Re: [Printing-architecture] Automatic printer setup with Printer Applications

[Johannes Meixner <jsmeix@suse.de>]

Hello,

On 2021-02-24 12:25, Till Kamppeter wrote (excerpts)
> So udev-configure-printer will get turned into a
> permanent daemon and if it detects a printer plug/unplug
> it does more or less what the former udev-configure-printer
> did, but instead of creating a queue on CUPS it creates
> one on a Printer Application.
...
> We must keep in mind that everything should work in Snaps.
...
> udev-configure-printer will need an interface at all Printer
> Applications where it can send a device ID and the Printer Application
> answers back whether it supports this printer (with driver name), and
> that without the Printer Application talking to the physical printers.
> This interface more or less calls the autoadd callback function of the
> Printer Application. This way udev-configure-printer will find out
> whether there is support for the printer and if yes, by which Printer
> Applications and then prioritize. Great would be if a Printer
> Application also could report back support level (generic,
> third-party, manufacturer, ...). It could perhaps also prioritize
> unknown Printer Applications as they are most probably from the
> manufacturer and not from the distro.

if I understand it correctly the basic idea behind is
that for printer setup inside a container
(I use 'container' as generic name for any isolated environment
  that has no direct access to the outer world e.g. also chroot)
udev-configure-printer acts as proxy for outer world access.

This leads me to a - perhaps crazy - idea:
Why not having a general printer access proxy daemon
that is running on the container host for any printer access
that is needed from inside a container i.e. also for normal
printing operations?

I am not at all a container expert but as far as I know
the usual access method between inside a container and the
outer world happens via network so a "USB access proxy"
that runs on the container host should be accessible via
network from within the container.

But this leads to the next - perhaps even more crazy - idea:
Why not having a USB printer wrapper daemon running on the
container host that wraps a USB printer into a network printer
so that from within the container the Printing Application
sees only DNS-SD announced network printers?


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
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