GetPrinter

The GetPrinter function retrieves information about a specified printer.

BOOL GetPrinter(
  HANDLE hPrinter,    // handle to printer of interest
  DWORD Level,        // version of printer info data structure
  LPBYTE pPrinter,    // pointer to array of bytes that receives 
                      // printer info structure
  DWORD cbBuf,        // size, in bytes, of the pPrinter buffer
  LPDWORD pcbNeeded   // pointer to variable with count of bytes 
                      // retrieved (or required)
);
 

Parameters

hPrinter

Handle to the printer for which the function retrieves information. Use the OpenPrinter function to retrieve a printer handle.

Level

Specifies the version of the structure that the function stores into the buffer pointed to by pPrinter.

Windows 95: This value can be 1, 2, or 5.

Windows NT: This value can be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7.

pPrinter

Pointer to a buffer that receives a structure containing information about the specified printer. The buffer must be large enough to receive the structure and any strings or other data that the structure members point to. If the buffer is too small, the pcbNeeded parameter returns the required buffer size.

The type of structure is determined by the value of Level.

Level	Structure
1	A PRINTER_INFO_1 structure containing general printer information.
2	A PRINTER_INFO_2 structure containing detailed information about the printer.
3	Windows NT: A PRINTER_INFO_3 structure containing the printer's security information.
4	Windows NT: A PRINTER_INFO_4 structure containing minimal printer information, including the name of the printer, the name of the server, and whether the printer is remote or local.
5	A PRINTER_INFO_5 structure containing printer information such as printer attributes and time-out settings.
7	Windows NT 5.0 and later: A PRINTER_INFO_7 structure that indicates whether the printer is published in the directory service.

cbBuf

Specifies the size, in bytes, of the buffer pointed to by pPrinter.

pcbNeeded

Pointer to a variable that the function sets to the size, in bytes, of the printer information. If cbBuf is smaller than this value, GetPrinter fails, and the value represents the required buffer size. If cbBuf is equal to or greater than this value, GetPrinter succeeds, and the value represents the number of bytes stored in the buffer.

Return Values

If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.

If the function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

Windows NT: For the PRINTER_INFO_2 and PRINTER_INFO_3 structures that contain a pointer to a security descriptor, the function retrieves only those components of the security descriptor that the caller has permission to read. To retrieve particular security descriptor components, you must specify the necessary access rights when you call the OpenPrinter function to retrieve a handle to the printer. The following table shows the access rights required to read the various security descriptor components.

Windows NT 5.0 and later: You can use level 7 with the PRINTER_INFO_7 structure to determine whether the printer is published in the directory service. If the printer is published, the dwAction member of PRINTER_INFO_7 is set to DSPRINT_PUBLISH and the pszObjectGUID member contains the GUID of the directory services print queue object associated with the printer. If the printer is not published, dwAction is set to DSPRINT_UNPUBLISH.

QuickInfo

  Windows NT: Requires version 3.1 or later.
  Windows: Requires Windows 95 or later.
  Windows CE: Unsupported.
  Header: Declared in winspool.h.
  Import Library: Use winspool.lib.
  Unicode: Implemented as Unicode and ANSI versions on Windows NT.

See Also

Printing and Print Spooler Overview, Printing and Print Spooler Functions, AbortPrinter, AddPrinter, ClosePrinter, DeletePrinter, EnumPrinters, PRINTER_INFO_1, PRINTER_INFO_2, PRINTER_INFO_3, PRINTER_INFO_4, PRINTER_INFO_5, PRINTER_INFO_7, OpenPrinter, SetPrinter