cups-browsed.conf(5) cups-browsed.conf(5)
NAME
cups-browsed.conf - server configuration file for cups-browsed
DESCRIPTION
The cups-browsed.conf file configures the cups-browsed daemon. It is
normally located in the /etc/cups directory. Each line in the file can
be a configuration directive, a blank line, or a comment. Comment lines
start with the # character.
DIRECTIVES
The "CacheDir" directive determines where cups-browsed should save in-
formation about the print queues it had generated when shutting down,
like whether one of these queues was the default printer, or default op-
tion settings of the queues.
CacheDir /var/cache/cups
With "LogDir" can be defined where cups-browsed creates its debug log
file (if "DebugLogging file" is set).
LogDir /var/log/cups
The "DebugLogging" directive determines how should debug logging be
done. Into the file /var/log/cups/cups-browsed_log ("file"), to stderr
("stderr"), or not at all ("none").
Note that if cups-browsed is running as a system service (for example
via systemd) logging to stderr makes the log output going to the journal
or syslog. Only if you run cups-browsed from the command line (for de-
velopment or debugging) it will actually appear on stderr.
DebugLogging file
DebugLogging stderr
DebugLogging file stderr
DebugLogging none
Only browse remote printers (via DNS-SD or CUPS browsing) from selected
servers using the "BrowseAllow", "BrowseDeny", and "BrowseOrder" direc-
tives
This serves for restricting the choice of printers in print dialogs to
trusted servers or to reduce the number of listed printers in the print
dialogs to a more user-friendly amount in large networks with very many
shared printers.
This only filters the selection of remote printers for which cups-
browsed creates local queues. If the print dialog uses other mechanisms
to list remote printers as for example direct DNS-SD access, cups-
browsed has no influence. cups-browsed also does not prevent the user
from manually accessing non-listed printers.
"BrowseAllow": Accept printers from these hosts or networks. If there
are only "BrowseAllow" lines and no "BrowseOrder" and/or "BrowseDeny"
lines, only servers matching at last one "BrowseAllow" line are ac-
cepted.
"BrowseDeny": Deny printers from these hosts or networks. If there are
only "BrowseDeny" lines and no "BrowseOrder" and/or "BrowseAllow" lines,
all servers NOT matching any of the "BrowseDeny" lines are accepted.
"BrowseOrder": Determine the order in which "BrowseAllow" and
"BrowseDeny" lines are applied. With "BrowseOrder Deny,Allow" in the be-
ginning all servers are accepted, then the "BrowseDeny" lines are ap-
plied to exclude unwished servers or networks and after that the
"BrowseAllow" lines to re-include servers or networks. With "BrowseOrder
Allow,Deny" we start with denying all servers, then applying the
"BrowseAllow" lines and afterwards the "BrowseDeny" lines.
Default for "BrowseOrder" is "Deny.Allow" if there are both "BrowseAl-
low" and "BrowseDeny" lines.
If there are no "Browse..." lines at all, all servers are accepted.
BrowseAllow All
BrowseAllow 192.168.7.20
BrowseAllow 192.168.7.0/24
BrowseAllow 192.168.7.0/255.255.255.0
BrowseDeny All
BrowseDeny 192.168.1.13
BrowseDeny 192.168.3.0/24
BrowseDeny 192.168.3.0/255.255.255.0
BrowseOrder Deny,Allow
BrowseOrder Allow,Deny
Filtering of remote printers by other properties than IP addresses of
their servers
Often the desired selection of printers cannot be reached by only taking
into account the IP addresses of the servers. For these cases there is
the BrowseFilter directive to filter by most of the known properties of
the printer.
By default there is no BrowseFilter line meaning that no filtering is
applied.
To do filtering one can supply one or more BrowseFilter directives like
this:
BrowseFilter [NOT] [EXACT] <FIELD> [<VALUE>]
The BrowseFilter directive always starts with the word "BrowseFilter"
and it must at least contain the name of the data field (<FIELD>) of the
printer's properties to which it should apply.
Available field names are:
name: Name of the local print queue to be created
host: Host name of the remote print server
port: Port through which the printer is accessed on the server
service: DNS/SD service name of the remote printer
domain: Domain of the remote print server
Also all field names in the TXT records of DNS-SD-advertised printers
are valid, like "color", "duplex", "pdl", ... If the field name of the
filter rule does not exist for the printer, the rule is skipped.
