Scan IPP printers on the network
If you already know your printer config, you can skip this part.- Open Terminal on a macOS device.
- Run the following command to discover all printers available through the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP):
ippfind
- Note the list of discovered printers and their IPP URIs.
Identify the printer IP addresses
If you already know your printer config, you can skip this part.- For each discovered printer, run a ping command to verify its availability and obtain its IP address:
ping [printer-hostname]
[printer-hostname] with the actual hostname displayed by ippfind
- Record the IP addresses and corresponding IPP URIs.
Generate the mobileconfig file
If you need help generating the mobileconfig file with ippfind command and ping, you can run this script on your mac while you’re connected to your office network. It will display the mobileconfig file in your terminal.#!/bin/bash
# macOS + bash 3.2 compatible
# Discovers IPP printers and generates a .mobileconfig
# Dependencies: ippfind, ipptool, uuidgen, ping, nc, plutil, arp
# Usage:
# ./gen_airprint_profile.sh [-o file.mobileconfig] [-i com.profile.id] [-s CIDR]
# Example:
# ./gen_airprint_profile.sh -o Primo-AirPrint.mobileconfig -i com.getprimo.printer.airprint -s 192.168.1.0/24
set -euo pipefail
OUTPUT="AirPrint.mobileconfig"
ROOT_ID="com.getprimo.printer.airprint"
CIDR=""
TIMEOUT_DISC=5
PING_WAIT_MS=1000
while getopts ":o:i:s:" opt; do
case "$opt" in
o) OUTPUT="$OPTARG" ;;
i) ROOT_ID="$OPTARG" ;;
s) CIDR="$OPTARG" ;;
\?) echo "Invalid option: -$OPTARG" >&2; exit 2 ;;
esac
done
need() { command -v "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "Missing required tool: $1" >&2; exit 1; }; }
need uuidgen; need ping; need plutil; need ipptool
# ippfind and nc are recommended; without ippfind the script will fallback to CIDR/ARP
command -v ippfind >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo "Warning: ippfind not found: mDNS discovery will be skipped."
command -v nc >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "nc (netcat) is required for the network fallback."; exit 1; }
xml_escape() {
sed -e 's/&/\&/g' -e 's/</\</g' -e 's/>/\>/g' \
-e 's/\"/\"/g' -e "s/'/\'/g"
}
# -------- mDNS discovery via ippfind ----------
URIS=()
discover_mdns() {
[ -x "$(command -v ippfind)" ] || return 0
# --timeout varies across versions; try short IPv4 timeout when available
local out
if ippfind --help 2>/dev/null | grep -q -- '--timeout'; then
out=$(ippfind --timeout ${TIMEOUT_DISC} _ipp._tcp,_print _ipps._tcp,_print -q 2>/dev/null || true)
else
out=$(ippfind _ipp._tcp _ipps._tcp -q 2>/dev/null || true)
fi
if [ -n "$out" ]; then
while IFS= read -r line; do
[ -n "$line" ] && URIS+=("$line")
done <<< "$out"
fi
}
# -------- Fallback without mDNS ----------
# 1) Build candidate IPs: explicit CIDR (/24 only) or ARP table
candidates_from_arp() {
arp -an 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $2}' | tr -d '()' | grep -E '^[0-9.]+$' | sort -u
}
candidates_from_cidr() {
# Minimal /24 generator (e.g., 192.168.1.0/24); other masks are not supported here
local cidr="$1"
if ! echo "$cidr" | grep -qE '^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+/24$'; then
echo "Warning: Unsupported CIDR for this mini-scanner (only /24): $cidr" >&2
return 1
fi
local base="${cidr%/24}"
local net=$(echo "$base" | awk -F. '{print $1"."$2"."$3"."}')
local i
for i in $(seq 1 254); do echo "${net}${i}"; done
}
# 2) Probe port 631 and try common IPP paths
try_make_uri() {
local ip="$1"
local path
for path in "/ipp/print" "/.well-known/ipp" "/printers/print" "/ipp" "/printers/ipp"; do
if ipptool -T 3 -q "ipp://$ip:631$path" get-printer-attributes.test >/dev/null 2>&1; then
echo "ipp://$ip:631$path"
return 0
fi
done
for path in "/ipp/print" "/.well-known/ipp" "/ipp"; do
if ipptool -T 5 -q "ipps://$ip:631$path" get-printer-attributes.test >/dev/null 2>&1; then
