man/cups.1

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   2 .\" cups (intro) man page for CUPS.
   3 .\"
   4 .\" Copyright © 2007-2019 by Apple Inc.
   5 .\" Copyright © 1997-2006 by Easy Software Products.
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   7 .\" Licensed under Apache License v2.0.  See the file "LICENSE" for more
   8 .\" information.
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  10 .TH cups 1 "CUPS" "26 April 2019" "Apple Inc."
  11 .SH NAME
  12 cups \- a standards-based, open source printing system
  13 .SH DESCRIPTION
  14 .B CUPS
  15 is the software you use to print from applications like word processors, email readers, photo editors, and web browsers. It converts the page descriptions produced by your application (put a paragraph here, draw a line there, and so forth) into something your printer can understand and then sends the information to the printer for printing.
  16 .LP
  17 Now, since every printer manufacturer does things differently, printing can be very complicated.
  18 .B CUPS
  19 does its best to hide this from you and your application so that you can concentrate on printing and less on how to print. Generally, the only time you need to know anything about your printer is when you use it for the first time, and even then
  20 .B CUPS
  21 can often figure things out on its own.
  22 .SS HOW DOES IT WORK?
  23 The first time you print to a printer,
  24 .B CUPS
  25 creates a queue to keep track of the current status of the printer (everything OK, out of paper, etc.) and any pages you have printed. Most of the time the queue points to a printer connected directly to your computer via a USB port, however it can also point to a printer on your network, a printer on the Internet, or multiple printers depending on the configuration. Regardless of where the queue points, it will look like any other printer to you and your applications.
  26 .LP
  27 Every time you print something,
  28 .B CUPS
  29 creates a job which contains the queue you are sending the print to, the name of the document you are printing, and the page descriptions. Job are numbered (queue-1, queue-2, and so forth) so you can monitor the job as it is printed or cancel it if you see a mistake. When
  30 .B CUPS
  31 gets a job for printing, it determines the best programs (filters, printer drivers, port monitors, and backends) to convert the pages into a printable format and then runs them to actually print the job.
  32 .LP
  33 When the print job is completely printed,
  34 .B CUPS
  35 removes the job from the queue and moves on to any other jobs you have submitted. You can also be notified when the job is finished, or if there are any errors during printing, in several different ways.
  36 .SS WHERE DO I BEGIN?
  37 The easiest way to start is by using the web interface to configure your printer. Go to "http://localhost:631" and choose the Administration tab at the top of the page. Click/press on the Add Printer button and follow the prompts.
  38 .LP
  39 When you are asked for a username and password, enter your login username and password or the "root" username and password.
  40 .LP
  41 After the printer is added you will be asked to set the default printer options (paper size, output mode, etc.) for the printer. Make any changes as needed and then click/press on the Set Default Options button to save them. Some printers also support auto-configuration - click/press on the Query Printer for Default Options button to update the options automatically.
  42 .LP
  43 Once you have added the printer, you can print to it from any application. You can also choose Print Test Page from the maintenance menu to print a simple test page and verify that everything is working properly.
  44 .LP
  45 You can also use the
  46 .BR lpadmin (8)
  47 and
  48 .BR lpinfo (8)
  49 commands to add printers to
  50 .BR CUPS .
  51 Additionally, your operating system may include graphical user interfaces or automatically create printer queues when you connect a printer to your computer.
  52 .SS HOW DO I GET HELP?
  53 The
  54 .B CUPS
  55 web site (http://www.CUPS.org) provides access to the
  56 .I cups
  57 and
  58 .I cups-devel
  59 mailing lists, additional documentation and resources, and a bug report database. Most vendors also provide online discussion forums to ask printing questions for your operating system of choice.
  60 .SH ENVIRONMENT
  61 .B CUPS
  62 commands use the following environment variables to override the default locations of files and so forth. For security reasons, these environment variables are ignored for setuid programs:
  63 .TP 5
  64 .B CUPS_ANYROOT
  65 Whether to allow any X.509 certificate root (Y or N).
  66 .TP 5
  67 .B CUPS_CACHEDIR
  68 The directory where semi-persistent cache files can be found.
  69 .TP 5
  70 .B CUPS_DATADIR
  71 The directory where data files can be found.
  72 .TP 5
  73 .B CUPS_ENCRYPTION
  74 The default level of encryption (Always, IfRequested, Never, Required).
  75 .TP 5
  76 .B CUPS_EXPIREDCERTS
  77 Whether to allow expired X.509 certificates (Y or N).
  78 .TP 5
  79 .B CUPS_GSSSERVICENAME
  80 The Kerberos service name used for authentication.
  81 .TP 5
  82 .B CUPS_SERVER
  83 The hostname/IP address and port number of the CUPS scheduler (hostname:port or ipaddress:port).
  84 .TP 5
  85 .B CUPS_SERVERBIN
  86 The directory where server helper programs, filters, backend, etc. can be found.
  87 .TP 5
  88 .B CUPS_SERVERROOT
  89 The root directory of the server.
  90 .TP 5
  91 .B CUPS_STATEDIR
  92 The directory where state files can be found.
  93 .TP 5
  94 .B CUPS_USER
  95 Specifies the name of the user for print requests.
  96 .TP 5
  97 .B HOME
  98 Specifies the home directory of the current user.
  99 .TP 5
 100 .B IPP_PORT
 101 Specifies the default port number for IPP requests.
 102 .TP 5
 103 .B LOCALEDIR
 104 Specifies the location of localization files.
 105 .TP 5
 106 .B LPDEST
 107 Specifies the default print queue (System V standard).
 108 .TP 5
 109 .B PRINTER
 110 Specifies the default print queue (Berkeley standard).
 111 .TP 5
 112 .B TMPDIR
 113 Specifies the location of temporary files.
 114 .SH FILES
 115 .nf
 116 .I ~/.cups/client.conf
 117 .I ~/.cups/lpoptions
 118 .fi
 119 .SH CONFORMING TO
 120 .B CUPS
 121 conforms to the Internet Printing Protocol version 2.1 and implements the Berkeley and System V UNIX print commands.
 122 .SH NOTES
 123 CUPS printer drivers, backends, and PPD files are deprecated and will no longer be supported in a future feature release of CUPS.
 124 Printers that do not support IPP can be supported using applications such as
 125 .BR ippeveprinter (1).
 126 .SH SEE ALSO
 127 .BR cancel (1),
 128 .BR client.conf (7),
 129 .BR cupsctl (8),
 130 .BR cupsd (8),
 131 .BR lp (1),
 132 .BR lpadmin (8),
 133 .BR lpinfo (8),
 134 .BR lpoptions (1),
 135 .BR lpr (1),
 136 .BR lprm (1),
 137 .BR lpq (1),
 138 .BR lpstat (1),
 139 CUPS Online Help (http://localhost:631/help),
 140 CUPS Web Site (http://www.CUPS.org),
 141 PWG Internet Printing Protocol Workgroup (http://www.pwg.org/ipp)
 142 .SH COPYRIGHT
 143 Copyright \[co] 2007-2019 by Apple Inc.