2 !== Imprints.txt for Samba release 2.2.0-alpha1 23 Nov 2000
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7 Imprints (Installation Manager of Printer driver
8 Retreival and Installation for Samba) is a project to
9 implement a UNIX equivalent of the Windows NT APW.
10 It has been taken on in part by the Samba Team, VA Linux
11 Systems and Hewlett-Packard. The Imprints toolset seeks
12 to provide central repository for users and administrators
13 to locate, download, and install all variations Window
14 95/98/NT printer drivers on Samba print servers.
16 The server portion of Imprints is composed of a database
17 server which contains information and locations of various
18 printer driver packages. This server can be queried over
19 standard HTTP get requests and should therefore be available
20 to most administrators behind firewalls. The server's
21 database consists of records containing data about each
22 known printer driver package. For example, each driver
23 record contains a URL from which the Imprints installation
24 client can download the package as well as a public key which
25 can be used to verify the package's integrity.
27 Once downloaded, the installation client will attempt to
28 install the printer driver on the defined remote server
29 using the username and password provided by the administrator.
30 If the username/password pair can be authenticated by the
31 remote server (and has the appropriate authorization), then
32 the printer driver(s) is (are) installed and the new Printer
35 From Samba's point of view, the process of creating a new
36 printer via the Imprints installation client is identical to
37 that of using the Windows NT APW. In fact, Imprints utilizes
38 Samba's rpcclient and smbclient tools to issue the same MS-RPC
39 and file copy operations as an NT client. This means that
40 Imprints can also be used to install printers on remote Windows
43 For more information on Imprints, visit the project homepage
46 http://imprints.sourceforge.net/.