Hi,
I've originally asked this on HPLIP Forum but got no reply...

We're running a central print server (RHEL 5.x x86_64, HPLIP 2.8.10) with some hundreds of print queues and different drivers. And all is well.
We need to support an HP LaserJet Pro MFP m127fn (a client just bought it anew) and turns out it's supported by HPLIP 3.13.11.
So we went ahead to download and install the RHEL 5.x RPM (from hplip.net) on a test box.
We then realized hundreds of print queues (some HP and some non-HP) are not functioning since the RHRL 5.x RPM is not compiled with hpijs.

Well, it's going to be a lot of work to switch all HP queues to use the hpcups driver, and we've done that, but still we have many non-HP printer drivers using hpijs.
So I downloaded the tarball and compiled manually with two variants: with --enable-hpijs-only-build and without it.
The result:
=== with --enable-hpijs-install --enable-hpijs-only-build ===
[opher@fc6 ~/print_drivers]$ tar xzf hplip-3.14.10.tar.gz && cd hplip-3.14.10 && ./configure --enable-libusb01-build --enable-hpijs-install --enable-hpijs-only-build && make
...
[opher@fc6 ~/print_drivers/hplip-3.14.10]$ ls -l hpijs; file hpijs; ldd hpijs
-rwxrwxr-x 1 opher opher 2111937 Nov 6 23:21 hpijs
hpijs: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, not stripped
libjpeg.so.62 => /usr/lib64/libjpeg.so.62 (0x0000003e20800000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x0000003e18c00000)
libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 (0x0000003e1bc00000)
libm.so.6 => /lib64/libm.so.6 (0x0000003e19000000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib64/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x0000003e1b000000)
libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x0000003e18800000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x0000003e18400000)
===============================
=== with --enable-hpijs-install ===
[opher@fc6 ~/print_drivers]$ tar xzf hplip-3.14.10.tar.gz && cd hplip-3.14.10 && ./configure --enable-libusb01-build --enable-hpijs-install && make
...
[opher@fc6 ~/print_drivers/hplip-3.14.10]$ ls -l .libs/hpijs; file .libs/hpijs; ldd .libs/hpijs
-rwxrwxr-x 1 opher opher 2156168 Nov 6 23:33 .libs/hpijs
.libs/hpijs: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, not stripped
libjpeg.so.62 => /usr/lib64/libjpeg.so.62 (0x0000003e20800000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x0000003e18c00000)
libhpip.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libhpip.so.0 (0x00002adfffcfa000)
libhpmud.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libhpmud.so.0 (0x0000003000000000)
libdbus-1.so.3 => /lib64/libdbus-1.so.3 (0x0000003000c00000)
libcrypto.so.6 => /lib64/libcrypto.so.6 (0x0000003e1b800000)
libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 (0x0000003e1bc00000)
libm.so.6 => /lib64/libm.so.6 (0x0000003e19000000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib64/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x0000003e1b000000)
libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x0000003e18800000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x0000003e18400000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x0000003e19400000)
libnetsnmp.so.10 => /usr/lib64/libnetsnmp.so.10 (0x0000003505e00000)
libusb-0.1.so.4 => /usr/lib64/libusb-0.1.so.4 (0x0000003e1a000000)
libcap.so.1 => /lib64/libcap.so.1 (0x0000003e1f000000)
libz.so.1 => /usr/lib64/libz.so.1 (0x0000003e19800000)
===============================

You may note that in the first form 'hpijs' is not linked against any hplip shared-objects. Which is perfect for me as I won't have to recompile every time we update HPLIP in the future.

And now my question are:
Will both forms of hpijs function identically as a CUPS filter?
What benefit is there to the form of hpijs that links against hplip shared-objects?

Thanks for your patience (you who read thus far),
Opher.

I don't know if this will actually help but I did some looking around (about hpijs). There is a web page How are HPLIP and HPIJS related?, http://hplipopensource.com/node/276) that states:
and (from a link on that page) When would I want to use HPIJS instead of HPLIP? (http://hplipopensource.com/node/277) that states:
The "Most people do NOT need to do this" is a link that you may want to pursue.

I'm running the latest HPLIP, 3.14.10, built from the tarball. Now, this on a Slackware system but the arguments to configure are pretty standard and you may find them useful:
You might want to ignore those last two line, though and address the line that contain LIBDIRSUFFIX (the entire build script determines the location of system libraries which will be, for example /usr/lib on a 32-bit system or /usr/lib64 on a 64-bit system).

These configure arguments result in a full-boat HPLIP with hpijs installed (so you don't need to build two separate versions, methinks).

I have only H-P printers and plotter so I can't advise about non-H-P units but CUPS should be able to handle H-P and any other Linux-compatible device without a lot of fooling around. Just remember to install H-P devices with hp-setup. I have noticed that when I connect an H-P printer to a system with HPLIP installed and working on it that the printer gets automatically configured (this seems to work with USB, don't know about Ethernet).

I'd take a look at the links above and follow them down the line to answer the hpijs questions (their documentation is pretty good in my opinion) and maybe download the latest version from the HPLIP web set and see if the configure arguments above help out -- be nice if you have a testbed box to play with.

Hope this helps some.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you tronayne for your detailed answer and your time.
I ran through the links you mentioned, but did not find a direct answer to my (first) question.
So, I gambled that compiling with the first form is just fine. Testing shows that, at least for my installed drivers, it works fine.

Thanks,
Opher.