The optional <VALUE> field is either the exact value (when the option
EXACT is supplied) or a regular expression (Run "man 7 regex" in a ter-
minal window) to be matched with the data field.
If no <VALUE> filed is supplied, rules with field names of the TXT
record are considered for boolean matching (true/false) of boolean field
(like duplex, which can have the values "T" for true and "F" for false).
If the option NOT is supplied, the filter rule is fulfilled if the regu-
lar expression or the exact value DOES NOT match the content of the data
field. In a boolean rule (without <VALUE>) the rule matches false.
Regular expressions are always considered case-insensitive and extended
POSIX regular expressions. Field names and options (NOT, EXACT) are all
evaluated case-insensitive. If there is an error in a regular expres-
sion, the BrowseFilter line gets ignored.
Especially to note is that supplying any simple string consisting of
only letters, numbers, spaces, and some basic special characters as a
regular expression matches if it is contained somewhere in the data
field.
If there is more than one BrowseFilter directive, ALL the directives
need to be fulfilled for the remote printer to be accepted. If one is
not fulfilled, the printer will get ignored.
Examples:
Rules for standard data items which are supplied with any remote printer
advertised via DNS-SD:
Print queue name must contain "hum_res_", this matches "hum_res_mono" or
"hum_res_color" but also "old_hum_res_mono":
BrowseFilter name hum_res_
This matches if the remote host name contains "printserver", like
"printserver.local", "printserver2.example.com", "newprintserver":
BrowseFilter host printserver
This matches all ports with 631 int its number, for example 631, 8631,
10631,...:
BrowseFilter port 631
This rule matches if the DNS-SD service name contains "@ printserver":
Browsefilter service @ printserver
Matches all domains with "local" in their names, not only "local" but
also things like "printlocally.com":
BrowseFilter domain local
Examples for rules applying to items of the TXT record:
This rule selects PostScript printers, as the "PDL" field in the TXT
record contains "postscript" then. This includes also remote CUPS queues
which accept PostScript, independent of whether the physical printer be-
hind the CUPS queue accepts PostScript or not.
BrowseFilter pdl postscript
Color printers usually contain a "Color" entry set to "T" (for true) in
the TXT record. This rule selects them:
BrowseFilter color
This is a similar rule to select only duplex (automatic double-sided
printing) printers:
BrowseFilter duplex
Rules with the NOT option:
This rule EXCLUDES printers from all hosts containing "financial" in
their names, nice to get rid of the 100s of printers of the financial
department:
BrowseFilter NOT host financial
Get only monochrome printers ("Color" set to "F", meaning false, in the
TXT record):
BrowseFilter NOT color
Rules with more advanced use of regular expressions:
Only queue names which BEGIN WITH "hum_res_" are accepted now, so we
still get "hum_res_mono" or "hum_res_color" but not "old_hum_res_mono"
any more:
BrowseFilter name ^hum_res_
Server names is accepted if it contains "print_server" OR "graph-
ics_dep_server":
BrowseFilter host print_server|graphics_dep_server
"printserver1", "printserver2", and "printserver3", nothing else:
BrowseFilter host ^printserver[1-3]$
Printers understanding at least one of PostScript, PCL, or PDF:
BrowseFilter pdl postscript|pcl|pdf
Examples for the EXACT option:
Only printers from "printserver.local" are accepted:
BrowseFilter EXACT host printserver.local
Printers from all servers except "prinserver2.local" are accepted:
BrowseFilter NOT EXACT host prinserver2.local
The BrowsePoll directive polls a server for available printers once
every 60 seconds. Multiple BrowsePoll directives can be specified to
poll multiple servers. The default port to connect to is 631. Browse-
Poll works independently of whether CUPS browsing is activated in
BrowseRemoteProtocols.
BrowsePoll 192.168.7.20
BrowsePoll 192.168.7.65:631
BrowsePoll host.example.com:631
The BrowseLocalProtocols directive specifies the protocols to use when
advertising local shared printers on the network. The default is "none".
Control of advertising of local shared printers using dnssd is done in
/etc/cups/cupsd.conf.
