Looks like there's a reasonably tidy script for conventional print options with a nc back-end, so to speak.
Untested, but code reviewed with one eye.
Bye CUPS: Printing with Netcat
41–50 of 183 posts
Re: Bye CUPS: Printing with Netcat
#42The point of CUPS and of server middleware in general like PulseAudio and what not is when multiple clients all want to send output streams to the same sink. Just sending the stream directly to a device with no middleman works fine provided 1) the stream is encoded in a way the device understands, and 2) no one else is trying to use it at the same time. For a shared network resource like a printer, unless you live alone and are the only user on your LAN, betting no one else is sending a job to the printer at the same time might be a rough bet.
Even when it works, there might be downsides, as some other comments are alluding to. The long print time one mentioned is likely because while you're lucky that your printer understands how to transcode pdf to ps in order to print a pdf, the onboard processor on the printer is much weaker than whatever you have on your computer. Also beware that if you're doing this on a radio network, I don't think netcat can encrypt the traffic. So don't be printing your credit card statements this way.
Re: Bye CUPS: Printing with Netcat
#43Well, seems to be missing that for many, the point of CUPS is to take a regular, non-network enabled printer (parallel port, USB etc) and turn it into a networked printer...
https://www.freedomit.co.nz/kb-centos/76-using-port-9100-to-...
Re: Bye CUPS: Printing with Netcat
#44The point of CUPS and of server middleware in general like PulseAudio and what not is when multiple clients all want to send output streams to the same sink. Just sending the stream directly to a device with no middleman works fine provided 1) the stream is encoded in a way the device understands, and 2) no one else is trying to use it at the same time. For a shared network resource like a printer, unless you live al…
[deleted]
Re: Bye CUPS: Printing with Netcat
#45Wait until he finds out about /dev/tcp :) It actually blew my mind after doing Linux for 10 years. "Everything is a file" isn't a lie.
/dev/tcp is a lie though. It's not actually a file, it's implemented directly in bash.
Re: Bye CUPS: Printing with Netcat
#46Re: Bye CUPS: Printing with Netcat
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
At some point you may get bitten by just nc’ing files around as tcp checksums alone are not that great. A lot of transfers or large files will at some point introduce errors. This is where an application layer error check may be desirable.
Is that really the case? (I mean i know in theory, but in practise does it matter?). Its not like http has its own checksum, and i've never had problems downloading over http (yes https does have better checksums, but i suspect it would just fail and not auto retry, which has never happened to me)
I've always verified the checksums of files transmitted via netcat and occasionally I have had different checksums. It's rare, and only on gigabyte+ files, but it has happened.
Re: Bye CUPS: Printing with Netcat
#48My first introduction to the internet was downloading Magic the Gathering card lists as postscript files via FTP and then FTPing them to a postscript printer. Would have been 1994 and they were some sort of Sun machine at LMU. Internet has been all downhill since then.
...all downhill since then. Well said greybeard, well said. https://dilbert.com/strip/1995-06-24
Re: Bye CUPS: Printing with Netcat
#49Well, seems to be missing that for many, the point of CUPS is to take a regular, non-network enabled printer (parallel port, USB etc) and turn it into a networked printer... https://www.freedomit.co.nz/kb-centos/76-using-port-9100-to-...
That's definitely not true. That is a side-effect of CUPS, but CUPS exists very much in the same realm as PulseAudio and other service-enabling frameworks around hardware. It allows software/clients to interface with printers in a seamless and safe manner.
Re: Bye CUPS: Printing with Netcat
#50In a former life, I was doing tech support for UPS in the early-mid 90's I played around quite a bit with the commands to reset the various serial printers via echo and port targets. Not surprised things have moved beyond this.
Nice to see that .pdf pretty much just works.