CUPS 1.1 implements IPP/1.1 and the operations and attributes defined in the "IPP: Job and Printer Set Operations", "IPP/1.1: Output-bin Attribute Extension", and "IPP/1.1: finishings 'fold',' trim', and 'bale' attribute values extension" specifications.
CUPS also provides 15 new operations and many new attributes to support multiple IPP printers and printer classes on a single host.
CUPS supports the "http", "https", and "ipp" schemes. The following resource names are used:
So a typical printer URI would be "ipp://foo.bar.com/printers/LaserJet". In addition, the CUPS server also supports normal browser access via "http://hostname:port/" and "https://hostname:port/".
CUPS provides 14 extension operations in addition to most of the standard IPP and registered extension operations:
| Operation Name | CUPS | Code | Brief Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Print-Job | 1.0 | 0x0002 | Print a file. |
| Validate-Job | 1.0 | 0x0004 | Validate job attributes. |
| Create-Job | 1.1 | 0x0005 | Create a print job. |
| Send-Document | 1.1 | 0x0006 | Send a file for a print job. |
| Cancel-Job | 1.0 | 0x0008 | Cancel a print job. |
| Get-Job-Attributes | 1.0 | 0x0009 | Get job attributes. |
| Get-Jobs | 1.0 | 0x000A | Get all jobs. |
| Get-Printer-Attributes | 1.0 | 0x000B | Get printer attributes. |
| Hold-Job | 1.1 | 0x000C | Hold a job for printing. |
| Release-Job | 1.1 | 0x000D | Release a job for printing. |
| Restart-Job | 1.1 | 0x000E | Restarts a print job. |
| Pause-Printer | 1.0 | 0x0010 | Pause printing on a printer. |
| Resume-Printer | 1.0 | 0x0011 | Resume printing on a printer. |
| Purge-Jobs | 1.0 | 0x0012 | Purge all jobs. |
| Set-Job-Attributes | 1.1 | 0x0014 | Set attributes for a pending or held job. |
| Create-Printer-Subscription | 1.2 | 0x0016 | Creates a subscription associated with a printer or the server. |
| Create-Job-Subscription | 1.2 | 0x0017 | Creates a subscription associated with a job. |
| Get-Subscription-Attributes | 1.2 | 0x0018 | Gets the attributes for a subscription. |
| Get-Subscriptions | 1.2 | 0x0019 | Gets the attributes for zero or more subscriptions. |
| Renew-Subscription | 1.2 | 0x001A | Renews a subscription. |
| Cancel-Subscription | 1.2 | 0x001B | Cancels a subscription. |
| Get-Notifications | 1.2 | 0x001C | Get notification events for ippget subscriptions. |
| Enable-Printer | 1.2 | 0x0022 | Accepts jobs on a printer. |
| Disable-Printer | 1.2 | 0x0023 | Rejects jobs on a printer. |
| CUPS-Get-Default | 1.0 | 0x4001 | Get the default destination. |
| CUPS-Get-Printers | 1.0 | 0x4002 | Get all of the available printers. |
| CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer | 1.0 | 0x4003 | Add or modify a printer. |
| CUPS-Delete-Printer | 1.0 | 0x4004 | Delete a printer. |
| CUPS-Get-Classes | 1.0 | 0x4005 | Get all of the available printer classes. |
| CUPS-Add-Modify-Class | 1.0 | 0x4006 | Add or modify a printer class. |
| CUPS-Delete-Class | 1.0 | 0x4007 | Delete a printer class. |
| CUPS-Accept-Jobs | 1.0 | 0x4008 | Accept jobs on a printer or printer class. |
| CUPS-Reject-Jobs | 1.0 | 0x4009 | Reject jobs on a printer or printer class. |
| CUPS-Set-Default | 1.0 | 0x400A | Set the default destination. |
| CUPS-Get-Devices | 1.1 | 0x400B | Get all of the available devices. |
| CUPS-Get-PPDs | 1.1 | 0x400C | Get all of the available PPDs. |
| CUPS-Move-Job | 1.1 | 0x400D | Move a job to a different printer. |
| CUPS-Authenticate-Job | 1.2 | 0x400E | Authenticate a job for printing. |
| CUPS-Get-PPD | 1.3 | 0x400F | Get a PPD file. |
The following sections describe the operations supported by CUPS. In the interest of brevity, operations which use only the standard IPP attributes are not described.
