[cups.general] Printing ps files in fixed order via lpr frontend

[Jan Hubený]

Hi,

consider following situation:

we run CUPS on server with following configuration: redhat linux  5.3. 
cups 1.3.7, gs 8.70.  We have one folder with technical drawings in 
postscript format on this server.
Let's say that the forder is

  /data

  and contains several postscript files
Name              Size
1.ps              20KB
2.ps              1.5MB
3.ps              20KB
4.ps              5MB
5.ps              300KB


We want to print this postscript files in a specified order (1.ps 2.ps 
3.ps 4.ps 5.ps).
The application which prints this files prints them by invoking 
following commands:

lpr -POCEtds600 /data/1.ps
lpr -POCEtds600 /data/2.ps
lpr -POCEtds600 /data/3.ps
lpr -POCEtds600 /data/4.ps
lpr -POCEtds600 /data/5.ps

The application waits until each command finishes before invoking next 
lpr command. Therefore,  we can see the following queue

root at users #lpq -POCEtds600

OCEtds600 is ready
Rank    Owner   Job     File(s)                         Total  Size
1st     user    1326407 1.ps 20     KB
2st     user    1326408 2.ps 1.5    MB
3rd     user    1326409 3.ps 20     KB
4th     user    1326410 4.ps 5      MB
5th     user    1326411 5.ps 300    KB

The CUPS then process the OCEtds600 queue and prints the drawings.  
However, the drawings are printed in different order for example:

the output paper sheets on the physical printer are in this order

1.ps
3.ps
2.ps
5.ps
4.ps

It seems that the larger files are processed longer than smaller files 
and the smaller files are printed earlier and skips over the longer files.

My question is following: Is there a way to ensure  that the files will 
be printed in the specified fixed order (i.e. 1.ps 2.ps 3.ps 4.ps 5.ps 
in our example) on a particular printer?

With regards,

Jan Hubeny










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