[cups.general] Output of "lpstat -p"

[Markus.Grunwald at pruftechnik.com]

Hello,

Writing some scripts (printer queue/printer status in this case) for cups, 
I found the output of "lpstat -p" most helpfull. I experimented with the 
Stylus C42UX driver and got this output:

printer C46 is idle.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
printer C46 now printing C46-1.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
        Starting ESP Ghostscript 7.07.1...
printer C46 now printing C46-1.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
        Processing page 1...
printer C46 now printing C46-1.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
      Printing page 1, 5%
printer C46 now printing C46-1.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
      Printing page 1, 100%
printer C46 now printing C46-1.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
      Unable to open USB device "usb:/dev/usb/lp0: No such device

[ attach the printer ]

printer C46 now printing C46-1.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
      Sending print file, 8192 bytes...
printer C46 now printing C46-1.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
      Sending print file, 8192 bytes...
printer C46 is idle.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
      Sending print file, 1261568 bytes...

With a few regular expressions, this can be parsed very nicely and I was 
happy.

Until I tried the same with "PCL4 Printer Foomatic/laserjet(recommended)". 
Everything I got from this driver was:

printer LJ is idle.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
printer LJ now printing LJ-3.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
printer LJ now printing LJ-3.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
printer LJ now printing LJ-3.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
printer LJ now printing LJ-3.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00'
      Unable to open USB device "usb:/dev/usb/lp0"

[ lprm - ]

printer LJ is idle.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
      Unable to open USB device "usb:/dev/usb/lp0"
printer LJ now printing LJ-3.  enabled since Jan 01 00:00
      Unable to open USB device "usb:/dev/usb/lp0"


1) No nice progress information :(
2) In the last two lines: Since the indented line always just prints the 
_last_ message and the LJ driver doesn't give any other output (see 1) ), 
I can't find out whether the printer is attached and the message is 
outdated or if the printer really isn't attached.

Now, my question is: What part of cups is responsible for the nice output 
of the C42 and the ugly output of the LJ driver? Can I _somehow_ adjust 
the LJ (and possibly many others, I didn't try them all...) output of 
'lpstat -p' ?


Many thanks,

Markus Grunwald
Softwareentwicklung

PRÜFTECHNIK Condition Monitoring GmbH
Oskar-Messter-Straße 19-21
85737 Ismaning
www.pruftechnik.com
Tel: +49 (0)89 99616177
Fax: +49 (0)89 99616200