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On 3/18/2010 3:55 PM, Dale wrote: |
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> I think avahi is a KDE thing. I don't really know what zeroconf is. If |
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> I recall correctly, some package said it had to have that so I turned it |
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> on. No clue what it is even after looking up the definition with euse. |
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> May as well be Greek. ;-) |
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Zeroconf is a set of technologies that are supposed to generate a fully |
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working IP network with no user or operator intervention. It includes |
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three basic parts: link-local network config (e.g. IPv4LL), distribution |
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hostname resolution (multicast DNS), and automatic service and device |
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discovery (DNS service discovery). |
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Used in the context of applications or services, you're usually talking |
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specifically about the autodiscovery portion, which allows applications |
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to find services and network devices automatically. It was primarily |
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invented at Apple, who developed mDNS and DNS-SD, and is built into OS X |
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as Bonjour. |
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Avahi is just a free-software implementation of Bonjour (which was |
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originally under the not-entirely-free Apple Public License), and from |
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what I've read has practically overtaken Bonjour in terms of performance |
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and features. |
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|
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Back onto the topic at hand: emerging cups with +zeroconf allows it to |
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respond to service discovery requests. By default CUPS uses |
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mDNSResponder, which is Apple's implementation; with +avahi is uses |
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avahi instead. This means any Mac on your network will automatically |
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see CUPS printers, as will any Linux client with avahi properly |
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installed. Windows machines with iTunes or Safari installed probably |
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have Bonjour as well, so they'd also benefit. |
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On a side-note: CUPS 1.4 stopped supporting Avahi and only supports |
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Apple's implementation, so the Gentoo devs have disabled zeroconf |
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support completely until CUPS 1.5 (or whatever) brings back native Avahi |
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support. |
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--Mike |