[cups.general] Can CUPS pass through the printer status somehow

[Ambrose Li]

On 14/12/06, Michael Sweet <mike at easysw.com> wrote:
> Ambrose Li wrote:
> > This has nothing to do with the status byte or anything that deals with
> > the actual printing itself, but what the printing system does when the
> > user requests "what is in the queue".
>
> THE LPD BACKEND DOES NOT EXIT UNTIL IT GETS CONFIRMATION FROM THE
> REMOTE SERVER THAT THE JOB HAS BEEN RECEIVED.  Thus, the job will
> stay queued until the printer says the job has been handled.  Thus
> the job will show up in the lpq/lpstat output until the job has been
> handled by the printer.

Sorry if you don't understand what I am trying to say. I must have
very bad and unclear writing.

Let my repeat, the confusion has nothing to do with RECEPTION by the printer.

When the printer has completely received the job, the job could still
be queued inside the printer.

When a user uses a traditional lpq command on a Unix host, lpq
displays the queue at the Unix host AND queries the printer to display
the queue at the printer. CUPS's lpq, on the other hand, displays ONLY
the local queue and nothing else. In other words, the lpq command of a
traditional lpd-based system tells you what is still queued inside the
printer, but CUPS's lpq never tells you that, and users are kept in
the dark whether the printer still has stuff queued for processing.

This is the cause of my shock when I had to switch to CUPS. CUPS never
queries the printer whether they still have stuff queued for printing
(versus completion of reception). Based on what I see on this list,
this is also the cause of confusion of a number of other people.
-- 
cheers,
-ambrose