Package: cups-browsed Version: 1.21.6-3 Severity: wishlist Tags: upstream
It is more than likely that cups-browsed would be found on most Debian, Ubuntu and Mint distributions because it is recommended by cups-daemon. This report is made in that context. In /usr/share/doc/cups-browsed/changelog.gz we see CHANGES IN V1.14.0 [...] cups-browsed: Added new setting "LocalOnly" for the CreateIPPPrinterQueues in cups-browsed.conf. With this new setting (which is the default from now on) only for local printers made available as IPP printers (like IPP-over-USB printers with ippusbxd) queues are auto-created. With this we can follow the common standard of distributions where USB printers are automatically set up and network printers not. I would like to examine what "...automatically set up,,," means. The dialogs of LibreOffice, Qt and GTK applications enumerate all local and network printers automatically by default and display them. They can be printed to, so, to my mind, they have been "set-up". In that regard, this is the "common standard of distributions". My suggestion is that the default for CreateIPPPrinterQueues should be "All". This fits the reality of how the applications (including lpstat -e) work. Also, suppose we have CreateIPPPrinterQueues LocalOnly as the only uncommented option in cups-browsed.conf; cups-browsed will not set up a local queue for a network printer. But, in the case of Qt apps and LibreOffice, a CUPS temporary queue will become available instead. In other words, the option LocalOnly does not affect network set up in those applications and its only effect is to transfer the management of the printers from cups-browsed to elsewhere. There is also a practical aspect: the Qt and GTK dialogs have unfixed bugs (#911702, #911844, #916267 and #921113) which affect printing to a networked IPP printer. With "CreateIPPPrinterQueuesy All", putting the queue management in the hands of cups-browsed bypasses these issues. Another practical aspect: many users with a modern printer do not realise that printing is, in principle, instantly available when an IPP printer is put on the network and cups-browsed is being used (or without it, for that matter). Few read the cups-browsed manual. The result is often an immediate excursion into how to install drivers (free or non-free) when all that is required is a change to a conf file. Regards, Brian.
