Installation guide

The callouts in the /etc/printcap entry show the following possible
symbol syntaxes:
1 Specifies a symbol with alphabetic characters.
2 Specifies a symbol that represents a Boolean expression.
3 Specifies a symbol with a numeric value.
4 Specifies an entry for a remote printer. The lp, rm, rp, and sd symbols
are required for remote printers for which you are a client.
The first line of a printer entry contains the fields that specify the printer
primary reference name and printer name synonyms. This first line and
these fields are required for every printer, both local and remote.
The printer reference name is the name that you subsequently use in order
to specify printing to this printer. You can give each printer as many
alternative reference names as you want, but each field on the first line
must be separated with a vertical bar (|). The first line must end with a
colon (:).
_______________________ Note _______________________
A local printer entry in the /etc/printcap file should have the
default printer reference name lp0 so that print jobs can have a
destination when printer reference names are not specified in
print commands.
The remaining lines of each printer entry contain the descriptive symbols
and values that define the printer’s configuration. Symbols are
two-character mnemonics and can be specified with an equal sign (=) and
alphabetic characters or with a number sign (#) and a numeric value. Some
symbol names have Boolean equivalents, which do not use parameters. You
can specify the symbols on one line or on individual lines, but you must
separate them with colons (:).
To make the /etc/printcap file easy to read, you can place a colon (:) at
the beginning of a line and a backslash (\) at the end of a line to separate
the symbols.
Table 10–4 lists the printcap symbol names, the type of values they take,
default values, and descriptions.
Administering the Print Services 10–23