How to generate printer ppd for cups?

[Josef Wolf]

On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 08:38:08AM +0000, Bill Marcum wrote:
> On 2009-03-11, Josef Wolf <jw at raven.inka.de> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'd like to know how the cups-gutenprint drivers are created.  When I
> > install a printer with system-config-printer.py, I get a ppd which
> > seems to be auto-generated.  At least, I can't find any file in
> > /usr/share/ppd with the same NickName as the file that gets installed
> > into /etc/cups/ppds.  For example, I'd like to install this driver:
> >
> >   "HP LaserJet 4 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.0-rc1"
> >
> > Since I have to configure lots of boxes, running system-config-printer.py
> > interactively on every box is no option for me.  Ideally, I'd
> > run a script, that takes the required information on the command line
> > instead of letting me enter interactively into the GUI.
> >
> Once you have a ppd file in /etc/cups/ppd, you can copy it to other 
> machines.  The gutenprint package apparently uses data from xml files 
> in /usr/share/gutenprint. 

Thanks for the answer, Bill!

But I am not really sure this is going to work in all cases.  The cups
troubleshooting page [1] suggests that whether a given printer will work
depends also on installed filters and much more.

[1] http://www.linuxprinting.org/kpfeifle/LinuxKongress2002/Tutorial/VII.cups-help/VII.cups-help.html