ppdmgr should have an option to REMOVE a ppd file, as well as to LIST the ppd files. If you want to manage a database through a program (seems to be a pervasive philosophy), then it needs to be complete. I realize that this is a tall order, but if you are going to make all of these little commands instead of having simple ascii configuration files and directories of PPDs, then you need to provide a way to do the required functions. I simply deleted the PPD and did a "ppdmgr -r; ppdmgr -u" hoping for the best, wondering if there was a database somewhere that was still scrogged.
You need to explain what "rebuild" vs. "update" mean, and document whether or not either or both of these are required after an add or delete. There is no apparent utility or visibility of the repositories or labels. Your intent is to squirrel these things away in your own directories, the location of which is not documented in the man page. They are simply a confusion factor for the user and serve no utility which is apparent reading the man page and guides. As described below, they do appear to serve to segregate PPDs into those that are presented to the user and those that are not under various circumstances. The dialog that pops up when one turns on or plugs in a printer does not use PPDs added through prtmgr. The "Print Manager" dialog from the menu is not aware of PPDs added through ppdmgr until it is closed and restarted. Something is not aware until the machine is rebooted: Not sure if it is the "Print Manager" GUI or the pop-up dialog. If one works with this for a while, trying to get a printer to work, changing ppds, adding and removing printers, eventually it gets in a state where the printer does not show up in the "Print Manager" GUI but shows up in applications such as FireFox, and in the various lp* commands. This is terribly frustrating and confusion. It also stops printing. Sometimes. Despite the LP* commands saying everything is OK. There are references to /usr/local/share/ppd as being the location for the ppds, but they are in /usr/share/ppd. The Foomatic and Guetenprint PPDs for an Kyocera Mita FS-1010 do not work reliably or at all (Varies from release to release) under Linux or MacOS. The PPD from Kyocera Mita works perfectly. Neither organization seems inclined to fix them when informed. Therefore I need to install my own PPD. My printer is made by "Kyocera Mita", and is documented as such in the PPD. CUPS under Linux correctly associates whatever it gets from the printer to the PPD somehow. Your implementation priesents it as a "Kyocera", and does not associate a PPD I provide from the Kyocera web site with the printer. I don't know why. Your system cannot deal with PPDs with CRLF's. Due to the mix of points above, it was very difficult to get this printer working even locally. Another note an hour or so ago to the "help" list documents that printer queues which ARE installed successfully cannot be printed to from remote clients. For any given release, it is important to provide a functional, though perhaps not pretty, way to administer printers. I have not had a positive experience. perhaps 0509 or 1109. Thanks for listening. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org
