IPP Test Client

A command line tool for talking to printers over IPP (Internet Printing Protocol): check status and supplies, list capabilities, send a test print, and watch the job finish. Works with network printers (IPP Everywhere, AirPrint), CUPS queues and Windows print servers.

The IPP encoder and decoder are written from scratch against RFC 8010 / RFC 8011 in plain .NET 8, with no dependencies. Collections (media-col and friends) are fully supported.

Why

When a print integration fails, the first question is always "what does the printer actually say?". Vendor tools hide the protocol, and ipptool needs test files. This gives you readable answers in one command, and a --debug switch that shows every attribute on the wire.

Examples

$ ipp-test info ipp://192.168.1.50/ipp/print

Printer           HP LaserJet Pro M404dn
Name              HP_LaserJet_M404
Location          2nd floor, finance
State             idle (toner-low-warning)
Accepting jobs    yes
IPP versions      1.1, 2.0
Formats           application/pdf, image/urf, image/pwg-raster, application/octet-stream
Color             no
Sides             one-sided, two-sided-long-edge, two-sided-short-edge
Media default     iso_a4_210x297mm
Resolutions       600dpi, 1200dpi
Copies            1-999
Supplies
  Black Cartridge                [#.........] 15%
Operations
  Print-Job, Validate-Job, Create-Job, Send-Document, Cancel-Job, Get-Job-Attributes, Get-Jobs, Get-Printer-Attributes, Identify-Printer

$ ipp-test print ipp://192.168.1.50/ipp/print invoice.pdf --sides two-sided-long-edge --copies 2 --wait

Sending invoice.pdf (48,213 bytes, application/pdf)...
Accepted: successful-ok (0x0000)
#212    pending            invoice.pdf
#212    processing         invoice.pdf                    usama
#212    completed          invoice.pdf                    usama  4 impression(s)

$ ipp-test validate ipp://192.168.1.50/ipp/print --format application/vnd.ms-excel
client-error-document-format-not-supported (0x040A): Unsupported document-format

Commands

Command	IPP operation	What it does
info <uri> [--all]	Get-Printer-Attributes	Status, capabilities, supplies. --all dumps every attribute with its type
print <uri> <file>	Print-Job	Sends a file, --wait polls until it completes
validate <uri>	Validate-Job	Asks whether a job with these options would be accepted, without printing
job <uri> <id>	Get-Job-Attributes	One job's state
jobs <uri> [--completed]	Get-Jobs	Active or finished jobs
cancel <uri> <id>	Cancel-Job	Cancels a job
identify <uri>	Identify-Printer	Makes the printer beep or flash so you can find it

Job options: --format, --copies, --sides, --media, --color, --job-name, --wait Global options: --user, --ipp-version 1.1|2.0, --insecure, --timeout, --debug

Printer URIs

Target	URI
Most network printers	ipp://<ip>/ipp/print
Same, over TLS	ipps://<ip>/ipp/print (add --insecure for self signed certificates)
CUPS queue	ipp://<host>:631/printers/<queue>
Windows print server	http://<server>/printers/<share>/.printer

ipp:// is sent as HTTP and ipps:// as HTTPS, both on port 631 unless the URI has another port.

Install and run

git clone https://github.com/softechies/ipp-test-client.git
cd ipp-test-client
dotnet run --project src/IppTestClient -- info ipp://192.168.1.50/ipp/print

Or publish a single file executable:

dotnet publish src/IppTestClient -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained -p:PublishSingleFile=true -o out
out\ipp-test.exe --help

CI builds ready to run binaries for Windows, Linux and macOS on every push (see the Actions tab).

Using the library in your own code

The Ipp folder is a small standalone IPP library you can copy into another project:

using var http = new HttpClient();
var ipp = new IppClient(http) { UserName = "billing-service" };

var printer = new Uri("ipp://192.168.1.50/ipp/print");
var attrs = await ipp.GetPrinterAttributesAsync(printer, ["printer-state", "marker-levels"]);
var state = attrs.Find(IppTag.PrinterAttributes, "printer-state")?.AsInt();

await using var pdf = File.OpenRead("label.pdf");
var result = await ipp.PrintJobAsync(printer, pdf, new PrintJobOptions
{
    DocumentFormat = "application/pdf",
    Media = "na_index-4x6_4x6in"
});
var jobId = result.Find(IppTag.JobAttributes, "job-id")?.AsInt();

Tests

dotnet test

The suite checks byte exact request encoding, round trips of every value type including nested collections, and runs every command against an in process fake printer. The tool has also been checked against a real CUPS server (IPP/1.1 and 2.x, plain and TLS).

Project layout

src/IppTestClient/
  Ipp/   protocol: tags, message model, encoder, decoder, HTTP client
  Cli/   argument parsing, commands, output formatting
tests/IppTestClient.Tests/

License

MIT

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Built and maintained by Softechies Solutions. We work on printing and Windows system software: IPP servers and clients, print drivers, Print Support Apps and Windows services.