[cups.bugs] [MOD] STR #2371: Support /usr/share/ppd/ directory

[Michael Sweet]

Martin Pitt wrote:
> Hello Mike,
> 
> Michael Sweet [2007-04-30  9:17 -0400]:
>> DO NOT CHANGE THE DEFAULT MODEL DIRECTORY.  Instead, make symlinks to the
>> LSB-defined directories, otherwise you will (again) break CUPS drivers on
> 
> again?

Debian's 64-bit x86 packaging differs from all other distros,
making it difficult to ship drivers for that platform...

>> Debian. /usr/share/cups/model is the standard location for CUPS drivers,
>> while the LSB defines three separate locations for drivers.
> 
> *Shrug* Debian's printer drivers are all shipped in /usr/share/ppd, so
> the symlink is (1) not necessary any more, and worse, (2) leads to
> duplicate printer entries when there is a symlink loop somewhere (e.
> g. if a broken printer driver package ships a symlink into the other
> direction).
> 
> Till defined the new location for LSB and proposed the change to cups,
> I don't believe it is totally wrong. After all the symlink mess I'm
> on his side. There should be *one* place where to put PPD files; I
> don't see the reason why there should be one per spooling system,
> since PPDs were designed to be platform and spooler independent.

CUPS came first, and people/vendors developing CUPS drivers expect
PPDs to go in the CUPS location.

I recently committed support for /usr/share/ppd and the other LSB-
defined directories for CUPS 1.3.  These are reported under the
"lsb" virtual directory (lsb/usr -> /usr/share/ppd, lsb/opt ->
/opt/share/ppd, and lsb/local -> /usr/local/share/ppd), eliminating
the need for symlinks or other PATH-like hacks.

I've done something similar for Mac OS X as well (they have bundles
for their printer drivers) to unify the printer driver database.

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products           mike at easysw dot com
Internet Printing and Document Software          http://www.easysw.com