Linux System Calls Question:

CUPS (formerly an acronym for Common Unix Printing System,
but now with no official expansion) is a modular printing
system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows
a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS
is a host that can accept print jobs from client computers,
process them, and send them to the appropriate printer.

If you are using a client with CUPS and a CUPS server has
already been configured, installing the printers on your
client can not get much easier than this: do nothing.
Through broadcasting, the client should find the CUPS server
and automatically configure the printers that are installed
on that print server. This is one of the features of CUPS
that will be really appreciated on large networks.

Manually configuring printers with CUPS, also is a peace of
cake. If you are new to CUPS and/or Unix printing, the way
to go is probably the web interface. If you have to
configure lots of printers, using the command-line will
probably be faster.

The URL to access the CUPS web interface is
http://hostname:631/admin by default. The port can be
changed in cupsd.conf if necessary.

To add a printer from the command-line the general syntax is
lpadmin -p printer -E -v device -m ppd Lpadmin with the -p
option adds or modifies a printer. The printers are saved in
the file The -x option deletes the named printer. Read the
lpadmin man page for available options.

Example 3. command-line examples

/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p testpr1 -E -v socket://192.168.1.9 -m
deskjet.ppd
/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p testpr2 -E -v parallel:/dev/lp0 -m
laserjet.ppd
/usr/sbin/lpadmin -x testpr1

More information about configuring printers and options can
be found in the CUPS documentation. The Software
Administrators Manual will teach you all you need to know
about configuring printers with CUPS.