[cups.bugs] [LOW] STR #4075: PPD: Message Processing Bottlenecks

[Chad Hulbert]

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[STR New]

The currently recommended approach for encoding binary data in PPD files
through PPD: messages from a filter suffers serious performance issues
when the amount of data becomes large.  Even more so when the PPD file is
large.

Each PPD: message causes the PPD file to be read by line and written to a
copy.  If a filter emits 10s or 100s of messages this can result in 10s or
100s of megabytes of disk access, which can make the scheduler
non-responsive.  On OS X, this can lock the application and deny service
to concurrent users.

While concise encoding, compression and multiple attributes per PPD:
message help reduce the impact, the problem remains unsolved.

Link: http://www.cups.org/str.php?L4075
Version: 1.6-current