The Print-Job operation (0x0002) prints a file.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the Print-Job request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Job Template Attributes
Note: Standard IPP only allows specification of a single job-sheets attribute value.
Note: Standard IPP only allows specification of a single media attribute value.
The Print-Job request is followed by a file to be printed.
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the Print-Job Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Job Attributes
Group 3: Unsupported Attributes (status=client-eror-attributes-or-values-not-supported)
The Create-Job operation (0x0005) creates a new, empty print job.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the Create-Job request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Job Template Attributes
Note: Standard IPP only allows specification of a single job-sheets attribute value.
Note: Standard IPP only allows specification of a single media attribute value.
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the Create-Job Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Job Attributes
Group 3: Unsupported Attributes (status=client-eror-attributes-or-values-not-supported)
The Set-Job-Attributes operation (0x0014) changes the attributes of an active (not completed) job.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the Set-Job-Attributes request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Job Template Attributes
Note: Standard IPP only allows specification of a single job-sheets attribute value.
Note: Standard IPP only allows specification of a single media attribute value.
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the Set-Job-Attributes Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The Create-Printer-Subscription operation (0x0016) creates a subscription for printer or server event notifications. CUPS provides several additional events in addition to the standard events in the IPP notifications specification.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Subscription Object Attributes
The CUPS-Get-Default operation (0x4001) returns the default printer URI and attributes.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Get-Default request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Get-Default Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Printer Object Attributes
The CUPS-Get-Printers operation (0x4002) returns the printer attributes for every printer known to the system. This may include printers that are not served directly by the server.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Get-Printers request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Get-Printers Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Printer Object Attributes
The CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer operation (0x4003) adds a new printer or modifies an existing printer on the system.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Printer Object Attributes
The CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer request can optionally be followed by a PPD file or System V interface script to be used for the printer. The "ppd-name" attribute overrides any file that is attached to the end of the request with a local CUPS PPD file.
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The CUPS-Delete-Printer operation (0x4004) removes an existing printer from the system.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Delete-Printer request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Delete-Printer Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The CUPS-Get-Classes operation (0x4005) returns the printer attributes for every printer class known to the system. This may include printer classes that are not served directly by the server.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Get-Classes request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Get-Classes Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Printer Class Object Attributes
The CUPS-Add-Modify-Class operation (0x4006) adds a new printer class or modifies and existing printer class on the system.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Add-Modify-Class request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Printer Object Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Add-Modify-Class Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The CUPS-Delete-Class operation (0x4007) removes an existing printer class from the system.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Delete-Class request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Delete-Class Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The CUPS-Accept-Jobs operation (0x4008) sets the "printer-is-accepting-jobs" attribute to true for the specified printer or printer class.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Accept-Jobs request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Accept-Jobs Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The CUPS-Reject-Jobs operation (0x4009) sets the"printer-is-accepting-jobs" attribute to false for the specified printer or printer class.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Reject-Jobs request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Printer Object Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Reject-Jobs Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The CUPS-Set-Default operation (0x400A) sets the default printer destination for all clients when a resource name of "/printers" is specified.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Set-Default request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Set-Default Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The CUPS-Get-Devices operation (0x400B) returns all of the supported device-uri's for the server.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Get-Devices request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Get-Devices Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Device Object Attributes
The CUPS-Get-PPDs operation (0x400C) returns all of the locally available PPD files on the system.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Get-PPDs request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Get-PPDs Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: PPD Attributes
The CUPS-Move-Job operation (0x400D) moves an active print job to a different printer.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Move-Job request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Job Template Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Move-Job Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The CUPS-Authenticate-Job operation (0x400E) authenticate a print job for printing. Typically this is used when printing to a remote server. The authentication information is passed in the HTTP request.
The following groups of attributes are supplied as part of the CUPS-Authenticate-Job request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Job Attributes
The following groups of attributes are send as part of the CUPS-Authenticate-Job Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
Group 2: Unsupported Attributes (status=client-eror-attributes-or-values-not-supported)
The CUPS-Get-PPD operation (0x400F) gets a PPD file from the server. The PPD file can be specified using a ppd-name returned by CUPS-Get-PPDs or using the printer-uri for a queue.
