How to decrease delays between CUPS print jobs

SUSE Linux

Speeding up CUPS printing
CUPS printing is slow when compared with other print services
When consecutive print jobs are sent to a printer, a few second pause is observed between jobs

Slight delays between print jobs are common when printing multiple documents through CUPS.  This is caused by cupsd waiting for the previous job to complete before processing the next job.  This is done to ensure that print jobs are not lost by sending jobs to the printer before it is ready.  This behavior can be changed, however, it is done at the Administrator's own risk as the steps outlined below remove the built-in safety net of making sure each print job is fully processed.

The changes are made via parameters set in the DeviceURI line of the /etc/cups/printers.conf file.  More information about the differences / options available for each socket can be found here.

To attempt any of these alternatives configurations, the following steps must be completed.

1.  Modification to /etc/cups/printers.conf made to reflect the desired change.
2.  Restart CUPS (rccups restart)

DeviceURI options:

a.  Socket

socket://<ipaddress or hostname>:<portnumber>?waiteof=false

Note:  The "waiteof" option controls whether the socket backend waits for the printer to complete the printing of the job.  Default behavior is to wait.


b. ipp

ipp://<ip-address-or-hostname>:<port-number>/<resource>?waitprinter=false

Note:  waitprinter=false specifies that the IPP backend should not wait for the printer to return to an 'idle' state before sending the next print job


c. lpd

lpd://<ip-address-or-hostname>/<queue>?timeout=<secondstowait>

Note:  timeout=seconds represents the number of seconds to wait for LPD commands to complete.