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>1. Introduction</H1
><P
>The Printing HOWTO should contain everything you need to know to
help you set up printing services on your GNU/Linux box(en). As
life would have it, it's a bit more complicated than in the
point-and-click world of Microsoft and Apple, but it's also a bit
more flexible and certainly easier to administer for large LANs.</P
><P
>This document is structured so that most people will only need to
read the first half or so. Most of the more obscure and
situation-dependent information in here is in the last half, and
can be easily located in the Table of Contents, whereas some
information through section 10 or 11 is probably needed by most
people.</P
><P
>If you find this document or the <A
HREF="http://www.linuxprinting.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>linuxprinting.org</A
> website useful, consider buying something (ink, for example)
through the referral links on the site; such purchases support
this effort.</P
><P
>The <A
HREF="http://www.linuxprinting.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>linuxprinting.org
website</A
> is a good place to find the latest version; it is
also, of course, distributed from <A
HREF="http://www.tldp.org"
TARGET="_top"
>tldp.org</A
> and your friendly local LDP
mirror.</P
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="terminology"
></A
>1.1. Terminology</H2
><P
>I try to use consistent terminology throughout this document, so
that users of all free Unix-like systems, and even users of
non-Unix-like free software, can benefit. Unfortunately, there are
many handy ambiguous names and many awkward unambiguous names, so
just to be clear, here's a quick glossary of what each name means:
<P
></P
><DIV
CLASS="variablelist"
><DL
><DT
>Unix</DT
><DD
><P
>Unix is an operating system constructed at Bell Labs by
various researchers. A variety of operating systems, mostly
commercial, are based on this code and are also included in
the name Unix.</P
></DD
><DT
>Un*x</DT
><DD
><P
>Un*x is an awkward word used to refer to every Unix-like
operating system. A Unixlike operating system provides
something similar to a POSIX programming interface as its
native API. GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, AIX, and even
special-purpose systems like Lynx and QNX are all Un*x.</P
></DD
><DT
>Linux</DT
><DD
><P
>Linux is a Unixlike kernel and a small assortment of
peripheral software written by Linus Torvalds and
hundreds of other programmers. It forms the foundation of
the most widely used Un*x operating system.</P
></DD
><DT
>GNU</DT
><DD
><P
>The GNU (GNU's Not Unix) project is a longtime development
effort to produce an entirely free Unixlike operating system.
The GNU Project is in many ways the father of most modern free
software efforts.</P
></DD
><DT
>GNU/Linux</DT
><DD
><P
>A GNU/Linux operating system is a complete system
comprised of the Linux kernel, its peripheral programs, and
the GNU runtime environment of libraries, utilities, end-user
software, etc. Red Hat, Debian, Caldera, SuSE, TurboLinux,
and similar companies are all commercial vendors of complete
GNU/Linux systems.</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="howto-hist"
></A
>1.2. History</H2
><P
>This have been severel generations of the Printing HOWTO. The history
of the PHT may be chronicled thusly:
<P
></P
><OL
TYPE="1"
><LI
><P
>Grant Taylor wrote the printing HOWTO in 1992 in response to all the
printing questions in comp.os.linux, and posted it. This
predated the HOWTO project by a few months and was the first
FAQlet called a `howto'. This edition was in plain ASCII.</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>After joining the HOWTO project, the Printing-HOWTO was merged
with an Lpd FAQ by Brian McCauley <TT
CLASS="literal"
>&#60;B.A.McCauley@bham.ac.uk&#62;</TT
>; Grant Taylor
continued to co-author the PHT for two years or so. At some
point he incorporated the work of Karl Auer <TT
CLASS="literal"
>&#60;Karl.Auer@anu.edu.au&#62;</TT
>. This
generation of the PHT was in TeXinfo, and available in PS,
HTML, ASCII, and Info.</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>After letting the PHT rot and decay for over a year, and an
unsuccessful attempt at getting someone else to maintain it,
this rewrite happened. This generation of the PHT is written
in SGML using the LinuxDoc DTD and the SGML-Tools-1 package.
Beginning with version 3.27, it incorporated a summary of a
companion printer support database; before 3.27 there was never
a printer compatibility list in this HOWTO (!).</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>In mid-January, 2000, Grand found out about the PDQ print
"spooler". PDQ provides a printing mechanism so much better
than lpd ever did that he spent several hours playing with it,
rewrote parts of this HOWTO, and bumped the version number of
the document to 4.</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>In mid-2000, Grant moved his printing website to <TT
CLASS="literal"
>www.linuxprinting.org</TT
>, and began offering
more powerful configuration tools there. He also converted the
HOWTO to DocBook, and initiated coverage of CUPS, LPRng, and
GPR/libppd.</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>In early 2001, Grant began using the GNU Free Documentation
License, which seems quite suitable. He also began an effort to
clarify what is and isn't Linux-specific; there are several
free Unixlike kernels out there, and they all use the same
printing software.</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>In early 2003, after listening to a presentation from Till Kampeter at FOSDEM, I (Dirk) decided to update this HOWTO. Since Grant last edited the HOWTO, CUPS has gotten more mature and a lot more popular.</P
></LI
></OL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="howto-copy"
></A
>1.3. Copyright</H2
><P
>Copyright (c) 1992-2001 Grant Taylor.</P
><P
>Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover
Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is
included in <A
HREF="gfdl.html"
>Appendix A</A
>.</P
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