Prebuilt ppd packages
It would be nice if the current prebuilt ppd packages in debian could
cooperate more as described in the Specification below.
Any comments and suggestions to this Specification are welcome.
Kind regards,
Pascal
Prebuilt ppds Specification
===========================
Created: 26/12/2005 by Pascal De Vuyst
Contributors:
Packages affected: foomatic-filters-ppds, hplip-ppds,
cupsys-driver-gimpprint-data (or cupsys-driver-gutenprint-data) and hp-ppd.
Introduction
------------
The several packages in debian that provide prebuilt ppds should
cooperate to form a single database of unique ppds. This allows GUI
tools like gnome-cups-add, foomatic-gui, ... to provide users a printer
selection dialog for manually adding printers.
Database in /usr/share/ppd formed by several packages
-----------------------------------------------------
1. The database of ppds should be located in /usr/share/ppd according to
the FSH because it contains static and arch-independent information.
2. This ppd directory should contain subdirectories according to the
“driver type”:
/usr/share/ppd/gs for drivers common to all Ghostscripts (gs-esp, gs-gpl
and gs-afpl);
/usr/share/ppd/cups-raster for CUPS-only drivers;
/usr/share/ppd/ps-printer for drivers for PostScript printers.
3. The gs, cups-raster and ps-printer directory should contain
subdirectories according to *Manufacturer string as specified in the PPD
specification v4.3 that can be found at
http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/ps/5003.PPD_Spec_v4.3.pdf
e.g. /usr/share/ppd/gs/HP, /usr/share/ppd/ps-printer/Epson,
/usr/share/ppd/gs/Lexmark, ...
4. Inside the ppds a *Manufacturer string should be contained according
to the above specification. This allows GUI tools to provide a list of
printers by unique Manufacturer.
5. All ppds should be gzipped to reduce disk space usage.
6. The database is formed by several packages containing prebuilt ppds
and it is not necessary to install all of these packages.
7. Package names for prebuilt ppds should contain the “project name”
where they originate from.
Current prebuilt ppd packages in debian
---------------------------------------
* foomatic-filters-ppds
* hplip-ppds
* cupsys-driver-gimpprint-data (or cupsys-driver-gutenprint-data)
* hp-ppd
Current issues that need to be addressed
----------------------------------------
* hplip-ppds package incorrectly uses *Manufacturer: “HP (HPLIP)” inside
ppds.
* foomatic-filters-ppds package contains the same hpijs ppds as
hplip-ppds package. To avoid this duplication and have a database of
unique ppds, hpijs ppds should be provided by only one package. The
hpijs ppds should be provided by hplip-ppds package and originate from
hplip project so they always match with the installed version of HPIJS
Ghostscript drivers. Hpijs ppds from hplip project should be removed
from package foomatic-filters-ppds.
* hp-ppd should be deprecated if it contains no ppds that are not in
hplip-ppds packages.
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