BrowseLocalProtocols none
BrowseLocalProtocols CUPS
The BrowseRemoteProtocols directive specifies the protocols to use when
finding remote shared printers on the network. Multiple protocols can be
specified by separating them with spaces. The default is "dnssd cups".
BrowseRemoteProtocols none
BrowseRemoteProtocols CUPS dnssd
BrowseRemoteProtocols CUPS
BrowseRemoteProtocols dnssd
BrowseRemoteProtocols ldap
The BrowseProtocols directive specifies the protocols to use when find-
ing remote shared printers on the network and advertising local shared
printers. "dnssd" and "ldap" are ignored for BrowseLocalProtocols. Mul-
tiple protocols can be specified by separating them with spaces. The de-
fault is "none" for BrowseLocalProtocols and "dnssd cups" for BrowseRe-
moteProtocols.
BrowseProtocols none
BrowseProtocols CUPS dnssd
BrowseProtocols CUPS
BrowseProtocols dnssd
BrowseProtocols ldap
The configuration for the LDAP browsing mode define where the LDAP
search should be performed. If built with an LDAP library that supports
TLS, the path to the server's certificate, or to a certificates store,
can be specified. The optional filter allows the LDAP search to be more
specific, and is used in addition to the hardcoded filter (object-
class=cupsPrinter).
BrowseLDAPBindDN cn=cups-browsed,dc=domain,dc=tld
BrowseLDAPCACertFile /path/to/server/certificate.pem
BrowseLDAPDN ou=printers,dc=domain,dc=tld
BrowseLDAPFilter (printerLocation=/Office 1/*)
BrowseLDAPPassword s3cret
BrowseLDAPServer ldaps://ldap.domain.tld
The DomainSocket directive specifies the domain socket through which the
locally running CUPS daemon is accessed. If not specified the standard
domain socket of CUPS is used. Use this if you have specified an alter-
native domain socket for CUPS via a Listen directive in
/etc/cups/cupsd.conf. If cups-browsed is not able to access the local
CUPS daemon via a domain socket it accesses it via localhost. "None" or
"Off" lets cups-browsed not use CUPS' domain socket.
DomainSocket /var/run/cups/cups.sock
DomainSocket None
DomainSocket Off
Set HTTP timeout (in seconds) for requests sent to local/remote re-
sources Note that too short timeouts can make services getting missed
when they are present and operations be unnecessarily repeated and too
long timeouts can make operations take too long when the server does not
respond.
HttpLocalTimeout 5
HttpRemoteTimeout 10
Set how many retries (N) should cups-browsed do for creating print
queues for remote printers which receive timeouts during print queue
creation. The printers which are not successfully set up even after N
retries, are skipped until the next restart of the service. Note that
too many retries can cause high CPU load.
HttpMaxRetries 5
The interval between browsing/broadcasting cycles, local and/or remote,
can be adjusted with the BrowseInterval directive.
BrowseInterval 60
The BrowseTimeout directive determines the amount of time that browsing-
related operations are allowed to take in seconds. Notably, adding or
removing one printer queue is considered as one operation. The timeout
applies to each one of those operations. Especially queues discovered
by CUPS broadcasts will be removed after this timeout if no further
broadcast from the server happens.
BrowseTimeout 300
The AllowResharingRemoteCUPSPrinters directive determines whether a
print queue pointing to a remote CUPS queue will be re-shared to the lo-
cal network or not. Since the queues generated using the BrowsePoll di-
rective are also pointing to remote queues, they are also shared auto-
matically if the following option is set. Default is not to share remote
queues.
AllowResharingRemoteCUPSPrinters Yes
The NewBrowsePollQueuesShared directive determines whether a print queue
for a newly discovered printer (discovered by the BrowsePoll directive)
will be shared to the local network or not. This directive will only
work if AllowResharingRemoteCUPSPrinters is set to yes. Default is not
to share printers discovered using BrowsePoll.
NewBrowsePollQueuesShared Yes
Set OnlyUnsupportedByCUPS to "Yes" will make cups-browsed not create lo-
cal queues for remote printers for which CUPS creates queues by itself.
These printers are printers advertised via DNS-SD and doing CUPS-sup-
ported (currently PWG Raster and Apple Raster) driverless printing, in-
cluding remote CUPS queues. Queues for other printers (like for legacy
PostScript/PCL printers) are always created (depending on the other con-
figuration settings of cups-browsed).
