The system printcap file contains the definitions of the print queues used by LPRng, and is located in the directory specified by the configuration ${sysconfdir} value. For a complete description of the printcap file see Printcap Database. If your system does not have an existing printcap file then a dummy file similar to the following is installed by default:
In addition to the system printcap file, each user can have a ${HOME}/.printcap which contains printcap entries as well. The the user printcap file is in effect appended to the system printcap file, and values in the user printcap file override the system printcap file. However, in order to allow users to specify a default printer after reading the printcap file information the entries are sorted so that printcap entries defined by users come first.
The lpd.conf is located in the ${sysconfdir} directory and provides configuration settings for both the LPRng client and server programs. For a complete description of the lpd.conf file see Configuration File, Defaults and Overrides. During installation the ${sysconfdir}/lpd.conf.template is created with the default LPRng information and if there is not an existing ${sysconfdir}/lpd.conf file is copied to it.
The lpd.perms is located in the ${sysconfdir} directory and is only by lpd to determine user permissions for printing activities. For a complete description of the lpd.perms file see Permissions and Authentication for details. During installation the lpd.perms.template file is installed in the ${sysconfdir}/lpd.perms.template and if there is not an existing lpd.perms file is copied to it.
By default, the LPRng client programs lpr, lpq, lprm, and lprc will require a lpd.conf and printcap file to be installed on the local host. You can relax this requirement by setting using the --disable-require_configfile configuration option. You can also create empty files to satisfy the program requirements.