[cups.general] Still struggling -> Accounting

Paul Ortman portman at goshen.edu
Tue May 2 05:50:12 PDT 2006


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Ruan wrote:
> PyKota solution (UNIX): Intercept job and via snmp get meter readings
> before and after on machine.
>
> ...
>
> No solution will be fail-safe and I think that PyKota solution would
> be more accurate. However local printers need to be accounted for as
> well, and this should be done at backend level /or at filters.

I'm not a Pykota developer, and those guys could give you better
specifics, but Pykota can do 3 types of accounting.  The first two are
1) snmp and 2) pjl polling of the printer to determine when one print
job starts and ends and it reads the page counter on the printer.  3) is
a software based accounting that can interpret PCL5/6 and PS files to
determine the job size prior to sending the job to the printer.

3 is actually a separate project from Pykota (but developed by the same
folks) called "pkpgcounter" that I imagine you might be able to harness
in your own way.

I personally mainly use 1, but occasionally 2 if the printer doesn't
support 1, and then I use 3 as the accounting authority if neither 1 or
2 is supported (like where we foolishly replaced a JetDirect card on an
HP 4200 with a pretty dumb D-Link external unit, or for a few limited
lowend Inkjet printers).  3 is actually always used, even if 1 or 2 are
the ultimate authority, to predict whether a given job is small enough
to be allowed to be printed.

Overall, Pykota is a pretty impressively flexible and powerful system, I
recommend it.  You probably should send future questions about Pykota to
the Pykota mailing list -- pykota at librelogiciel.com

- --
Paul Ortman

PGP Key: 55602C81
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