Automatically generate AirPrint Avahi service files for CUPS printers

I have been working with Void Linux for a quite of time.

I have it on my mini box which serve some daily life services:

• Print server
• Syncthing
• Nextcloud

Void did great job but It was annoying with AirPrint. I was not able to print from my iPhone.

I used to add my printer by IP address, it was not automatic like Debian based distros.

I reinstalled this box today, and I decided to learn how it works.

I found some docs on internet.

Automatic printing combine some apps:

• CUPS - printing system developed by OpenPrinting for Linux® and other Unix®-like operating systems.
• Avahi - Service Discovery for Linux using mDNS/DNS-SD – compatible with Bonjour
• airprint-generate - Automatically generate AirPrint Avahi service files for CUPS printers

You’ll need to install cups, then avahi-daemon. Start those servies.

Run airprint-generate script to generate avahi .service files for shared CUPS printers.

# ./airprint-generate.py -d /etc/avahi/services

Then boom, you now can find printers and print from your iPhone.

Debian based distributions ship CUPS pre-configured this way.

airprint-generate Contributors