Supporting low-end print servers, e.g., NSLU2

[Michael Sweet]

Anonymous wrote:
> ...
> Does the desktop CUPS say, "OK, since it came to me, I have to crunch it to raw bits and then pump it to whatever is in the DeviceURI"?  I am fuzzy on the linkage between the ppd and the definition in printers.conf: is it solely the "Info" line that maps to the/a "*NickName:" in the ppd?

I highly recommend getting my CUPS book, or just reading the
CUPS overview document to get an overall understanding of the
printing system.

Basically, the /etc/cups/ppd directory holds PPD files for local
printers.  The files are named "printer.ppd" so the mapping from
printer to PPD is rather easy.

The PPD file optionally includes cupsFilter attributes which
describe printer-specific filters to use when printing, and
the *.types and *.convs files in /etc/cups define the mappings
from files to printer-specific formats.

CUPS uses all of that information to run 1 or more filter programs
to convert from the source type (e.g. "application/pdf") to the
destination type (e.g. "application/vnd.cups-postscript") that
fastest way possible.

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