man/cups.man

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   2 .\" cups (intro) man page for CUPS.
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  13 .TH cups 1 "CUPS" "16 April 2014" "Apple Inc."
  14 .SH NAME
  15 cups \- a standards-based, open source printing system
  16 .SH DESCRIPTION
  17 .B CUPS
  18 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.
  19 .LP
  20 Now, since every printer manufacturer does things differently, printing can be very complicated.
  21 .B CUPS
  22 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
  23 .B CUPS
  24 can often figure things out on its own.
  25 .SS HOW DOES IT WORK?
  26 The first time you print to a printer,
  27 .B CUPS
  28 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.
  29 .LP
  30 Every time you print something,
  31 .B CUPS
  32 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
  33 .B CUPS
  34 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.
  35 .LP
  36 When the print job is completely printed,
  37 .B CUPS
  38 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.
  39 .SS WHERE DO I BEGIN?
  40 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.
  41 .LP
  42 When you are asked for a username and password, enter your login username and password or the "root" username and password.
  43 .LP
  44 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.
  45 .LP
  46 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.
  47 .LP
  48 You can also use the
  49 .BR lpadmin (8)
  50 and
  51 .BR lpinfo (8)
  52 commands to add printers to
  53 .BR CUPS .
  54 Additionally, your operating system may include graphical user interfaces or automatically create printer queues when you connect a printer to your computer.
  55 .SS HOW DO I GET HELP?
  56 The
  57 .B CUPS
  58 web site (http://www.CUPS.org) provides access to the
  59 .I cups
  60 and
  61 .I cups-devel
  62 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.
  63 .SH ENVIRONMENT
  64 .B CUPS
  65 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:
  66 .TP 5
  67 .B CUPS_ANYROOT
  68 Whether to allow any X.509 certificate root (Y or N).
  69 .TP 5
  70 .B CUPS_CACHEDIR
  71 The directory where semi-persistent cache files can be found.
  72 .TP 5
  73 .B CUPS_DATADIR
  74 The directory where data files can be found.
  75 .TP 5
  76 .B CUPS_ENCRYPTION
  77 The default level of encryption (Always, IfRequested, Never, Required).
  78 .TP 5
  79 .B CUPS_EXPIREDCERTS
  80 Whether to allow expired X.509 certificates (Y or N).
  81 .TP 5
  82 .B CUPS_GSSSERVICENAME
  83 The Kerberos service name used for authentication.
  84 .TP 5
  85 .B CUPS_SERVER
  86 The hostname/IP address and port number of the CUPS scheduler (hostname:port or ipaddress:port).
  87 .TP 5
  88 .B CUPS_SERVERBIN
  89 The directory where server helper programs, filters, backend, etc. can be found.
  90 .TP 5
  91 .B CUPS_SERVERROOT
  92 The root directory of the server.
  93 .TP 5
  94 .B CUPS_STATEDIR
  95 The directory where state files can be found.
  96 .TP 5
  97 .B CUPS_USER
  98 Specifies the name of the user for print requests.
  99 .TP 5
 100 .B HOME
 101 Specifies the home directory of the current user.
 102 .TP 5
 103 .B IPP_PORT
 104 Specifies the default port number for IPP requests.
 105 .TP 5
 106 .B LOCALEDIR
 107 Specifies the location of localization files.
 108 .TP 5
 109 .B LPDEST
 110 Specifies the default print queue (System V standard).
 111 .TP 5
 112 .B PRINTER
 113 Specifies the default print queue (Berkeley standard).
 114 .TP 5
 115 .B TMPDIR
 116 Specifies the location of temporary files.
 117 .SH FILES
 118 .nf
 119 .I ~/.cups/client.conf
 120 .I ~/.cups/lpoptions
 121 .fi
 122 .SH CONFORMING TO
 123 .B CUPS
 124 conforms to the Internet Printing Protocol version 2.1 and implements the Berkeley and System V UNIX print commands.
 125 .SH SEE ALSO
 126 .BR cancel (1),
 127 .BR client.conf (7),
 128 .BR cupsctl (8),
 129 .BR cupsd (8),
 130 .BR lp (1),
 131 .BR lpadmin (8),
 132 .BR lpinfo (8),
 133 .BR lpoptions (1),
 134 .BR lpr (1),
 135 .BR lprm (1),
 136 .BR lpq (1),
 137 .BR lpstat (1),
 138 CUPS Online Help (http://localhost:631/help),
 139 CUPS Web Site (http://www.CUPS.org),
 140 PWG Internet Printing Protocol Workgroup (http://www.pwg.org/ipp)
 141 .SH COPYRIGHT
 142 Copyright \[co] 2007-2015 by Apple Inc.