echo "ipps://$ip:631$path"
return 0
fi
done
echo ""
return 1
}
discover_fallback() {
local candidates
if [ -n "$CIDR" ]; then
candidates=$(candidates_from_cidr "$CIDR" || true)
else
candidates=$(candidates_from_arp || true)
fi
[ -z "$candidates" ] && return 0
local ip uri
while IFS= read -r ip; do
[ -z "$ip" ] && continue
if nc -G 1 -z "$ip" 631 2>/dev/null; then
uri=$(try_make_uri "$ip")
[ -n "$uri" ] && URIS+=("$uri")
fi
done <<< "$candidates"
}
# -------- Collect attributes for each URI ----------
IPs=(); Ports=(); Paths=(); Names=(); Models=(); Locs=(); ForceTLS=()
extract_components() {
local uri="$1" scheme host port path ip name model loc
scheme=$(printf '%s' "$uri" | sed -E 's#^([a-zA-Z0-9+.-]+)://.*#\1#')
host=$(printf '%s' "$uri" | sed -E 's#^[a-zA-Z0-9+.-]+://([^/:]+).*#\1#')
port=$(printf '%s' "$uri" | sed -E 's#^[a-zA-Z0-9+.-]+://[^/:]+:([0-9]+).*#\1#')
path=$(printf '%s' "$uri" | sed -E 's#^[a-zA-Z0-9+.-]+://[^/]+(/.*)$#\1#')
[ -z "${port:-}" ] && port=631
[ -z "${path:-}" ] && path="/ipp/print"
ip=$(ping -c 1 -W ${PING_WAIT_MS} "$host" 2>/dev/null | sed -n '1s/.*(\\([0-9.]*\\)).*/\1/p')
[ -z "${ip:-}" ] && ip="$host"
name=""; model=""; loc=""
if ipptool -T 5 -q "$uri" get-printer-attributes.test >/tmp/ipp.$$ 2>/dev/null; then
name=$(sed -n 's/^printer-info[^=]*= //p' /tmp/ipp.$$ | head -n1)
model=$(sed -n 's/^printer-make-and-model[^=]*= //p' /tmp/ipp.$$ | head -n1)
loc=$(sed -n 's/^printer-location[^=]*= //p' /tmp/ipp.$$ | head -n1)
rm -f /tmp/ipp.$$
fi
[ -z "$name" ] && name="$host"
[ -z "$model" ] && model="$name"
IPs+=("$ip"); Ports+=("$port"); Paths+=("$path");
Names+=("$name"); Models+=("$model"); Locs+=("$loc");
if [ "$scheme" = "ipps" ]; then ForceTLS+=("true"); else ForceTLS+=("false"); fi
}
# --------- RUN ----------
discover_mdns
if [ ${#URIS[@]} -eq 0 ]; then
echo "No printer visible via mDNS (ippfind). Attempting network discovery…"
discover_fallback
fi
if [ ${#URIS[@]} -eq 0 ]; then
echo "No IPP printer found" >&2
exit 1
fi
# Remove duplicates / keep stable order
tmp_uniq="$(mktemp)"
printf "%s\n" "${URIS[@]}" | awk '!seen[$0]++' > "$tmp_uniq"
URIS=()
while IFS= read -r line; do [ -n "$line" ] && URIS+=("$line"); done < "$tmp_uniq"
rm -f "$tmp_uniq"
# Gather attributes
i=0
while [ $i -lt ${#URIS[@]} ]; do
extract_components "${URIS[$i]}"
i=$((i+1))
done
# --------- Generate .mobileconfig ----------
PROFILE_UUID=$(uuidgen)
AIRPRINT_UUID=$(uuidgen)
MCX_UUID=$(uuidgen)
TMP="$(mktemp /tmp/airprint.XXXXXX.mobileconfig)"
{
cat <<'XML'
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>PayloadContent</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>AirPrint</key>
<array>
XML
idx=0
for uri in "${URIS[@]}"; do
ft="${ForceTLS[$idx]}"; ip="${IPs[$idx]}"; port="${Ports[$idx]}"; path="${Paths[$idx]}"
printf ' <dict>\n'
printf ' <key>ForceTLS</key>\n'
[ "$ft" = "true" ] && printf ' <true/>\n' || printf ' <false/>\n'
printf ' <key>IPAddress</key>\n'
printf ' <string>%s</string>\n' "$(printf '%s' "$ip" | xml_escape)"
printf ' <key>Port</key>\n'
printf ' <integer>%s</integer>\n' "$port"
printf ' <key>ResourcePath</key>\n'
printf ' <string>%s</string>\n' "$(printf '%s' "$path" | xml_escape)"
printf ' </dict>\n'
idx=$((idx+1))
done
cat <<XML
</array>
<key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
<string>AirPrint</string>
<key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.airprint.${AIRPRINT_UUID}</string>
<key>PayloadType</key>
<string>com.apple.airprint</string>
<key>PayloadUUID</key>
<string>${AIRPRINT_UUID}</string>
<key>PayloadVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>DefaultPrinter</key>
<dict>
<key>DeviceURI</key>
<string>$(printf '%s' "${URIS[0]}" | xml_escape)</string>
<key>DisplayName</key>
<string>$(printf '%s' "${Names[0]}" | xml_escape)</string>
</dict>
<key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
<string>Printing</string>
