[cups.general] Re: incomplete PostScript print jobs

Helge Blischke H.Blischke at srz-berlin.de
Tue Nov 16 03:56:25 PST 2004


Thomas J Pinkl wrote:
> 
> On Fri, Nov 12, 2004 at 09:55:41AM -0500, Helge Blischke wrote:
> > Are you sure the printconf tool works correctly with CUPS? I just looked
> > into some components of it and found only stuff regarding LPRng.
> 
> No, I'm not sure that printconf works correctly with CUPS.  That's
> one of the things I had hoped to learn from this list.
> 
> On my FC2 system, printconf is part of the system-config-printer
> package, version 0.6.98 release 1.  It appears to be aware of CUPS,
> as it offers "Networked CUPS (IPP)" as a valid Queue Type.
> 
> > Thus, it is well possible that printing from applications (mozilla,
> > Adobe reader etc.) screws up the PS streams so that it is no longer
> > handled correctly ba the CUPS filters.
> 
> That is certainly possible.  Although I also have the same problem
> when submitting .ps files directly to the spooler (ie. not from
> within an application).  And I've tried several different .ps files,
> at different PostScript levels.
> 
> Here's a link to one such file:
> 
>   http://ftp.surfnet.nl/security/tcpwrappers/tcp_wrapper.ps.gz
> 
> When I try to print it, I get the first page and nothing more.
> 

Well, I got that file and - look, printing it with CUPS wasn't OK (CUPS
1.1.19).
After massaging the file to be DSC conformant to a certain minimum, it
printed
perfectly.
Following is a context diff of the hacked file against the original:

---snip---

*** hacked.tcp_wrapper.ps       Di Nov 16 12:38:09 2004
--- tcp_wrapper.ps      Mo Mai 25 13:08:55 1998
***************
*** 3,9 ****
  %%Title: stdin (ditroff)
  %%CreationDate: Wed Jul 15 11:10:39 1992
  %%EndComments
- %%BeginProlog
  % lib/psdit.pro -- prolog for psdit (ditroff) files
  % Copyright (c) 1984, 1985 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights
Reserved.
  % last edit: shore Sat Nov 23 20:28:03 1985
--- 3,8 ----
***************
*** 245,252 ****
  /ul 500 def
  /vr 0 def
  end
- %%EndProlog
- %%BeginSetup
  
  DITfd begin
  /s2 500 def /s4 250 def /s3 333 def
--- 244,249 ----
***************
*** 274,280 ****
  10 s
  1 f
  xi
! %%EndSetup
  
  %%Page: 1 1
  10 s 0 xH 0 xS 1 f
--- 271,277 ----
  10 s
  1 f
  xi
! %%EndProlog
  
  %%Page: 1 1
  10 s 0 xH 0 xS 1 f

---snip---

You must know that CUPS feeds the PostScript code through the pstops
filter to
fill in the defaults defined for the respective printer and the PS code
that
implement the job options (attributes in IPP speech), and that requires
a minimum
of DSC conformance and page independence to succeed.

As in general it is hardly possible to get all PostScript creators to
DSC
conformance, I'd suggest to convert the weird PS files to PDF (e.g.
using
Ghostscript) and printing that PDF. With a little extra effort, you
could
configure CUPS ti do that automagically for you.

Helge

-- 
Helge Blischke
Softwareentwicklung
SRZ Berlin | Firmengruppe besscom
http://www.srz.de
tel: +49 30 75301-360




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