If the PPD file is found, successful-ok is returned with the PPD file following the response data.
If the PPD file cannot be served by the local server because the printer-uri attribute points to an external printer, a cups-see-other status is returned with the correct URI to use.
If the PPD file does not exist, client-error-not-found is returned.
The following group of attributes is supplied as part of the CUPS-Get-PPD request:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
The following group of attributes is sent as part of the CUPS-Get-PPD Response:
Group 1: Operation Attributes
If the status code is successful-ok, the PPD file follows the end of the IPP response.
CUPS provides many extension attributes to support multiple devices, PPD files, standard job filters, printers, and printer classes.
Device attributes are returned by the CUPS-Get-Devices operation and enumerate all of the available hardware devices and network protocols that are supported by the server.
The device-class attribute specifies the class of device and can be one of the following:
The device-id attribute specifies the IEEE-1284 device ID string for the device.
The device-info attribute specifies a human-readable string describing the device, e.g. "Parallel Port #1".
The device-makr-and-model attribute specifies a device identification string provided by the printer connected to the device. If the device or printer does not support identification then this attribute contains the string "unknown".
The device-uri attribute specifies a unique identifier for the device. The actual format of the device-uri string depends on the value of the device-class attribute:
The URI returned by CUPS-Get-Devices will contain the maximum baud rate supported by the device and the best type of flow control available ("soft" or "hard").
The URI returned by CUPS-Get-Devices will only contain the scheme name ("scheme"). It is up to the client application to add the appropriate host and other information when adding a new printer.
The URI returned by Get-Printer-Attributes and CUPS-Get-Printers has any username and password information stripped; the information is still stored and used by the server internally to perform any needed authentication.
The auth-info attribute specifies the authentication information to use when printing to a remote device. The order and content of each text value is specifed by the auth-info-required printer attribute.
The blackplot attribute specifies whether HP-GL/2 plot files should be rendered entirely in black ink (blackplot=true) or using the colors and shades specified in the file (blackplot=false). The default value is false.
The brightness attribute specifies the overall brightness of the printed output in percent. A brightness of 100 is normal, while 200 is twice as bright and 50 is half as bright. The default value is 100.
Brightness is applied to the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black values using the function "f(x) = brightness / 100 * x".
The columns attribute specifies the number of columns to generate when printing text files. The default value is 1.
The cpi attribute specifies the number of characters per inch when printing text files. Only the values 10, 12, and 17 are currently supported. The default value is 10.
The fitplot attribute specifies whether to scale HP-GL/2 plot files to fit on the selected media (fitplot=true) or use the physical scale specified in the plot file (fitplot=false). The default value is false.
The gamma attribute specifies the luminance correction for the output. A value of 1000 specifies no correction, while values of 2000 and 500 will generate lighter and darker output, respectively. The default value is 1000.
Gamma is applied to the Red, Green, and Blue values (or luminance for grayscale output) using the function "f(x) = x(1000/gamma)".
The hue attribute specifies a color hue rotation when printing image files. The default value is 0.
The job-billing attribute provides a text value to associate with a job for billing purposes.
The job-hold-until attribute specifies a hold time. In addition to the standard IPP/1.1 keyword names, CUPS supports name values of the form "HH:MM" and "HH:MM:SS" that specify a hold time. The hold time is in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) and not in the local time zone. If the specified time is less than the current time, the job is held until the next day.
The job-printer-state-message attribute provides the last known value of the printer-state-message attribute for the printer that processed (or is processing) the job.
The job-printer-state-reasons attribute provides the last known value of the printer-state-reasons attribute for the printer that processed (or is processing) the job.
The job-sheets attribute specifies one or two banner files that are printed before and after a job. The reserved value of "none" disables banner printing. The default value is stored in the job-sheets-default attribute.
If only one value is supplied, the banner file is printed before the job. If two values are supplied, the first value is used as the starting banner file and the second as the ending banner file.
(CUPS 1.1.5 and higher)
The job-originating-host-name attribute specifies the host from which the job was queued. The value will be the hostname or IP address of the client depending on whether hostname resolution is enabled. The localhost address (127.0.0.1) is always resolved to the name "localhost".
