Re: [gentoo-user] Re: CUPS and hp OfficeJet Pro

[Alan McKinnon]

On Thursday 18 March 2010 21:55:14 Dale wrote:
> James wrote:
> > Dale<rdalek1967<at>  gmail.com>  writes:
> >> [ebuild   R   ] net-print/cups-1.3.11-r1  USE="X acl avahi dbus gnutls
> >> java jpeg ldap pam perl png ppds python ssl tiff zeroconf -kerberos -php
> >> -samba -slp -static -xinetd" LINGUAS="en -de -es -et -fr -he -id -it -ja
> >> -pl -sv -zh_TW" 0 kB
> >
> > I could not help but notice the avahi and zeroconf flags. I do not
> > see them. Do I have to install mono-zeroconf and avahi to see those
> > flags?
> >
> >
> > Do you find them useful? What applications are using avahi/zeroconf ?
> >
> >
> >
> > curiously,
> > James
>
> I think avahi is a KDE thing.  I don't really know what zeroconf is.  If
> I recall correctly, some package said it had to have that so I turned it
> on.  No clue what it is even after looking up the definition with euse.
> May as well be Greek.  ;-)


Avahi, mDNSResponder and bonjour are all apps implementing zeroconf - allowing 
network discovery. Say you want to find a printer on the network, then you can 
ask out loud and your app will "discover" them using DNS technologies without 
the printer admin having to tell you the name. Normally, you have to know the 
printer is there and either know it's name or IP to find it. These apps remove 
that limitation. It is also completely unlike Windows broadcasts.

avahi is the Gnome app
mDNSResponder was a KDE-3.5 thing built into kdelibs, with KDE-4 they have 
switched to using either avahi (with mDNSResponder support enabled) or 
mDNSResponder itself
bonjour is a MacOs app

zeroconf is not an app, it is a USE flag telling kde-libs to build support for 
this auto-discovery. It will use avahi or MDNSResponder depending on what it 
finds.


-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com