Bug#908500: cups-browsed: Please consider making cups-browsed a Suggests:
eOn Mon 10 Sep 2018 at 15:16:44 +0100, Brian Potkin wrote:
> Package: cups-browsed
> Version: 1.21.2-1
> Severity: wishlist
>
>
> With the introduction of cups 1.6.x the situation in respect to printing
> to remote print queues and printers would have been dire without the
> creation of cups-browsed. However, cups 2.2.4 and later has the ability
> (CUPS Issue #4993) to enumerate queues and printers in print dialogs and
> to auto-create a temporary print queue. This is used by applications
> having the Qt dialog and printing from the command line, although the
> GTK dialog still does its own thing.
Enumeration of queues/printers in GTK apps depends neither on CUPS nor
cups-browsed. A user printing only from GTK apps gains nothing in basic
printing terms from cups-browsed, even if the cups service is operative.
> cups-browsed is installed by default because cups-daemon (quite rightly)
> recommends it. With the changed situation in CUPS and applications it
> would appear that cups-browsed has less relevance with regard to printer
> and print queue discovery and management. The Recommends field lists
> packages that would be found with the cups package because there is a
> strong dependency between it and cups-browsed. cups-browsed would still
> enhance cups if changed to a Suggests:.
A rough characterisation of a recommended package: OMG! cups-browsed
isn't on the system; I cannot do these fundamental and useful things.
"fundamental" and "useful" are arguable, of course, but the ability
of cups-browsed to alter what a GTK app shows would be under the
heading of "Enhances".
> The installation of cups-browsed almost as a matter of course on many
> buster systems also masks bugs in CUPS and applications, as it will take
> over the management of queues/printers. A small example is CUPS Issue
> #5045. Another example is with okular. For me, it will not print to a
> temporary queue; with a local cups-browsed queue it will. This would
> probably pass unnoticed as things stand now.
A compromise. Reduce cups-browsed to a Suggests: from now until nearly
the end of the freeze. Give CUPS a better chance to show what it is
capable of without cups-browsed. Return cups-browsed to a Recommends:
before the freeze end if it is indicated. As it stands at present, CUPS
is crippled.
I suppose a major consideration for Debian 10 is to consider what
harm not having cups-browsed as a Recommends: does; it is basically
a printer setup utility like s.c.p. Nobody gets upset when that is
not automatically on the system.
Regards,
Brian.
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