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I have an application on an AIX server (v5.3) that needs to print via a Windows Print Server over the LAN.

The simplest way to do this is to use SMIT to setup a remote print queue - which I've done on the test environment - but the IT department have refused to set up a remote print queue on the Production server. I don't have root access to the Production server.

Is there any other method for connecting the app to the print server that doesn't involve print queues on the AIX box?

Stringent Software
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4 Answers4

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The standard way to allow Unix to print via a windows print server is to have the windows group set up an LPR port on the windows server and you should be able to directly address it.

Jim B
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  • Problem is that that generally is LPD-to-LPD in Unix world, LPR rarely talks to remote LPD. – Jé Queue Oct 11 '10 at 03:53
  • windows provides LPD, Microsoft follows rfc 1179 but varies in that it supports more printers than are specified in 1179, Banner pages are not supported (but are emulated using seperator pages, and ignores any Unix specfic control codes (like S symbolic link data) – Jim B Oct 11 '10 at 16:02
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If you can print to a program then you can write a shell script to shove the output through Ghostscript for rendering via a PDD and then on to smbspool. Otherwise, print to a PostScript file and then put it through said script.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
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Have you asked them why a remote print queue is not acceptable, and what their proposed solution is?

They may have a very good reason, or they may be blindly following a dumb security policy. Either way without some background there's a good chance any workaround may fall afoul of the same issues.

LapTop006
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  • The response I've been given is their policy is to not set up print queues on Unix boxes as "it requires too much support" and their proposed solution is "the application will need to handle printing". I won't comment on whether I think that's a dumb policy or not! So if any solution requires the IT dept/root access to setup it may or may not get knocked back - so anything that I can setup without would be preferable. – Stringent Software Apr 29 '10 at 14:31
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LPR in general needs LPD running local, there are however lpr clients that speak directly to remote LPDs via TCP.

Windows can speak LPD. Are they calling out problems managing LPD in AIX or Windows?

If you had a TCP LPR client (there are even a few written in Java) on AIX would that suffice?

Jé Queue
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