.\"

.\" cups (intro) man page for CUPS.

.\"

.\" Copyright 2007-2014 by Apple Inc.

.\" Copyright 1997-2006 by Easy Software Products.

.\"

.\" These coded instructions, statements, and computer programs are the

.\" property of Apple Inc. and are protected by Federal copyright

.\" law.  Distribution and use rights are outlined in the file "LICENSE.txt"

.\" which should have been included with this file.  If this file is

.\" file is missing or damaged, see the license at "http://www.cups.org/".

.\"

.TH cups 1 "CUPS" "16 April 2014" "Apple Inc."

.SH NAME

cups \- a standards-based, open source printing system

.SH DESCRIPTION

.B CUPS

is the software you use to print from applications like word processors, email readers, photo editors, and web browsers. It converts the page descriptions produced by your application (put a paragraph here, draw a line there, and so forth) into something your printer can understand and then sends the information to the printer for printing.

.LP

Now, since every printer manufacturer does things differently, printing can be very complicated.

.B CUPS

does its best to hide this from you and your application so that you can concentrate on printing and less on how to print. Generally, the only time you need to know anything about your printer is when you use it for the first time, and even then

.B CUPS

can often figure things out on its own.

.SS HOW DOES IT WORK?

The first time you print to a printer,

.B CUPS

creates a queue to keep track of the current status of the printer (everything OK, out of paper, etc.) and any pages you have printed. Most of the time the queue points to a printer connected directly to your computer via a USB port, however it can also point to a printer on your network, a printer on the Internet, or multiple printers depending on the configuration. Regardless of where the queue points, it will look like any other printer to you and your applications.

.LP

Every time you print something,

.B CUPS

creates a job which contains the queue you are sending the print to, the name of the document you are printing, and the page descriptions. Job are numbered (queue-1, queue-2, and so forth) so you can monitor the job as it is printed or cancel it if you see a mistake. When

.B CUPS

gets a job for printing, it determines the best programs (filters, printer drivers, port monitors, and backends) to convert the pages into a printable format and then runs them to actually print the job.

.LP

When the print job is completely printed,

.B CUPS

removes the job from the queue and moves on to any other jobs you have submitted. You can also be notified when the job is finished, or if there are any errors during printing, in several different ways.

.SS WHERE DO I BEGIN?

The easiest way to start is by using the web interface to configure your printer. Go to "http://localhost:631" and choose the Administration tab at the top of the page. Click/press on the Add Printer button and follow the prompts.

.LP

When you are asked for a username and password, enter your login username and password or the "root" username and password.

.LP

After the printer is added you will be asked to set the default printer options (paper size, output mode, etc.) for the printer. Make any changes as needed and then click/press on the Set Default Options button to save them. Some printers also support auto-configuration - click/press on the Query Printer for Default Options button to update the options automatically.

.LP

Once you have added the printer, you can print to it from any application. You can also choose Print Test Page from the maintenance menu to print a simple test page and verify that everything is working properly.

.LP

You can also use the

.BR lpadmin (8)

and

.BR lpinfo (8)

commands to add printers to

.BR CUPS .

Additionally, your operating system may include graphical user interfaces or automatically create printer queues when you connect a printer to your computer.

.SS HOW DO I GET HELP?

The

.B CUPS

web site (http://www.CUPS.org) provides access to the

.I cups

and

.I cups-devel

mailing lists, additional documentation and resources, and a bug report database. Most vendors also provide online discussion forums to ask printing questions for your operating system of choice.

.SH ENVIRONMENT

.B CUPS

commands use the following environment variables to override the default locations of files and so forth. For security reasons, these environment variables are ignored for setuid programs:

.TP 5

.B CUPS_ANYROOT

Whether to allow any X.509 certificate root (Y or N).

.TP 5

.B CUPS_CACHEDIR

The directory where semi-persistent cache files can be found.

.TP 5

.B CUPS_DATADIR

The directory where data files can be found.

.TP 5

.B CUPS_ENCRYPTION

The default level of encryption (Always, IfRequested, Never, Required).

.TP 5

.B CUPS_EXPIREDCERTS

Whether to allow expired X.509 certificates (Y or N).

.TP 5

.B CUPS_GSSSERVICENAME

The Kerberos service name used for authentication.

.TP 5

.B CUPS_SERVER

The hostname/IP address and port number of the CUPS scheduler (hostname:port or ipaddress:port).

.TP 5

.B CUPS_SERVERBIN

The directory where server helper programs, filters, backend, etc. can be found.

.TP 5

.B CUPS_SERVERROOT

The root directory of the server.

.TP 5

.B CUPS_STATEDIR

The directory where state files can be found.

.TP 5

.B CUPS_USER

Specifies the name of the user for print requests.

.TP 5

.B HOME

Specifies the home directory of the current user.

.TP 5

.B IPP_PORT

Specifies the default port number for IPP requests.

.TP 5

.B LOCALEDIR

Specifies the location of localization files.

.TP 5

.B LPDEST

Specifies the default print queue (System V standard).

.TP 5

.B PRINTER

Specifies the default print queue (Berkeley standard).

.TP 5

.B TMPDIR

Specifies the location of temporary files.

.SH FILES

.nf

.I ~/.cups/client.conf

.I ~/.cups/lpoptions

.fi

.SH CONFORMING TO

.B CUPS

conforms to the Internet Printing Protocol version 2.1 and implements the Berkeley and System V UNIX print commands.

.SH SEE ALSO

.BR cancel (1),

.BR client.conf (7),

.BR cupsctl (8),

.BR cupsd (8),

.BR lp (1),

.BR lpadmin (8),

.BR lpinfo (8),

.BR lpoptions (1),

.BR lpr (1),

.BR lprm (1),

.BR lpq (1),

.BR lpstat (1),

CUPS Online Help (http://localhost:631/help),

CUPS Web Site (http://www.CUPS.org),

PWG Internet Printing Protocol Workgroup (http://www.pwg.org/ipp)

.SH COPYRIGHT

Copyright \[co] 2007-2017 by Apple Inc.