[cups.general] cups reload - what is it doing with queue?

Henri Shustak henri.shustak at gmail.com
Wed May 26 17:21:46 PDT 2010


>> we use a script to update printers.conf for CUPS. To tell CUPS to
>> re-read config file I tell CUPS to reload (`service cups reload' which
>> is sending HUP signal to his daemon).
>> 
>> My question which also is important for customer:
>> - what happens behind reload? It is cleaning printing queues? Would
>>  that impact currently running printing?
>> 
>> I could not find exact answer in documentation.
>> 
>> Thank you in advance for your explanation.
>> 
>> Jiri
> 
> As the scheduler itself (re)writes the printers.conf file (e.g. to store the 
> latest INFO or WARNING message etc.), it is only save to edit this file when 
> the schedulder is not running.
> 
> So you need in your script
> (1) shut down cupsd
> (2) update printers.conf
> (3) start cupsd again.
> 
> The "officially" recommended way to do things like this would be to execute 
> appropriate lpadmin commands instead in your script, which as the advantage 
> not to interrupt the CUPS service at all.
> 
> Helge


PrinterSetup is a CUPS queue management system. Essentially PrinterSetup is running lpadmin commands to remove, add and configure CUPS print queues. However, please note that the current release may not have all the functionality which you require for the setup of your queues.

Bundled with PrinterSetup is an example script which will generate PrinterSetup files from a running CUPS instance. If you are planning to make a script which calles lpadmin directly rather than using PrinterSetup, then you may find that script (mentioned above) is a helpful starting point for pulling about print queues from CUPS.

You may download PrinterSetup from the following URL : http://www.lucidsystems.org/printingworks/printersetup/


Disclaimer : I am involved with the development of PrinterSetup.


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