[SOLVED] Using cupsenable to resume the default printer

Roihan · 01-25-2018, 06:44 AM

I know that we can use this command to resume a printer from terminal :

Code:

cupsenable printer_name

I need to create a launcher with that command as an easy way to resume my default printer. There are 3 printers in my room and I often switch my default printer from one to another.
Is there a way to resume the default printer without manually typing it's name?
So I don't need to edit the command every time I switch my default printer or create a launcher for each of those printers.

Thanks.

Mill J · 01-25-2018, 06:53 AM

Write a script for each printer than give the script shorter names. You could even link them to your bin.

Roihan · 01-25-2018, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mill J

Write a script for each printer than give the script shorter names. You could even link them to your bin.

Well, that could work for me.
But I'll still need to copy this launcher to all computers in my workplace (about 50 computers 30 printers in total). It will take much time to edit the command to each of them.
Is there a way to get the default printer name? I've tried lpq and the output is

Code:

Epson_L120 is ready
no entries

Maybe there is something we can do with grep to get only the first block of that line (since space is not allowed in printer name). So I can copy the Epson_L120 and do something to run cupsenable using that copied text.

Mill J · 01-25-2018, 08:03 AM

I've actually programmed my own front-end to lpadmin, lpinfo, etc(usb only so far), I found the cups help page a great resource https://www.cups.org/documentation.html
lpstat -d should show the current default.

AwesomeMachine · 01-25-2018, 08:09 PM

By a launcher do you mean an icon in the gui menu? Those are .desktop files.

Code:

$ nano printer_enable.desktop

will creat and open the desktop file. Then type this in the file

Code:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Printer Enable
Comment=Enable Printer
GenericName=Printer
Exec=/usr/sbin/cupsenable printer_name &
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true

Put the file in /home/user/Desktop/ and it should appear on the desktop. But why not just leave the printer as it is in the active state?

Roihan · 01-26-2018, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mill J

I've actually programmed my own front-end to lpadmin, lpinfo, etc(usb only so far), I found the cups help page a great resource https://www.cups.org/documentation.html
lpstat -d should show the current default.

I use system-config-printer for that.
But resuming printer using system-config-printer or cups via web browser is quite complicated for most users. I need to create a one-click launcher to resume my printer. I've made many launchers to run specific commands that often be used by users such as setting display resolution using xrandr. Now I need to create this one.
I've read the cups documentation too but there is no command to resume a default printer. We can only resume a printer using cupsenable by specifying the printer name.

Roihan · 01-26-2018, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AwesomeMachine

By a launcher do you mean an icon in the gui menu? Those are .desktop files.

Code:

$ nano printer_enable.desktop

will creat and open the desktop file. Then type this in the file

Code:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Printer Enable
Comment=Enable Printer
GenericName=Printer
Exec=/usr/sbin/cupsenable printer_name &
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true

Put the file in /home/user/Desktop/ and it should appear on the desktop. But why not just leave the printer as it is in the active state?

I knew about it. What I need to do is this :
Assume that I need to resume my default printer without knowing the printer name. It will be like cupsenable default-printer, but there is no such command available.

allend · 01-27-2018, 12:56 AM

Why not parse the output of 'lpstat -d'?

Code:

cupsenableprinter $(lpstat -d | cut -d: -f2)

Roihan · 01-27-2018, 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allend

Why not parse the output of 'lpstat -d'?

Code:

cupsenableprinter $(lpstat -d | cut -d: -f2)

That's it!
I tought about lpq and grep.
I didn't know that there is a cut command.
Thanks for the help guys!