[cups.bugs] [MOD] STR #2586: printjobs remain unprocessed due to false information in printers.conf

[Patricia]

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.  INSTEAD, POST ANY RESPONSES TO THE LINK BELOW.

[STR New]

On our Debian Etch and Ubuntu systems it quite frequently happens that --
as the user sees it -- "the printer does not work". This is due to
incorrect information about the printer in /etc/cups/printers.conf like

State Stopped
StateMessage /usr/lib/cups/backend/socket failed

which cups itself won't change even though the printer is up and running
again and can be reached through the network. These false Status entries
won't even disappear after a fresh restart of the cupsd. To cure the state
root has to delete these lines, and everything will work again.

This problem illustrates a general issue: /etc/cups/printers.conf, as it
is located in /etc, should be a (generally read-only) configuration file,
_not_ a file that stores dynamic content. Variable data should be stored
in /var. At present the printers.conf mixes up static configuration
settings and variable status information. Please don't do this! It gives a
security-conscious admin who would like to mount /etc read-only unbearable
headaches.

Link: http://www.cups.org/str.php?L2586
Version: 1.2.7