Bug#908500: cups-browsed: Please consider making cups-browsed a Suggests:
On Mon 22 Oct 2018 at 08:54:52 +0200, Didier 'OdyX' Raboud wrote:
> Control: reopen -1
> Control: reassign -1 cups-daemon 2.2.8-5
> Control: retitle -1 cups-daemon: Please consider making cups-browsed a Suggests
> Control: affects -1 +cups-browsed
>
> Le dimanche, 21 octobre 2018, 21.21:13 h CEST Debian BTS a écrit :
> > On 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.
> > >
> > > 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:.
> > >
> > > 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.
> >
> > The resounding silence is an indication of the quality of this report.
> > It was probably a naff idea. Closing.
>
> I disagree. Although I haven't interacted on the bug, your report sparkled
> some thoughts, and I had its proper handling on my "to spend some energy on
> later" list. In the meantime, cups-filters started to FTBFS in unstable; a
> fix was urgent and I spent the minimal amount of energy to solve that issue.
>
> But demoting the cups-daemon ⇒ cups-browsed relationship from a Recommends to
> a Suggests is something we should consider, and your argumentation makes sense
> to me.
>
> @Till: any opinion?
I'll argue against myself by describing how I see the GUI apps handling
printing. Apologies in advance for misinformation or misinterpretation
in the testing process.
1. cups-browsed is needed by the GTK print dialog for printing to IPP
printers (#916267).
2. At present, Qt based apps do not print to remote print queues and
IPP printers without cups-browsed (#911702).
3. The native print dialog of the chromium browser enumerates queues
(with the help of CUPS) but will not print to them.
4. Only LibreOffice appears to operate in a sane way by promoting
printing to any remote queue or IPP printer without cups-browsed.
Sending CUPS semi-naked into the world of buster doesn't look like a
good idea.
Regards,
Brian.
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