Printing from Thunderbird

[Rem P Roberti]

  On 08/20/10 22:01, Polytropon wrote:
> 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).
>
>

My bad.  Adding the above variable to .bashrc does indeed result in the 
desired effect.  For some reason I thought that the printer as named was 
actually going to shop up in the print menu.  Thunderbird and Firefox 
are now printing fine, and I can print any text file simply by using the 
lpr command.

Thank you all.

Cheers...

Rem