CUPS - Common Unix Printing System

McSnarf writes "What is CUPS, anyhow? And does it make sense to buy a book about a GPLed piece of software? CUPS is an acronym for Common Unix Printing System, software that was written to replace the rather powerless printing system found in Unix and Linux. If you run any current Linux distro, the chances are that you already use CUPS for printing." That being the case, read on for McSnarf's review of Michael R. Sweet's book on the topic. CUPS - Common Unix Printing System author Michael R. Sweet pages 650 publisher SAMS Publishing rating 10 reviewer McSnarf ISBN 0672321963 summary More than just a complete reference to CUPS

Background Information CUPS is developed and maintained by Easy Software Products, which is co-owned by the author of the book, Mike Sweet.

The complete table of contents for CUPS - Common Unix Printing System, aka "The Octopus Book" can be found here. The CUPS web site also contains errata lists and example code. In addition, Easy Software Products sells a companion CD for the book, only available on their web site.

Who should read it? If you do not use a printer with Unix or Linux, or if you do and you are perfectly happy with the results (maybe because the distro came with all the right stuff pre-installed), this book is not for you.

However, if you are serious about printing, if you are considering replacing the outdated legacy printing system that came with your Unix or Linux or if you are a developer even remotely interested in Linux/Unix printing, this book is for you.

Did I mention that the Octopus Book is also very helpful when it comes to understanding IPP, the Internet Printing Protocol? If you tried to read through all the RFCs on IPP out there and managed to understand IPP afterwards -- congratulations! I tried that, failed, bought the Octopus Book and finally understood.

How will it help users and admins? This book will show you how to install, administer and use CUPS. While the documentation that comes with CUPS is very good already, having everything in one handy package has its advantages, especially as the book goes into more detail than the on-line documentation. In addition, this book will explain to you in great detail how to extend CUPS. If you've ever wanted to be able to directly print some rather unusual file type -- or need a mechanism to create PDF files and email a copy of each PDF whenever you print them to a certain printer, this book will tell you how to do that.

Anything for developers? Sure. Complete API documentation with loads of example code. Everything from "How can I add good printing support to my application" to "How do I write a printer driver?" is in there. Likes and dislikes Of course, no book is perfect. This book comes close, but you should know that a lot of it is already available for free on the CUPS web site. It also lacks details on how to rip the old printing system out of your legacy Unix -- but if you've got root, this is something you should know anyhow.

Another thing - it is not as funny as Terry Pratchett. But I can live with that.

As you might have noticed, I really like this book. It definitely made my work much easier -- I work for a manufacturer of (among other things) large printers and this (by now well-worn) book has been granted dedicated space on a very crowded desktop.

You can purchase CUPS - Common Unix Printing System from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Heh.

[American AC in Paris]

And does it make sense to buy a book about a GPLed piece of software?

...after all, you could just write "RTFM!" on a Post-It and stick it to your monitor.

Wah-Lah^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Walla^H^H^H^H^H Viola^H^H^H^H^H Voilà! Instant CUPS book!

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[grub]

We don't need a stinking printing system, remember that all these nifty computers are going to bring us the "Paperless Office"! At least thats what we were told in the 80s.

More than just a complete reference to CUPS

[Timesprout]

It has all the low down on saucers as well

Finally!

[inertia187]

Finally, a non-recursive UNIX acronym!

Re:lpd powerless?

[wiggys]

I guess the idea is to not use lpd for printing but instead use it for queueing up MP3 files.

So what should you use for printing? MPG123 of course!

pratchett

[grantsellis]

Another thing - it is not as funny as Terry Pratchett. But I can live with that.

Dude, if you can be as funny as Pratchett while writing about configuring printers then you're definitely in the wrong field.

Re:CUPS is part of the 'killer app' trilogy

[DShard]

Maybe even a "cookbook" series:
- Implementing CUPS for Sweet Printing Stuff.
- Using OpenLDAP: Why the hell you should.
etc...

I would like a Why the hell you should book series. It would make for a get row on my bookshelf. We could do a series for MS products two... Maintaining Exchange: What the f*ck were you thinking?

printing

[micromoog]

And does it make sense to buy a book about a GPLed piece of software?

Of course not, just download the man pages and print them ou-- oh, right.

Re:Question for CUPS experts...

[gpinzone]

sap|write documents to sap-out:\ :sd=/var/spool/lpd/sap:\ :if=/usr/local/lib/print-sap-out:\ :af=/var/spool/lpd/sap/acct:\ :lp=/dev/null:\ :bk:sh:mx#0:

See, that's what I like about Linux. It's so simple to configure. Anyone can use it!

Bible's in the public domain?

[DrCode]

Are you sure? In the US, copyrights stay in force until something like 50 years after the death of the author. But religious people believe that god wrote the bible, and they certainly don't believe that god is dead.

There could be a BIG lawsuit coming out of this.