[cups] 000* temp files in /var/spool/cups

[Tim Mooney]

We have a fairly busy CUPS print server on RHEL 6.x x86_64, which means
CUPS 1.4.2 + "vendor sauce", as Michael puts it.  :-)

I've noticed that something is leaving behind what appears to be temporary
files in /var/spool/cups:

[dozens of earlier files skipped]
-rw-r----- 1 root lp     430269 Jan 18 10:45 0007d2e6
-rw-r----- 1 root lp       4128 Jan 18 17:53 0007df38
-rw-r----- 1 root lp    4491554 Jan 19 13:52 0007ec5e
-rw-r----- 1 root lp 1246802255 Jan 19 16:49 0007efc9
-rw-r----- 1 root lp    3927097 Jan 20 11:51 0007f9ec
-rw-r----- 1 root lp      94673 Jan 20 12:24 0007fae7
-rw-r----- 1 root lp    1971144 Jan 20 23:44 0007ff68
-rw-r----- 1 root lp   28538871 Jan 21 14:28 0008007c
-rw-r----- 1 root lp   13023929 Jan 23 07:27 00080505
-rw-r----- 1 root lp    4590399 Jan 23 11:01 00080caf
-rw-r----- 1 root lp    1945658 Jan 23 11:41 00080dbb
-rw-r----- 1 root lp    1572647 Jan 23 12:44 0008108f

The files are all job data files:

#file 0007* 0008*
0007d2e6: HP Printer Job Language data
0007df38: HP Printer Job Language data
0007ec5e: HP Printer Job Language data
0007efc9: PostScript document text conforming DSC level 3.0, Level 2
0007f9ec: HP Printer Job Language data
0007fae7: HP Printer Job Language data
0007ff68: HP Printer Job Language data
0008007c: HP Printer Job Language data
00080505: HP Printer Job Language data
00080caf: HP Printer Job Language data
00080dbb: HP Printer Job Language data
0008108f: HP Printer Job Language data

I'm reviewing the CUPS CHANGES documents after 1.4.2, to see if this
is mentioned anywhere as a bug that has been fixed in a more recent
version, and initially thought it might be STR#3795 from CHANGES-1.4.txt:

     - The scheduler might leave old job data files in the spool directory
       (STR #3795)

but it turns out that was for actual d* files, not files with a temporary
name.

I can't find anything that looks like this issue anywhere in CHANGES.

Anyone else seen this particular issue?

None of the 000* files are open.  Am I likely to cause problems for cupsd
if I remove them while it's running?

Tim
-- 
Tim Mooney                                             Tim.Mooney at ndsu.edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure                  701-231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, Quentin Burdick Building                  701-231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164