Printing from Thunderbird

[Polytropon]

On Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:44:37 -0700, Rem P Roberti <remegius at comcast.net> wrote:
>   On 08/20/10 21:35, CyberLeo Kitsana wrote:
> > On 08/20/2010 11:29 PM, Rem P Roberti wrote:
> >> Ah-ha!  In my case I am using the bash shell, and I believe the syntax
> >> that is needed for the .bashrc is different than what is used in your
> >> csh.cshrc.  Any idea where I can find the appropriate syntax for
> >> variables stored within .bashrc?
> > export PRINTER="Photoshop7760"
> >
> > bash(1) has extensive documentation; as bash is a superset of the bourne
> > shell included in base, sh(1) is likewise useful for reference.
> >
> Well...I kind of thought that the "export" variable was the correct
> one to use, and I entered :
> 
>      export PRINTER="Photosmart7760"
> 
> into both my .bashrc and .bash_profile, [...]

This is correct, but keep in mind that this setting will be
a per-user only setting, allthough it should be sufficient.
With

	$ echo $PRINTER

you can always check for it.



> [...] but no dice.  The printer
> neither shows up in Thunderbird or Firefox

I checked in my Firefox (version 2): The printer's name is just
"PostScript/Default", and when I click "Properties", the following
print command is listed:

	lpr ${MOZ_PRINTER_NAME:+'-P'}${MOZ_PRINTER_NAME}

In my case, this strangely works, as I don't have $MOZ_PRINTER_NAME
defined anywhere. You can try to simplify the setting to just be

	lpr

which should then default to $PRINTER. You can also test the
intended behaviour with an example like

	lpr /etc/rc.conf

which should then - without any trouble - output /etc/rc.conf to
the printer.

>From my understanding: When Firefox prints, it sends the data
to lpr per pipe. Checking the printer queue right after ^P will
lead to something like this:

	% lpq
	Laserjet is ready and printing
	Rank   Owner      Job  Files              Total Size
	1st    poly       982  (standard input)   484630 bytes

Now as $PRINTER is defined, you don't need -P anymore for all
the lp* tools - only if you want to override the default (e. g.
as I use -PLaserjet-nodup if I intendedly want to force non-duplex
single-sided printing).




-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...