This attribute is read-only.
The lpi attribute specifies the number of lines per inch when printing text files. Only the values 6 and 8 are currently supported. The default value is 6.
The mirror attribute specifies whether pages are mirrored on their X axis, which is useful for printing transfer images on special media. The default value is false.
The natural-scaling attribute specifies the scaling of image files with respect to the natural image size. A value of 100 specifies that the image file should exactly the natural size, while 50 is half the natural size and 200 is twice the natural size. The default value is 100.
The ppi option can be used to override the natural resolution of the image, which controls the natural size.
The number-up-layout attribute specifies the order each input page is placed on each output page. The following keywords are presently defined:
btlr - Bottom to top, left to rightbtrl - Bottom to top, right to leftlrbt - Left to right, bottom to toplrtb - Left to right, top to bottom (default)rlbt - Right to left, bottom to toprltb - Right to left, top to bottomtblr - Top to bottom, left to righttbrl - Top to bottom, right to leftThe page-border attribute specifies whether a border is draw around each page. The following keywords are presently defined:
double - Two hairline borders are drawndouble-thick - Two 1pt borders are drawnnone - No border is drawn (default)single - A single hairline border is drawnsingle-thick - A single 1pt border is drawnThe page-bottom attribute specifies the bottom margin in points (72 points equals 1 inch). The default value is the device physical margin.
The page-label attribute provides a text value to place in the header and footer on each page. If a classification level is set on the server, then this classification is printed before the page label.
The page-left attribute specifies the left margin in points (72 points equals 1 inch). The default value is the device physical margin.
The page-right attribute specifies the right margin in points (72 points equals 1 inch). The default value is the device physical margin.
The page-set attribute specifies which pages to print in a file. The supported keywords are "all", "even", and "odd". The default value is "all".
The page-top attribute specifies the top margin in points (72 points equals 1 inch). The default value is the device physical margin.
The penwidth attribute specifies the default pen width in micrometers when printing HP-GL/2 plot files. The default value is 1000 (1 millimeter).
The position attribute specifies the location of image files on the media. The following keyword values are recognized:
center - Center the image on the page (default)
top - Print the image centered at the top of the page
left - Print the image centered on the left of page
right - Print the image centered on the right of the page
top-left - Print the image at the top left corner of
the page
top-right - Print the image at the top right corner of
the page
bottom - Print the image centered at the bottom of
the page
bottom-left - Print the image at the bottom left
corner of the page
bottom-right - Print the image at the bottom right
corner of the page
The ppi attribute specifies the resolution of an image file in pixels per inch. The default value is the resolution included with the file or 128 if no resolution information is available.
The prettyprint attribute specifies whether text files should be printed with a shaded header and keyword highlighting (prettyprint=true) or without additional formatting (prettyprint=false). The default value is false.
The saturation attribute specifies the color saturation when printing image files. A saturation of 100 is normal, while values of 50 and 200 will be half and twice as colorful, respectively. The default value is 100.
The scaling attribute specifies the scaling of image files with respect to the selected media. A value of 100 specifies that the image file should fit 100% of the page, or as much as possible given the image dimensions. The default value is unspecified.
The scaling attribute overrides the ppi attribute if specified.
The wrap attribute specifies whether long lines should be wrapped (wrap=true) or not (wrap=false) when printing text files. The default value is true.
The ppd-device-id attribute specifies the IEEE-1284 device ID string for the device described by the PPD file.
The ppd-make attribute specifies the manufacturer of the printer (the Manufacturer attribute in the PPD file). If the manufacturer is not specified in the PPD file then an educated guess is made using the NickName attribute in the PPD file.
The ppd-make-and-model attribute specifies the manufacturer and model name of the PPD file (the NickName attribute in the PPD file). If the make and model is not specified in the PPD file then the ModelName or ShortNickName attributes are used instead.
The ppd-model-number attribute provides the cupsModelNumber value from the PPD file.
The ppd-name attribute specifies either the PPD filename on the server relative to the model directory or a URI that maps to a specific driver interface in the driver directory. The forward slash (/) is used to delineate directories.
The ppd-natural-language attribute specifies the language encoding of the PPD file (the LanguageVersion attribute in the PPD file). If the language is unknown or undefined then "en" (English) is assumed.
