Run a CUPS print server on a remote machine to share USB printers over WiFi. Built primarily to use with Raspberry Pis as a headless server, but there is no reason this wouldn't work on amd64 machines. Tested and confirmed working on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ (arm/v7) and Raspberry Pi 4 (arm64/v8).

Container packages available from Docker Hub and Github Container Registry (ghcr.io)

• Docker Hub Image: anujdatar/cups
• GHCR Image: ghcr.io/anujdatar/cups

Quick start with default parameters

docker run -d -p 631:631 --device /dev/bus/usb --name cups anujdatar/cups

Customizing your container

docker run -d --name cups \
    --restart unless-stopped \
    -p 631:631 \
    --device /dev/bus/usb \
    -e CUPSADMIN=batman \
    -e CUPSPASSWORD=batcave_password \
    -e TZ="America/Gotham" \
    -v <persistent-config-folder>:/etc/cups \
    anujdatar/cups

Note: :P make sure you use valid TZ string, this is just a joke. Also changing the default username and password is highly recommended.

• port -> default cups network port 631:631. Change not recommended unless you know what you're doing
• device -> used to give docker access to USB printer. Default passes the whole USB bus /dev/bus/usb, in case you change the USB port on your device later. change to specific USB port if it will always be fixed, for eg. /dev/bus/usb/001/005.

• name -> whatever you want to call your docker image. using cups in the example above.
• volume -> adds a persistent volume for CUPS config files if you need to migrate or start a new container with the same settings

Environment variables that can be changed to suit your needs, use the -e tag

version: "3"
services:
    cups:
        image: anujdatar/cups
        container_name: cups
        restart: unless-stopped
        ports:
            - "631:631"
        devices:
            - /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb
        environment:
            - CUPSADMIN=batman
            - CUPSPASSWORD=batcave_password
            - TZ="America/Gotham"
        volumes:
            - <persistent-config-path>:/etc/cups

You should now be able to access CUPS admin server using the IP address of your headless computer/server http://192.168.xxx.xxx:631, or whatever. If your server has avahi-daemon/mdns running you can use the hostname, http://printer.local:631. (IP and hostname will vary, these are just examples)

If you are running this on your PC, i.e. not on a headless server, you should be able to log in on http://localhost:631

Based on the work done by RagingTiger: https://github.com/RagingTiger/cups-airprint