cupsd-helper(8) Apple Inc. cupsd-helper(8)

cupsd-helper - cupsd helper programs (deprecated)

cups-deviced request-id limit user-id options
cups-driverd cat ppd-name
cups-driverd list request_id limit options
cups-exec sandbox-profile [ -g group-id ] [ -n nice-value ] [ -u user-id ] /path/to/program argv0 ... argvN

The cupsd-helper programs perform long-running operations on behalf of the scheduler, cupsd(8). The cups-deviced helper program runs each CUPS backend(7) with no arguments in order to discover the available printers.

The cups-driverd helper program lists all available printer drivers, a subset of "matching" printer drivers, or a copy of a specific driver PPD file.

The cups-exec helper program runs backends, filters, and other programs. On macOS these programs are run in a secure sandbox.

The cups-driverd program looks for PPD and driver information files in the following directories:



    /Library/Printers


    /opt/share/ppd


    /System/Library/Printers


    /usr/local/share/ppd


    /usr/share/cups/drv


    /usr/share/cups/model


    /usr/share/ppd

PPD files can be compressed using the gzip(1) program or placed in compressed tar(1) archives to further reduce their size.

Driver information files must conform to the format defined in ppdcfile(5).

CUPS printer drivers, backends, and PPD files are deprecated and will no longer be supported in a future feature release of CUPS. Printers that do not support IPP can be supported using applications such as ippeveprinter(1).

backend(7), cups(1), cupsd(8), cupsd.conf(5), filter(7), ppdcfile(5), CUPS Online Help (http://localhost:631/help)

Copyright © 2007-2019 by Apple Inc.

CUPS 26 April 2019