lpoptions -p printername -l

Prints PPD options, "Default" is filtered from option name (similar to looking at the raw PPD)

It uses a colon when reporting key value pairs; replace that with an equals sign when specifying an option

The option name stops at the first slash

Example: The duplex option for HP printers will output like this "HPOption_Duplexer/Duplex Unit: *True False"
When specified as a "-o" option it would be "HPOption_Duplexer=True"

lpadmin ... -o this=that

Alters the ppd that is placed in /etc/cups/ppd/ when the printer is installed

Unhelpful things:
lpoptions -p printername

These are NOT the PPD options you want to set

lpoptions -o

This only writes options to: /private/etc/cups/lpoptions (run with sudo) or ~/.cups/lpoptions (run as current user), GUI apps are unaware of these options

diff "$originalfile" "$newfile" | grep "> [*]Default" | sed 's/> [*]Default/-o /g' | sed 's/: /=/g'

#!/bin/bash
#set -x
#ppd option maker

if [ "$1" == "-h" ]; then
echo "$(basename $0) compares two ppds and outputs the differences as a string for use in lpadmin"
echo "Usage: $(basename $0) [original_ppd] [new_ppd]"
exit
fi

if [ -z "$1" -o -z "$2" ]; then
clear;
echo "Drag in the unmodified PPD from /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources:"
while [ -z "$originalfile" ]; do
read originalfile
done

echo "Drag in the PPD from /etc/cups/ppd:"
while [ -z "$newfile" ]; do
read newfile
done

elif [ -n "$1" -o -n "$2" ]; then
newfile="$2"
originalfile="$1"

fi

#if file is compressed
if [ "${originalfile##*.}" == "gz" ]; then
#uncompress
IFS=$'\n\t'
gunzipFile="/tmp/$(basename $originalfile .gz)"
gunzip < "$originalfile" > "$gunzipFile"
originalfile="$gunzipFile"
fi

#test for file existence
if [ ! -f "$originalfile" ]; then echo "$originalfile is not a valid path"; exit; fi 
if [ ! -f "$newfile" ]; then echo "$newfile is not a valid path"; exit; fi 

#create options list by diffing and filtering
optionList=$(diff "$originalfile" "$newfile" | grep "> [*]Default" | sed 's/> [*]Default/-o /g' | sed 's/: /=/g')

#print out the options with no line breaks
IFS=$'\n\t'
if [ ! -z "$optionList" ]; then
for option in $optionList; do 
	echo -n "$option "
done
echo
else
echo No differences
fi

#delete the temp file from gunzipping
[ -f "$gunzipFile" ] && rm "$gunzipFile"

exit

$ ./ppdOptionsDiff.command /Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/HP\ LaserJet\ 5200.gz /private/etc/cups/ppd/PRINTERNAME.ppd 

-o HPOption_Tray3=Tray3_500 -o HPCollateSupported=True -o HPOption_Duplexer=True -o HPOption_Disk=RAMDisk