[cups.general] option "-h server" versus cupsd on domain socket

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

CUPS client tools like lpstat, lpinfo, and lpadmin have
the "-h hostname[:port]" option to explicitely specify the
hostname where to talk to the cupsd which overrides settings
in the environment like "CUPS_SERVER=otherhost.somewhere".

I use in particular explicitely "-h localhost" for queue setup
actions (i.e. in lpinfo and lpadmin) to make sure that I do
the setup action really on my local host and not on whatever
unexpected other host because of whatever environment setting.

Unfortunately "-h localhost" does not work if the local
running cupsd does not listen on the 127.0.0.1 interface
but only on the Unix domain socket, i.e. when there is
in cupsd.conf
--------------------------------------------------------------
# Only listen for connections from the local machine.
#Listen localhost:631
Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock
--------------------------------------------------------------
In this case e.g. "lpinfo -h localhost -v" results
"Unable to connect to server: Connection refused".
But in this case the commands work without "-h localhost"
and usually they talk to the local running cupsd.
Currently I run CUPS version 1.3.7.

My question is:
How can I make sure to talk to the local running cupsd
even if it listens only on the domain socket?

More precisely:
I am looking for a command line option or a particular
environment variable setting which makes sure to talk
exactly to a local running cupsd regardless how it
actually connects to the local running cupsd.

Do you think it is a reasonable feature request that
CUPS client tools talk via the domain socket as fallback
when connecting via the 127.0.0.1 interface fails
if "-h localhost" was specified?


By the way:
Is there a command line tool which tells me to which cupsd
(i.e. hostname and port) it connects by default?

Something like a more verbose output of "lpstat -r" e.g. when
it responds "scheduler is running on <hostname>:<port>"
versus "Unable to connect to server on <hostname>:<port>"?

Would this be another reasonable feature request
to let "lpstat -r" respond on which hostname and port the
cupsd is running or where exactly it fails to connect?


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
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