Job hold and release from printer front panel
John A. Murdie
john at cs.york.ac.uk
Wed Nov 8 03:56:20 PST 2006
It is possible, of course, to spool a job to be held for eventual printing by CUPS when a `release job' command is given - e.g. using the -q `hold job' option of lpr(1) or, e.g. MacOS X's `Print -> Scheduler -> Print Document On Hold'. The user can subsequently access - say - the web page of the CUPS server on which the job is held, find the job status line, and press the green `Release job' button to cause it to print.
It's a bit of a pain, however, to have to find and login to a nearby PC which will run a web browser from which one can release the job. (Also, I've always been against the policy of having *all* jobs held in this way; true, it saves paper when jobs not released after a certain time are deleted, and it makes it easier to find one's printout from a public printer, but it's rather stupid to have to print from an application and then find and press `Release job' when the printer is in the same room just 3-6 metres from the PC you're on! Also, if one has special `job-release' PCs by all printers, remote from the classroom or office PCs, having to wait in the physical queue of people that inevitably builds up at the `printer PC' is extremely tedious. This even with systems that I've seen that allow users to release their jobs without waiting for the document or documents in front of them to print - and then there's the need to allow the users to put their jobs back `on hold' again from that PC when they realise that they can't wait any longer in the queue! Too much complexity!)
I wonder, however. if printers exist which have software which enables them to act as CUPS job release clients? I suspect that the protocol used would be IPP. Some new Ricoh printer/copiers we have (Aficio 3030PSs) have big front panel displays, soft keyboards and use login names and passwords (which can be taken from an LDAP server) to control access to their own facilities. It would be great if these - or other printer makes and models - could be used by users optionally to release jobs they have printed from across campus. Of course, some printers have themselves the facility of holding and releasing jobs in this way, but I feel that doing it centrally (on a CUPS server) is better; for instance, the user can move the held job to another printer if they realise this is necessary.
Of course, there's no *need* for this - we advise people here to look at the job queue before they print, and watch their job approaching the top of the queue, and then go to the printer to collect their output as it emerges. Some people find it reassuring, however, when printing confidential documents - or even just anything - to be able to `pre-order' the printout and then collect it immediately whenever they want. There's a question of fairness here - we assume that by pre-ordering their printout, they gain the right to immediate access to it ahead of someone else who has submitted a document to print just before they have.
Comments? Are there printers which can work with CUPS in this way?
John A. Murdie
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