ippfind

discovers IPP printers and services on the local network using DNS-SD

TLDR

Find all IPP printers on the network

$ ippfind

Find printers matching a name pattern

$ ippfind --name '[*HP*]'

Find printers and print their URIs

$ ippfind --print

Find printers and execute a command for each

$ ippfind --exec [ipptool] -t '{}' [get-printer-attributes.test] \;

Search for a specific time then exit

$ ippfind -T [5]

Find printers with specific capabilities

$ ippfind --txt-key '[pdl]' --txt-value '[*pdf*]'

SYNOPSIS

ippfind [options] [regtype[,subtype]] [expressions]

ippfind discovers IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) printers and services on the local network using DNS-SD (Bonjour/mDNS). It can find printers, filter results by various criteria, and execute commands for each discovered printer.This tool is essential for driverless printing environments where printers are discovered automatically rather than configured manually. It supports searching by name, capabilities, and DNS-SD TXT record attributes.

PARAMETERS

--name PATTERN

Match printer names against pattern (supports wildcards)

--txt-key KEY

Match DNS-SD TXT record key

--txt-value VALUE

Match DNS-SD TXT record value

--print

Print the URI of each found printer

--exec command \;

Execute command for each printer ({} is replaced with URI)

-T seconds

Search for specified number of seconds then exit

-P number

Stop after finding specified number of printers

--quiet

Suppress output except for matched URIs

--version

Show version information

INSTALL

sudo apt install cups-ipp-utils

sudo dnf install cups-client

sudo apk add cups-client

sudo zypper install cups-client

CAVEATS

Requires mDNS/DNS-SD support on the network (typically provided by Avahi on Linux or mDNSResponder on macOS). Discovery may miss printers on different subnets unless mDNS reflection is configured. Results depend on printers properly advertising their capabilities.

HISTORY

Part of CUPS and the IPP tooling suite developed by Michael Sweet. Created to support the IPP Everywhere initiative for driverless printing, leveraging DNS-SD for automatic printer discovery as standardized by the PWG.