With OnlyUnsupportedByCUPS set to "No", cups-browsed creates queues for
all printers which it supports, including printers for which CUPS would
create queues by itself. Temporary queues created by CUPS will get over-
written. This way it is assured that any extra functionality of cups-
browsed will apply to these queues. As queues created by cups-browsed
are permanent CUPS queues this setting is also recommended if applica-
tions/print dialogs which do not support temporary CUPS queues are in-
stalled. This setting is the default.
OnlyUnsupportedByCUPS Yes
With UseCUPSGeneratedPPDs set to "Yes" cups-browsed creates queues for
IPP printers with PPDs generated by the PPD generator of CUPS and not
with the one of cups-browsed. So any new development in CUPS' PPD gener-
ator gets available. As CUPS' PPD generator is not directly accessible,
we need to make CUPS generate a temporary print queue with the desired
PPD. Therefore we can only use these PPDs when our queue replaces a tem-
porary CUPS queue, meaning that the queue is for a printer on which CUPS
supports driverless printing (IPP 2.x, PDLs: PDF, PWG Raster, and/or Ap-
ple Raster) and that its name is the same as CUPS uses for the temporary
queue ("LocalQueueNamingIPPPrinter DNS-SD" must be set). The directive
applies only to IPP printers, not to remote CUPS queues, to not break
clustering. Setting this directive to "No" lets cups-browsed generate
the PPD file. Default setting is "No".
UseCUPSGeneratedPPDs No
With the directives LocalQueueNamingRemoteCUPS and LocalQueueNamingIPP-
Printer you can determine how the names for local queues generated by
cups-browsed are generated, separately for remote CUPS printers and IPP
printers.
"DNS-SD" (the default in both cases) bases the naming on the service
name of the printer's advertised DNS-SD record. This is exactly the same
naming scheme as CUPS uses for its temporary queues, so the local queue
from cups-browsed prevents CUPS from listing and creating an additional
queue. As DNS-SD service names have to be unique, queue names of print-
ers from different servers will also be unique and so there is no auto-
matic clustering for load-balanced printing.
"MakeModel" bases the queue name on the printer's manufacturer and model
names. This scheme cups-browsed used formerly for IPP printers.
"RemoteName" is only available for remote CUPS queues and uses the name
of the queue on the remote CUPS server as the local queue's name. This
makes printers on different CUPS servers with equal queue names automat-
ically forming a load-balancing cluster as CUPS did formerly (CUPS 1.5.x
and older) with CUPS-broadcasted remote printers. This scheme cups-
browsed used formerly for remote CUPS printers.
LocalQueueNamingRemoteCUPS DNS-SD
LocalQueueNamingRemoteCUPS MakeModel
LocalQueueNamingRemoteCUPS RemoteName
LocalQueueNamingIPPPrinter DNS-SD
LocalQueueNamingIPPPrinter MakeModel
Set DNSSDBasedDeviceURIs to "Yes" if cups-browsed should use DNS-SD-ser-
vice-name-based device URIs for its local queues, as CUPS also does.
These queues use the DNS-SD service name of the discovered printer. With
this the URI is independent of network interfaces and ports, giving re-
liable connections to always the same physical device. This setting is
the default.
Set DNSSDBasedDeviceURIs to "No" if cups-browsed should use the conven-
tional host-name/IP-based URIs.
Note that this option has only influence on URIs for printers discovered
via DNS-SD, not via legacy CUPS broewsing or LDAP. Those printers get
always assigned the conventional URIs.
DNSSDBasedDeviceURIs Yes
Set IPBasedDeviceURIs to "Yes" if cups-browsed should create its local
queues with device URIs with the IP addresses instead of the host names
of the remote servers. This mode is there for any problems with host
name resolution in the network, especially also if avahi-daemon is only
run for printer discovery and already stopped while still printing. By
default this mode is turned off, meaning that we use URIs with host
names.
Note that the IP addresses depend on the network interface through which
the printer is accessed. So do not use IP-based URIs on systems with
many network interfaces and where interfaces can appear and disappear
frequently.
This mode could also be useful for development and debugging.
If you prefer IPv4 or IPv6 IP addresses in the URIs, you can set IP-
BasedDeviceURIs to "IPv4" to only get IPv4 IP addresses or IPBasedDe-
viceURIs to "IPv6" to only get IPv6 IP addresses.
