Print job not deleting when no output from filter?

Tim Pushor tim.pushor at yorkelec.com
Mon Aug 9 09:14:24 PDT 2010


Helge Blischke wrote:

> Obviously your filter (that forwards the stuff to hylafax etc.) is, 
> according to the data flow, the last element in the prcessing chain.
> I'd therefore install this filter as a backend. If that exits with a return 
> code of zero (CUPS_BACKEND_OK), the job's data file(s) will be trahsed as 
> expected.
> 
> Helge

Hi Helge,

Thanks for replying. Unfortunately it is not the last element in the 
processing chain for normal printing, only for faxing and emailing.

The normal printing chain is

Job -> My script -> pdftops -> ghostscript (non PS printers) -> printer

I know this is not ideal. I've just modified my script so that if it 
sends a fax or email that it will still output *something* (right not 
its just a newline). pdftops of course doesn't like it as its not valid 
pdf, and it doesn't output anything which still results in the print job 
not getting deleted.

Now in my case I can work around it by sending a very small minimal PDF 
file, as it will be absorbed by the file:/dev/null printer but a) this 
is gross, and b) makes me wonder about print jobs hanging around if 
filter scripts fail or erroneously generate output that scripts further 
up the chain can't grok .. Is this the desired behavior of cups?

Thanks,
Tim





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