are available from the Lexmark support site.

The "Driver files for CUPS-based systems (Linux Universal Print Driver)" for Linux/Unix systems seems appropriate.

To the best of my recollection, cups will find the ppd file if you copy it to /usr/local/etc/cups/ppd/.
 
Thank you. I have that ppd and it completely slipped my mind that I had used that. Down side to that solution is that cups documentation states that ppd files are deprecated and the facility may be removed in a future version.
 
The switch from Adobe PPD to Apple IPP looks like it's planned to be slow and controlled. The CUPS people have said:
So, starting with the CUPS 2.3 feature release we are deprecating printer drivers. As I mentioned in a previous post, this does not mean that printer drivers will stop working in CUPS 2.3. Rather, we want to give everyone plenty of notice and work with vendors and developers
The assertion is that pretty much all printers released since 2010 work with IPP, so don't need PPD files.

From a personal perspective, I'm certainly hoping that my 20 year old HP4050n printers will continue to work with CUPS for some time yet. Maybe IPP support will emerge. If not, there's always hplip to save HP printers from landfill...
 
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