IPBasedDeviceURIs No
IPBasedDeviceURIs Yes
IPBasedDeviceURIs IPv4
IPBasedDeviceURIs IPv6
Set CreateRemoteRawPrinterQueues to "Yes" to let cups-browsed also cre-
ate local queues pointing to remote raw CUPS queues. Normally, only
queues pointing to remote queues with PPD/driver are created as we do
not use drivers on the client side, but in some cases accessing a remote
raw queue can make sense, for example if the queue forwards the jobs by
a special backend like Tea4CUPS.
CreateRemoteRawPrinterQueues Yes
cups-browsed by default creates local print queues for each shared CUPS
print queue which it discovers on remote machines in the local net-
work(s). Set CreateRemoteCUPSPrinterQueues to "No" if you do not want
cups-browsed to do this. For example you can set cups-browsed to only
create queues for IPP network printers setting CreateIPPPrinterQueues
not to "No" and CreateRemoteCUPSPrinterQueues to "No".
CreateRemoteCUPSPrinterQueues No
Set CreateIPPPrinterQueues to "All" to let cups-browsed discover IPP
network printers (native printers, not CUPS queues) with known page de-
scription languages (PWG Raster, PDF, PostScript, PCL XL, PCL 5c/e) in
the local network and auto-create print queues for them.
Set CreateIPPPrinterQueues to "Everywhere" to let cups-browsed discover
IPP Everywhere printers in the local network (native printers, not CUPS
queues) and auto-create print queues for them.
Set CreateIPPPrinterQueues to "AppleRaster" to let cups-browsed discover
Apple Raster printers in the local network (native printers, not CUPS
queues) and auto-create print queues for them.
Set CreateIPPPrinterQueues to "Driverless" to let cups-browsed discover
printers designed for driverless use (currently IPP Everywhere and Apple
Raster) in the local network (native printers, not CUPS queues) and
auto-create print queues for them.
Set CreateIPPPrinterQueues to "LocalOnly" to auto-create print queues
only for local printers made available as IPP printers. These are for
example IPP-over-USB printers, made available via ippusbxd(8). This is
the default.
Set CreateIPPPrinterQueues to "No" to not auto-create print queues for
IPP network printers.
If queues with PPD file are created (see IPPPrinterQueueType directive
below) the PPDs are auto-generated by cups-browsed based on properties
of the printer polled via IPP. In case of missing information, info from
the Bonjour record is used asd as last mean default values.
If queues without PPD (see IPPPrinterQueueType directive below) are cre-
ated clients have to IPP-poll the capabilities of the printer and send
option settings as standard IPP attributes. Then we do not poll the ca-
pabilities by ourselves to not wake up the printer from power-saving
mode when creating the queues. Jobs have to be sent in one of PDF, PWG
Raster, or JPEG format. Other formats are not accepted.
This functionality is primarily for mobile devices running CUPS to not
need a printer setup tool nor a collection of printer drivers and PPDs.
CreateIPPPrinterQueues No
CreateIPPPrinterQueues LocalOnly
CreateIPPPrinterQueues Everywhere
CreateIPPPrinterQueues AppleRaster
CreateIPPPrinterQueues Everywhere AppleRaster
CreateIPPPrinterQueues Driverless
CreateIPPPrinterQueues All
If cups-browsed is automatically creating print queues for native IPP
network printers ("CreateIPPPrinterQueues Yes"), the type of queue to be
created can be selected by the "IPPPrinterQueueType" directive. The
"PPD" (default) setting makes queues with PPD file being created. With
"Interface" or "NoPPD" the queue is created with a System V interface
script (Not supported with CUPS 2.2.x or later). "Auto" is for backward
compatibility and also lets queues with PPD get created.
IPPPrinterQueueType PPD
IPPPrinterQueueType NoPPD
IPPPrinterQueueType Interface
IPPPrinterQueueType Auto
The NewIPPPrinterQueuesShared directive determines whether a print queue
for a newly discovered IPP network printer (not remote CUPS queue) will
be shared to the local network or not. This is only valid for newly dis-
covered printers. For printers discovered in an earlier cups-browsed
session, cups-browsed will remember whether the printer was shared, so
changes by the user get conserved. Default is not to share newly discov-
ered IPP printers.