The ppd-product attribute specifies the Product attribute values in the PPD file.
The ppd-product attribute specifies the PSVersion attribute values in the PPD file.
The ppd-type attribute specifies the type of driver described by the PPD file:
The auth-info-required attribute specifies the authentication information that is required for printing a job. The following keywords are recognized:
The job-k-limit attribute specifies the maximum number of kilobytes that may be printed by a user, including banner files. The default value of 0 specifies that there is no limit.
The job-page-limit attribute specifies the maximum number of pages that may be printed by a user, including banner files. The default value of 0 specifies that there is no limit.
The job-quota-period attribute specifies the time period used for quota calculations, in seconds. The default value of 0 specifies that the limits apply to all jobs that have been printed by a user that are still known to the system.
The job-sheets-supported attribute specifies the available banner files. There will always be at least one banner file available called "none".
The marker-change-time attribute specifies the printer-up-time value when the last change to the marker-colors, marker-levels, marker-names, or marker-types attributes was made.
The marker-colors attribute specifies the color(s) for each supply in the printer. It is only available when the driver provides supply levels. The color is either "none" or one or more hex-encoded sRGB colors of the form "#RRGGBB".
The marker-levels attribute specifies the current supply levels for the printer. It is only available when the driver provides supply levels. A value of -1 indicates the level is unknown, while values from 0 to 100 indicate the corresponding percentage.
The marker-names attribute specifies the name(s) for each supply in the printer. It is only available when the driver provides supply levels.
The marker-types attribute specifies the type(s) of each supply in the printer. It is only available when the driver provides supply levels. The following (RFC 3805) types are currently supported:
The port-monitor attribute specifies the port monitor to use when printing to this printer. The default port monitor is "none".
The port-monitor-supported attribute specifies the available port monitors.
The printer-type attribute specifies printer type and capability bits for the printer or class. The default value is computed from internal state information and the PPD file for the printer. The following bits are defined:
| Bit | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| 0x00000001 | Is a printer class. | |
| 0x00000002 | Is a remote destination. | |
| 0x00000004 | Can print in black. | |
| 0x00000008 | Can print in color. | |
| 0x00000010 | Can print on both sides of the page in hardware. | |
| 0x00000020 | Can staple output. | |
| 0x00000040 | Can do fast copies in hardware. | |
| 0x00000080 | Can do fast copy collation in hardware. | |
| 0x00000100 | Can punch output. | |
| 0x00000200 | Can cover output. | |
| 0x00000400 | Can bind output. | |
| 0x00000800 | Can sort output. | |
| 0x00001000 | Can handle media up to US-Legal/A4. | |
| 0x00002000 | Can handle media from US-Legal/A4 to ISO-C/A2. | |
| 0x00004000 | Can handle media larger than ISO-C/A2. | |
| 0x00008000 | Can handle user-defined media sizes. | |
| 0x00010000 | Is an implicit (server-generated) class. | |
| 0x00020000 | Is the a default printer on the network. | |
| 0x00040000 | Is a facsimile device. | |
| 0x00080000 | Is rejecting jobs. | |
| 0x00100000 | Delete this queue. | |
| 0x00200000 | Queue is not shared. | |
| 0x00400000 | Queue requires authentication. | |
| 0x00800000 | Queue supports CUPS command files. | |
| 0x01000000 | Queue was automatically discovered and added. |
The printer-type-mask attribute is used to choose printers or classes with the CUPS-Get-Printers and CUPS-Get-Classes operations. The bits are defined identically to the printer-type attribute and default to all 1's.
The requesting-user-name-allowed attribute lists all of the users that are allowed to access a printer or class. Either this attribute or the requesting-user-name-denied attribute will be defined, but not both.
The requesting-user-name-denied attribute lists all of the users that are not allowed to access a printer or class. Either this attribute or the requesting-user-name-allowed attribute will be defined, but not both.
The member-names attribute specifies each of the printer-name attributes of the member printers and classes. Each name corresponds to the same element of the member-uris attribute.
The member-uris attribute specifies each of the printer-uri attributes of the member printers and classes. Each URI corresponds to the same element of the member-names attribute.