usability of cups [was: Re: DeviceURI file:/tmp/print.prn with

[Helge Blischke]

ekkard gerlach wrote:
> 
> Michael Sweet wrote:
> > ekkard gerlach wrote:
> >
> >> The device URI "file:/" prints with rights 600. But it should be 666.
> >> Where can I configure the rights? - I didn't find anything in cupsd.conf.
> >
> >
> > You can't, the permissions are hardcoded to 600 on purpose - the file
> > pseudo-device is only there to support testing.
> 
> But I need it urgently because CUPS that comes with Suse 9.2 disables
> printer queue very often and customers get angry. Okay, I already run
> cronjob that enables disabled printer queue every minute.
> But thats not the only problem. What about queues with data my customer
> can't get rid of? - Okay, I already wrote scripts that clean an queues
> on any machine ...  and these days I implement a startup script that
> cleans any printer queues on booting. It's hard work to make CUPS usable
> for non computer freaks.
> 
> And I present you the most convenient CUPS usage concerning printers
> connected to Win machines: print to a file (DeviceURI
> file:/tmp/print.prn) and after make a
> smbclient //home/DRUCKER1 -P -N -U david -c "print /tmp/print.prn".
> It's very nice:
> 
>     1. no problem with not present backends -> cups never disables
>        this queue
> 
>     2. no problems with rubbish in queue. Queue is empty when printer
>        is turned off.
> 
> .. and my customers are happy - and me too!
> 
> Unfortunately the DeviceURI file is hardcoded to 600, .. hmmm ...
> I will implement a script with root rights (sudo, ..) that makes a chmod
> 666 to the print.prn. This script will be called before   smbclient
> //home ..... is called. With this workaround I have reached what my
> customers and me want. BTW: the networks of my customers are not
> connected to internet and are small offices (about 5 persons). I hope
> this info helps that one day a small business edition of cups will be
> released. ;-)
> 
> so long
> Ekkard

Why not writge a script (shell-, perl-, python-, whatever you like)
around your 
smbclient stuff which behaves as a backend?

Helge

-- 
Helge Blischke
Softwareentwicklung
SRZ Berlin | Firmengruppe besscom
http://www.srz.de