CupsFFI is an FFI wrapper around libcups providing access to the Cups API as well as the PPD API. It was written using Ruby 1.9.2 but has not been tested with previous versions.

Nathan Ehresman www.tebros.com

CupsFFI is MIT licensed.

gem install cupsffi

Nothing required. libcups is used to find and read all configuration.

require 'cupsffi'
# Returns array of printer names:
#  => ["HP-Officejet-7200-series", "test-printer"]
printers = CupsPrinter.get_all_printer_names

printer = CupsPrinter.new(printers.first)

# Returns a hash of the Cups printer options:
# => {"auth-info-required"=>"none",
#     "copies"=>"1",
#     "device-uri"=>"ipp://192.168.250.55/ipp/3000", ...
printer.attributes

# Return a hash of :state and :reasons.
# :state is :idle, :printing, or :stopped.  For example:
# {:state=>:idle, :reasons=>["none"]}
printer.state

# Print a file (pdf, jpg, ps, etc.).  You can pass in a hash of printer
# options if you want to override the printer's defaults.  A CupsJob object
# is returned.  CupsJob can be used to check on the job status.
job = printer.print_file('/tmp/example.jpg', {'InputSlot' => 'Upper', 'PageSize' => 'A4'})

# A job's status is a CupsFFI::IppJState enumeration:
# [:pending, :held, :processing, :stopped, :canceled, :aborted, :completed]
job.status

# Cancel a specific job
job.cancel

# Print a binary blob of data.  The data should be in a String, and is
# passed to libcups as a char array.  You must also specify the mime type.
# Like print_file, printer options are... optional.  A CupsJob object is
# returned.
job = printer.print_data('hello world', 'text/plain')

# Cancel all outstanding jobs on the printer
printer.cancel_all_jobs

You may pass in :hostname and :port arguments when creating a CupsPrinter instance or querying for available printers.

remote_printers = CupsPrinter.get_all_printer_names(:hostname => 'print.example.com')
print = CupsPrinter.new(remote_printers.first, :hostname => 'print.example.com')