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Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C?

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On 07/04/15 11:16, Floyd L. Davidson wrote:
> Tim Watts <tw_usenet@dionic.net> wrote:
>> On 07/04/15 01:07, pureheart@pacbell.net wrote:
>>> Might really be a programming question.
>>
>> It's more of an OS question.
>>
>> The general answer to "without going through lpr" is "don't try".
>
> That needs to be emphasised.  It should say:
>
>    *"Don't even think about it!  Ever!"*
>
> CUPS, or another print spooler, is there for a good
> reason, and normal users on a multi-user multi-tasking
> system should never directly access hardware such as a
> printer.
>
> Piping a file into lp or lpr using system() is one way,
> and it works relatively well.  Using popen() to access
> the spooler, and then fprint() to send it the data
> without writing it to a file, is a much better way.
>

I don't know how old the OP is, but it's also worth recalling the days 
of MS-DOS when the "OS" (and I use the term loosely) had no concept of a 
printer beyond presenting a raw character IO type device.

Every application had to have its own bundle of print drivers and it was 
a right PITA if one app did know know about a particular printer.

I'm with you totally in that noone should ever try to replicate that!

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Thread

How do you access the printer in Linux/C? pureheart@pacbell.net - 2015-04-06 17:07 -0700
  Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? Tim Watts <tw_usenet@dionic.net> - 2015-04-07 04:23 +0100
    Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-04-07 05:46 +0100
    Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2015-04-07 02:16 -0800
      Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? Tim Watts <tw_usenet@dionic.net> - 2015-04-07 11:30 +0100
        Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-04-07 11:51 +0100
          Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? floyd@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) - 2015-04-07 03:11 -0800
            Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-04-07 12:37 +0100
              Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? pureheart@pacbell.net - 2015-04-07 08:31 -0700
          Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? Tim Watts <tw_usenet@dionic.net> - 2015-04-07 12:24 +0100
        Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-04-07 16:26 +0000
      Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-04-07 11:46 +0100
      Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? Unknown <dog@gmail.com> - 2015-05-06 08:50 +0000
        Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? Joe Beanfish <joebeanfish@nospam.duh> - 2015-05-06 13:36 +0000
          Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? Unknown <dog@gmail.com> - 2015-05-08 10:44 +0000
            Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? Joe Beanfish <joebeanfish@nospam.duh> - 2015-05-08 13:51 +0000
              Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-05-08 14:58 +0000
                Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? Joe Beanfish <joebeanfish@nospam.duh> - 2015-05-11 13:24 +0000
                Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-05-11 14:40 -0500
            Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-05-08 14:55 +0000
  Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-04-07 05:43 +0100
  Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2015-04-07 12:15 -0400
    Re: How do you access the printer in Linux/C? pureheart@pacbell.net - 2015-04-09 15:39 -0700

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