Solaris 10 5/08 (and the corresponding patches 127127-11 and 127128-11) introduced some new printing features which probably haven't made the headlines as much as they might. For example, Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) Client-Side Support now offers the option to use the more fully-featured IPP protocol for client/server communications rather than the traditional BSD/LPD/RFC1179 protocol. This also enables communication with a multitude of other print servers out there which support the protocol.
Other features introduced at the same time are documented at:
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-0547/gghpo?a=view
and include:
- PPD File Management Utility
- Selectable Use of localhost for Solaris Print Server Database Hostname
- PAPI Print Commands replace several commonly used print commands
Unfortunately this latter addition, which introduced new versions of the Solaris print commands (lp, lpstat, etc.) designed to use the Print API (PAPI), also introduced a number of undesirable changes in the behaviour of the commands. The good news is that most of these have already been resolved either by fully released patches or by means of interim relief given while official patches are still going through their full process.
For full details of the issues mentioned above, there are two SunAlerts which cover those already resolved via patches:
Multiple Printing Regressions in Solaris 10 Kernel Patches 127127-11 and 127128-11
Document ID: 241426 Dec 12, 2008 PUBLIC Sun Alert
http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-66-241426-1
and those with fixes available via interim relief (contact your support representative if access is required)
Part II - Multiple Printing Regressions in Solaris 10 Kernel Patches 127127-11
and 127128-11
Document ID: 247386 Dec 10, 2008 PUBLIC Sun Alert
http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-66-247386-1