Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Planning a Workgroup

Planning your Printer Conﬁguration

Chapter 2 111

Printer Types

A local printer is physically connected to your system. To conﬁgure a

local printer, see “Adding a Local Printer to the LP Spooler” on page 434.

A remote printer may be physically connected or simply conﬁgured to a

computer and accessed over a network via rlp (1M). To access the remote

printer, your system sends requests through the local area network

(LAN) to the other system. To conﬁgure a remote printer into your local

LP spooler, you must be able to access the remote system via the LAN. To

conﬁgure a remote printer, see “Adding a Remote Printer to the LP

Spooler” on page 436.

A network-based printer differs from a remote printer in that it is

connected directly to the LAN; it is not physically connected to a speciﬁc

system. Network printers do not use device special ﬁles, but have their

own IP address and LANIC identiﬁcation. See “Adding a Network-Based

Printer” on page 439.

Printer Name

When you conﬁgure a printer into the LP spooler, you assign it a printer

name, to which you direct print requests. A printer name may have up

to 14 alphanumeric characters and may include underscores. The

following are sample valid printer names: laser1, letterhead,

invoices, check_printer. The printer names you assign are listed in

the directory /usr/spool/lp/interface. Each ﬁle in that directory is a

copy of the model ﬁle (printer interface script) that enables you to print

to the named printer.

Printer Class

You can make efﬁcient use of multiple printers by grouping them as

though logically they were a single printer. To do so, you create a printer

class. A printer class is a collective name for a group of printers. The

printer class is retained in the directory /usr/spool/lp/class. For

example, our sample printers named laser1 and letterhead might be

assigned a printer class called VIP, while printers named invoices and

check_printer might be assigned a printer class called Accounts. A

printer can belong to more than one class, however remote printers

cannot belong to a printer class.