Re: Fwd: Workgroup printing, please!

["Robert G. Brown" <bob@xxxxxxx>]

>> Anyone know of a good package for doing workgroup-style printing?
>> I have the following requirements:
>> 1. Start each print job with a banner page, with at least the time and
>>    date, as well as the originating host name.
>lpd does this by default,  only Redhat puts the :sh: flag in printcap, 
>by default, which disables banner pages.  Take out the :sh: and see 
>what happens.
Nothing that I could SEE.

>> 2. Keep page counts, make them available to other software.
>What do you mean by "make them available".  LPD/Linux support printer 
>accouting, which can track pages, bytes, per user, queue, host, etc...
What do you mean by "support"? Where is the documentation for this? Please note
that before I wrote the first message, I read all the relevant man pages, both
printing HOW-TO texts, and did a bit of experimentation. There is no mention,
for example, of how a "cf" file gets into the spool directory.

Data that is "available" can be read from one or more places, a socket, a 
device/file, a database, requested from a daemon, etc.

>> 3. We'll need to inquire periodically (from another app) if there have 
>>    been print jobs since the last check, but almost anything will do, 
>>    since this part of the system has yet to be coded.
>Hmm, not too sure about this one, but I'd wager printer accounting 
>would cover this as well.
When I know what the API looks like and what to fill it with, I'll probably
agree with you. I see things in the printcap like "cents per page", but no
information on what the account code should look like.

It was also interesting that there is nothing available via freshmeat (for
example) to plop into those holes. What I've seen is that were ever there
is a significant gap or requirement in a package, someone comes along to
fill it.

>Or else simply check the last update time stamp on the .status or .lock 
>files in the printers queue directory.
Nice hack, but it ain't gonna do it. We want to catch every one, not poll
on when something was last touched.

>>What we want to do is notify the people near the print server that 
>>they have to look at the printer and pick something out of it for a 
>>particular user (who is using one of the workstations).
>Samba can be rigged to send win popup messages pretty easy if these 
>are win9x/NT clients with something like a postexec script, UNIX print 
>filters can dispatch e-mail messages, etc...
We be swattin' flies with some of them surplus thermonuclear weapons that
didn't go off during Y2K. If there's an event I can detect in a process,
either by listening on a socket or (heaven forfend) polling (early and often),
I can shoot off whatever fireworks I want in my clients domain. THis may
well include popups, mail messages, or random bids on E-Bay.

I have found a package that purports to do reasonably good printer management, 
and when I install it and play a bit, I'll let you know. This does not do any- 
thing about page counts or banners, however, so this is still not addressed. 
If you know how to use the API, a demo would be in order. Barring that, a 
pointer to some SPECIFIC documentation would be most welcome.


                                                               Regards,
                                                               ---> RGB <---