NewIPPPrinterQueuesShared Yes
How to handle the print queues cups-browsed creates when cups-browsed is
shut down:
"KeepGeneratedQueuesOnShutdown No" makes the queues being removed. This
makes sense as these queues only work while cups-browsed is running.
cups-browsed has to determine to which member printer of a cluster to
pass on the job.
"KeepGeneratedQueuesOnShutdown Yes" (the default) makes the queues not
being removed. This is the recommended setting for a system where cups-
browsed is permanently running and only stopped for short times (like
log rotation) or on shutdown. This avoids the re-creation of the queues
when cups-browsed is restarted, which often causes a clutter of CUPS no-
tifications on the desktop.
KeepGeneratedQueuesOnShutdown No
If there is more than one remote CUPS printer whose local queue would
get the same name and AutoClustering is set to "Yes" (the default) only
one local queue is created which makes up a load-balancing cluster of
the remote printers which would get this queue name (implicit class).
This means that when several jobs are sent to this queue they get dis-
tributed between the printers, using the method chosen by the LoadBal-
ancing directive.
Note that the forming of clusters depends on the naming scheme for local
queues created by cups-browsed. If you have set LocalQueueNamingRemote-
CUPS to "DNSSD" you will not get automatic clustering as the DNS-SD ser-
vice names are always unique. With LocalQueueNamingRemoteCUPS set to
"RemoteName" local queues are named as the CUPS queues on the remote
servers are named and so equally named queues on different servers get
clustered (this is how CUPS did it in version 1.5.x or older). Lo-
calQueueNamingRemoteCUPS set to "MakeModel" makes remote printers of the
same model get clustered. Note that then a cluster can contain more than
one queue of the same server.
With AutoClustering set to "No", for each remote CUPS printer an indi-
vidual local queue is created, and to avoid name clashes when using the
LocalQueueNamingRemoteCUPS settings "RemoteName" or "MakeModel"
"@<server name>" is added to the local queue name.
Only remote CUPS printers get clustered, not IPP network printers or
IPP-over-USB printers.
AutoClustering Yes
AutoClustering No
Load-balancing printer cluster formation can also be manually controlled
by defining explicitly which remote CUPS printers should get clustered
together.
This is done by the "Cluster" directive:
Cluster <QUEUENAME>: <EXPRESSION1> <EXPRESSION2> ...
Cluster <QUEUENAME>
If no expressions are given, <QUEUENAME> is used as the first and only
expression for this cluster.
Discovered printers are matched against all the expressions of all de-
fined clusters. The first expression which matches the discovered
printer determines to which cluster it belongs. Note that this way a
printer can only belong to one cluster. Once matched, further cluster
definitions will not checked any more.
With the first printer matching a cluster's expression a local queue
with the name <QUEUENAME> is created. If more printers are discovered
and match this cluster, they join the cluster. Printing to this queue
prints to all these printers in a load-balancing manner, according to to
the setting of the LoadBalancing directive.
Each expression must be a string of characters without spaces. If spaces
are needed, replace them by underscores ('_').
An expression can be matched in three ways:
1. By the name of the CUPS queue on the remote server
2. By make and model name of the remote printer
3. By the DNS-SD service name of the remote printer
Note that the matching is done case-insensitively and any group of non-
alphanumerical characters is replaced by a single underscore.
So if an expression is "HP_DeskJet_2540" and the remote server reports
"hp Deskjet-2540" the printer gets matched to this cluster.
If "AutoClustering" is not set to "No" both your manual cluster defini-
tions will be followed and automatic clustering of equally-named remote
queues will be performed. If a printer matches in both categories the
match to the manually defined cluster has priority. Automatic clustering
of equally-named remote printers is not performed if there is a manually
defined cluster with this name (at least as the printers do not match
this cluster).
Examples:
To cluster all remote CUPS queues named "laserprinter" in your local
network but not cluster any other equally-named remote CUPS printers use
(Local queue will get named "laserprinter"):
AutoClustering No
Cluster laserprinter
To cluster all remote CUPS queues of HP LaserJet 4050 printers in a lo-
cal queue named "LJ4050":
Cluster LJ4050: HP_LaserJet_4050
As DNS-SD service names are unique in a network you can create a cluster
from exactly specified printers (spaces replaced by underscores):
Cluster hrdep: oldlaser_@_hr-server1 newlaser_@_hr-server2
The LoadBalancing directive switches between two methods of handling
load balancing between equally-named remote queues which are represented
by one local print queue making up a cluster of them (implicit class).
