Using a Perl script backend to handle a printfile

[David Coventry]

I have placed a simple Perl script in /usr/lib/cups/backed


=============================== snip ===================================

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;


if (!$ARGV[0]){
	print "PDF emailer\n";
	exit 0;
}

if (scalar(@ARGV) < 5 || scalar(@ARGV) > 6){
	print STDERR "ERROR: Usage: mailpr job-id user title copies options [file]";
	exit 1;
}

my ($jobID, $userName, $jobTitle, $copies, $printOptions, $printFile) = @ARGV;
open (OUT,">/tmp/test.prn") or die "ERROR: Bad news, I'm afraid: $!\n";
print OUT "$jobID, $userName, $jobTitle, $copies, $printOptions, $printFile\n";
while(<STDIN>){
	print OUT "$_";
}
close OUT;
exit 0;

================================ snip ===================================



I have called the script 'mailpr'.

I have activated the printer using the following command:

lpadmin -p pdfmailer -v mailpr:/var/spool/cups/pdf/ -D "Generate PDF files to email" -E

This creates a printer in Cups called pdfmailer which uses the script mailpr as expected: a file is generated in /tmp/test.prn and it contains jobno, user, filename etc.

However, the print file is generated in /va/spool/cups and not in /var/spool/cups/pdf as I would expect. Also the filename as passed to /tmp/test.prn is of the order /var/spool/cups/d00014-001 as opposed to the actual file generated, which is /var/spool/cups/c00014. Furthermore the file does not contain raw text as expected.

Can anyone suggest how I can:

a) make sure that the script is passed the correct file name and
b) ensure that the file generated is plain text.

I need to read in the raw text file and, depending on the layout of the file, I want to mix it with a postscript background before ultimately creating a pdf to be emailed.

Many Thanks,

Dave Coventry