[cups.general] Spooling (1) job to multiple printers

[Jerome Alet]

On Thu, Oct 26, 2006 at 06:19:44PM -0400, David Stembridge wrote:
> Greetings,
> I am very new to UNIX; I have been trying to find a way to work with CUPS to create a method for spooling 1 single print job to multiple printers, at the same time.
> 
> System info:
> Mac OS 10.4.6/dual 1 GHz/1.2 GB dram
> 
> I did get a copy of tea4cups; but am pretty uncertain with setting it up.
> Jeremy's web site mentions that tea4cups can "Send the same job to 
> several printers at the same time, which is not possible with CUPS." 

This is my understanding of CUPS, but maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, in tea4cups.conf, just add this to the [global] section :

--- CUT ---
prehook_firstprinter: /usr/bin/lp -d FirstPrinter -o raw $TEADATAFILE
prehook_secondprinter: /usr/bin/lp -d SecondPrinter -o raw $TEADATAFILE
--- CUT ---

this will automatically spool your print job to printers FirstPrinter
and SecondPrinter once it hits any printer for which the DeviceURI
in printers.conf begins with 'tea4cups://'

there's no limit in the number of pre and post hooks you can set.

tea4cups contains several examples and explanations, you should read
this file.

IMPORTANT : the datas that will be respooled will be the 'final' job's 
content, just before they hit the printer onto which Ta4CUPS was
configured. This means that all your printers have to accept the
same printer languages for this to work as expected. If they don't
you can try be removing "-o raw", and they will pass through CUPS'
filtering mechanism again, with no guarantee.

bye

Jerome Alet