[cups-devel] [UNKN] STR #4757: Change Default ErrorPolicy to abort-job

[Laura M.]

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[STR New]

The default error policy, unless modified by the user in cupsd.conf, is
stop-printer.

In the default configuration, this means that if there is an error, the
local cups printer will automatically be stopped. Resuming the printer
requires manual intervention; even if the printer subsequently reports that
it is working, users are unable to print unless the resume the printer.

This is a little bit counter intuitive; if a user job automatically causes
a printer error and stoppage - the generally needs to be resolved by an
administrator - why doesn't cups automatically resume when the printer
reports good health?

Alternatively, why doesn't it simply abort the job?

The only use case we might see this being of benefit would be in a large
networked printer environment. But in this case, there would be a very
limited amount of machines that need to be configured (especially as the
client machines would likely only see a "single" virtual printer).

This is especially frustrating for two reasons:

1) Cups doesn't recognize a difference between a filter error (or something
caused by a malformed pdf) vs an out-of-paper or any other kind of error,
instead choosing to stop the printer whenever something might possibly go
wrong. Why not abort the job instead? (Holding the job might causes people
to print the same thing multiple times, but is an equally valid option).

2) For individual or small network users using a remote printer, this can
cause the local cups printer to stop, even though it may work for everyone
else. This is, again, a frustrating default to keep.

Judging from the number of web results, this seems to be a common problem.

Rather than configuring every single computers cupsd.conf file with a new
ErrorPolicy directive, can we instead change the internal default to
"abort-job" in order to provide a more useful out-of-box experience for
more users?

Link: https://www.cups.org/str.php?L4757
Version: 2.2-current
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