<key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.mcxprinting.${MCX_UUID}</string>
<key>PayloadType</key>
<string>com.apple.mcxprinting</string>
<key>PayloadUUID</key>
<string>${MCX_UUID}</string>
<key>PayloadVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>UserPrinterList</key>
<dict>
<key>Printer</key>
<array>
XML
idx=0
for uri in "${URIS[@]}"; do
name="${Names[$idx]}"; model="${Models[$idx]}"; loc="${Locs[$idx]}"
cat <<XML
<dict>
<key>DeviceURI</key>
<string>$(printf '%s' "$uri" | xml_escape)</string>
<key>DisplayName</key>
<string>$(printf '%s' "$name" | xml_escape)</string>
<key>Location</key>
<string>$(printf '%s' "$loc" | xml_escape)</string>
<key>Model</key>
<string>$(printf '%s' "$model" | xml_escape)</string>
<key>PPDURL</key>
<string>file://localhost/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/PrintCore.framework/Resources/Generic.ppd</string>
<key>PrinterLocked</key>
<false/>
</dict>
XML
idx=$((idx+1))
done
cat <<XML
</array>
</dict>
</dict>
</array>
<key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
<string>AirPrint</string>
<key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
<string>${ROOT_ID}</string>
<key>PayloadType</key>
<string>Configuration</string>
<key>PayloadUUID</key>
<string>${PROFILE_UUID}</string>
<key>PayloadVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>
XML
} > "$TMP"
plutil -lint "$TMP" >/dev/null
plutil -convert xml1 -o "$OUTPUT" "$TMP"
rm -f "$TMP"
echo "Profile generated: $OUTPUT"
echo "Default Printer: ${Names[0]} (${URIS[0]})"
cat "$OUTPUT"
Import the configuration
- Access MDM > Profiles. Select the profile you want to target.
- Select Add a custom MDM setting.
- Upload the following .mobileconfig file, replacing the placeholders (IP, UUID, etc) with your printer’s configurations details:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>PayloadContent</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>AirPrint</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>ForceTLS</key>
<false/>
<key>IPAddress</key>
<string>[IP_ADDRESS]</string>
<key>Port</key>
<integer>631</integer>
<key>ResourcePath</key>
<string>[RESOURCE_PATH]</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
<string>AirPrint</string>
<key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.airprint.[UUID]</string>
<key>PayloadType</key>
<string>com.apple.airprint</string>
<key>PayloadUUID</key>
<string>[UUID]</string>
<key>PayloadVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>DefaultPrinter</key>
<dict>
<key>DeviceURI</key>
<string>ipp://[IP_ADDRESS]/[RESOURCE_PATH]</string>
<key>DisplayName</key>
<string>[DISPLAY_NAME]</string>
</dict>
<key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
<string>Printing</string>
<key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.mcxprinting.[UUID]</string>
<key>PayloadType</key>
<string>com.apple.mcxprinting</string>
<key>PayloadUUID</key>
<string>[UUID]</string>
<key>PayloadVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>UserPrinterList</key>
<dict>
<key>Printer</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>DeviceURI</key>
<string>ipp://[IP_ADDRESS]/[RESOURCE_PATH]</string>
<key>DisplayName</key>
<string>[DISPLAY_NAME]</string>
<key>Location</key>
<string>[LOCATION]</string>
<key>Model</key>
<string>[MODEL]</string>
<key>PPDURL</key>
<string>file://localhost/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/PrintCore.framework/Resources/Generic.ppd</string>
<key>PrinterLocked</key>
<false/>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
</dict>
</array>
<key>PayloadDisplayName</key>
<string>AirPrint</string>
<key>PayloadIdentifier</key>
<string>com.getprimo.printer.airprint</string>
<key>PayloadType</key>
<string>Configuration</string>
<key>PayloadUUID</key>
<string>[UUID]</string>
<key>PayloadVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>
- Save and deploy the profile.