eOn 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.
Enumeration of queues/printers in GTK apps depends neither on CUPS nor cups-browsed. A user printing only from GTK apps gains nothing in basic printing terms from cups-browsed, even if the cups service is operative. > 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:. A rough characterisation of a recommended package: OMG! cups-browsed isn't on the system; I cannot do these fundamental and useful things. "fundamental" and "useful" are arguable, of course, but the ability of cups-browsed to alter what a GTK app shows would be under the heading of "Enhances". > 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. A compromise. Reduce cups-browsed to a Suggests: from now until nearly the end of the freeze. Give CUPS a better chance to show what it is capable of without cups-browsed. Return cups-browsed to a Recommends: before the freeze end if it is indicated. As it stands at present, CUPS is crippled. I suppose a major consideration for Debian 10 is to consider what harm not having cups-browsed as a Recommends: does; it is basically a printer setup utility like s.c.p. Nobody gets upset when that is not automatically on the system. Regards, Brian.