The two methods are:
Queuing of jobs on the client (LoadBalancing QueueOnClient):
Here we queue up the jobs on the client and regularly check the clus-
tered remote print queues. If we find an idle queue, we pass on a job to
it.
This is also the method which CUPS uses for classes. Advantage is a more
even distribution of the job workload on the servers (especially if the
printing speed of the servers is very different), and if a server fails,
there are not several jobs stuck or lost. Disadvantage is that if one
takes the client (laptop, mobile phone, ...) out of the local network,
printing stops with the jobs waiting in the local queue.
Queuing of jobs on the servers (LoadBalancing QueueOnServers):
Here we check the number of jobs on each of the clustered remote print-
ers and send an incoming job immediately to the remote printer with the
lowest amount of jobs in its queue. This way no jobs queue up locally,
all jobs which are waiting are waiting on one of the remote servers.
Not having jobs waiting locally has the advantage that we can take the
local machine from the network and all jobs get printed. Disadvantage
is that if a server with a full queue of jobs goes away, the jobs go
away, too.
Default is queuing the jobs on the client as this is what CUPS does with
classes.
LoadBalancing QueueOnClient
LoadBalancing QueueOnServers
With the DefaultOptions directive one or more option settings can be de-
fined to be applied to every print queue newly created by cups-browsed.
Each option is supplied as one supplies options with the "-o" command
line argument to the "lpadmin" command (Run "man lpadmin" for more de-
tails). More than one option can be supplied separating the options by
spaces. By default no option settings are pre-defined.
Note that print queues which cups-browsed already created before remem-
ber their previous settings and so these settings do not get applied.
DefaultOptions Option1=Value1 Option2=Value2 Option3 noOption4
The AutoShutdown directive specifies whether cups-browsed should auto-
matically terminate when it has no local raw queues set up pointing to
any discovered remote printers or no jobs on such queues depending on
AutoShutdownOn setting (auto shutdown mode). Setting it to "On" acti-
vates the auto-shutdown mode, setting it to "Off" deactivates it (the
default). The special mode "avahi" turns auto shutdown off while avahi-
daemon is running and on when avahi-daemon stops. This allows running
cups-browsed on-demand when avahi-daemon is run on-demand.
AutoShutdown Off
AutoShutdown On
AutoShutdown avahi
The AutoShutdownOn directive determines what event cups-browsed consid-
ers as inactivity in auto shutdown mode. "NoQueues" (the default) means
that auto shutdown is initiated when there are no queues for discovered
remote printers generated by cups-browsed any more. "NoJobs" means that
all queues generated by cups-browsed are without jobs.
AutoShutdownOn NoQueues
AutoShutdownOn NoJobs
DebugLogFileSize defines the maximum size possible (in KBytes) of the
log files (cups-browsed_log and cups-browsed_previous_logs) that is cre-
ated using cups-browsed in the debugging mode. Setting its value to 0
would turn off any restriction on the size of the file.
DebugLogFileSize 300
The AutoShutdownTimeout directive specifies after how many seconds with-
out local raw queues set up pointing to any discovered remote printers
or jobs on these queues cups-browsed should actually shut down in auto
shutdown mode. Default is 30 seconds, 0 means immediate shutdown.
AutoShutdownTimeout 20
NotifLeaseDuration defines how long the D-BUS subscription created by
cups-browsed in cupsd will last before cupsd cancels it. The default
value is 1 day in seconds - 86400. The subscription renewal is set to
happen after half of NotifLeaseDuration passed. The D-BUS notifications
are used for watching over queues and doing specific actions when a D-
BUS notification comes.
NotifLeaseDuration 86400
SEE ALSO
cups-browsed(8)
/usr/share/doc/cups-browsed/README.gz
AUTHOR
The authors of cups-browsed are listed in /usr/share/doc/cups-
browsed/AUTHORS.
This manual page was written for the Debian Project, but it may be used
by others.
29 June 2013 cups-browsed.conf(5)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Sat Oct 3 07:34:42 CEST 2026.