Samba allows client machines to share printers connected to the Samba
server, as well as send Linux documents to Windows printer
shares. Although there are other printing systems that function with
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CUPS (Common UNIX Print System) is the recommended
printing system due to its close integration with Samba.
The following example shows a very basic smb.conf
configuration for CUPS support:
[global]
load printers = Yes
printing = cups
printcap name = cups
[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba/print
printer = IBMInfoP
browseable = No
public = Yes
guest ok = Yes
writable = No
printable = Yes
printer admin = @ntadmins
[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers Share
path = /var/lib/samba/drivers
write list = ed, john
printer admin = ed, john |
More complicated printing configurations are possible. To add
additional security and privacy for printing confidential documents,
users can have their own print spooler not located in a public
path. If a job fails, other users would not have access to the
file.
The print$ share contains printer drivers for
clients to access if not available locally. The
print$ share is optional and may not be required
depending on the organization.
Setting browseable to Yes
enables the printer to be viewed in the Windows Network Neighborhood,
provided the Samba server is set up correctly in the domain/workgroup.
