Re: Retiring lpr and lpd

On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 01:45:19 +0100
Dag-Erling Smørgrav <[email protected]> wrote:

> Tomoaki AOKI <[email protected]> writes:
> > Are there any alternatives that can be incorporated into base,
> > including dependencies mandatory to work, and maintained?
> 
> None that I'm aware of.
> 
> Cleaning up the existing code is absolutely possible, but it's a huge
> task for little benefit since most users will end up using CUPS anyway.
> 
> DES
> -- 
> Dag-Erling Smørgrav - [email protected]

I've never looked into cups in deep enough, but if replacement-for-lpr
parts of cups works without any GPL'ed parts "just as lpr works",
and print/cups can be separated into in-base part and others,
keeping "others" parts on ports and require in-base part could be
the candidate.

As lpr is quite simple (IIUC, basically just spool and send to
printers without any conversions for "printer languages" like ESC/P,
LIPS, PC-PR201H and so on) and conversions relies on external filters,
I think GPL'ed parts are (hopefully) not needed for the level.

-- 
Tomoaki AOKI    <[email protected]>