[cups.general] auth-info-required

[Michael R Sweet]

Tim Waugh wrote:
> Is there any documentation for how auth-info-required is meant to work,
> throughout the entire job workflow?

auth-info-required is a printer attribute that describes the
information required for printing.  The auth-info attribute is
passed in when printing, either directly as part of the IPP request
or indirectly via HTTP authentication.

A backend that returns with CUPS_BACKEND_AUTH_REQUIRED informs
cupsd that the job needs to be (re)authenticated.  The

     ATTR: auth-info-required=foo,bar,...

that a backend can put out changes the auth-info-required for
the printer, allowing client software to know what information
needs to be collected to allow the print job to proceed.

The job is held with the job-hold-until value set to
"auth-info-required" as a further hint to the client, and of course
you can subscribe to event notifications to pop up a dialog.

The job is released for printing using the CUPS_AUTHENTICATE_JOB
request, which provides new authentication information, again
either directly with an auth-info attribute or indirectly via
HTTP authentication...

> I can see that a backend can request auth info by setting the
> auth-info-required attribute with "ATTR:" and stopping with the
> appropriate exit code, but where is that attribute meant to end up?

You'll see it in the printers.conf file and in the auth-info-required
attribute.

> For example, with a CUPS server that requires 'Basic' authentication for
> submitted jobs, and a CUPS client that has discovered that queue using
> CUPS Browsing, when a job is submitted to the client, the client IPP
> backend stops and job-hold-until=='auth-info-required' for that job --
> but I don't see the auth-info-required attribute set for that printer on
> the client, only on the server.  Surely it's meant to be set for the
> client as well?

The information should be propagate to the client - if not, that's
a bug, so please report it.

-- 
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Michael R Sweet                        Senior Printing System Engineer