[cups.general] Re: Printer Alias

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

On Feb 19 11:03 Helge Blischke wrote (shortened):
> Ciro Iriarte wrote:
> > 
> > have a laser printer working with cups and a spool for pdf creation too,
> > i would like to send jobs, lets say, to the reports spool, and this will
> > send a copy to the real printer and another to the pdf creator script.
> 
> write a backend script that temporarily saves the PostScript job,
> feeds it through your PDF creating script and issues a print (lp or lpr)
> command for your real printer.

I think a backend is wrong because it gets printer specific data.
Even for PostScript printers the PostScript is printer specific
(whatever 'setpagedevice' settings or JCP header and footer).

To generate printer specific data and additionally a PDF, I would
enhance the filtering system.
I would add an additional filter step before pstops which
works like 'tee' - i.e. generates PDF and outputs it into a file
(or prints it to the PDF-creating queue) and forwards the original
input to stdout (i.e. to pstops).

See "CUPS Software Programmers Manual" and "man filter" and
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/06/jsmeix_print-cups-filters.html
and
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/05/jsmeix_print-cups-in-a-nutshell.html


Regards
Johannes Meixner
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