PPD or backend?
Erik de Castro Lopo
mle+cups at mega-nerd.com
Wed Oct 13 14:23:23 PDT 2010
Hi all,
For a couple of years now I've been using a small APS brand
printer that connects via serial port. In order to support this
printer, there is a binary executable (i have GPL sources as
well) that gets installed at /usr/lib/cups/backend/aps as will
as a Postscript Printer Description (PPD) file that gets installed
under /usr/share/cups/model/ (which gets copied to /etc/cups when
the printer is configured).
Working with this printer has been relatively straight forward
and from a program that uses the CUPS API I can detect if the
printer is present, whether it has paper, whether its nearly
out of paper etc.
I am now working with a new printer (by Zebra) which connects
via USB. All that this printer seems to require is a PPD file,
but using the PPD, the CUPS API can't even tell me if the
printer is connected.
So, my question is, can a printer that only requires a PPD file
give me feedback like presence, paper status etc or do I need
to write a CUPS backend driver to get those features.
TIA,
Erik
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