[cups] Question regarding cups-pdf

[Felix Natter]

hello Helge, hello Narcis,

thank you for your replies.

Helge Blischke <helgeblischke at web.de> writes:
>> I am wondering how the cups pdf printer (printer-driver-cups-pdf package
>> on Debian) works. There is always the option "Print to File" which
>> allows printing to Postscript and PDF (regardless of whether
>> printer-driver-cups-pdf is installed).
>> 
>> If you have printer-driver-cups-pdf installed, there is a "PDF" printer,
>> and the output is saved to ~/PDF for firefox and gedit.
>> 
>> But how about other applications? Where is the output saved to if I
>> print using the "PDF" printer from a java application?
>> 
>> I also checked /var/spool/cups-pdf/ANONYMOUS (ABSOLUTE path for
>> anonymously created PDF files), found in /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf,
>> but I guess I'm on the wrong track here.
>> 
>> Many Thanks and Best Regards,
>> -- 
>> Felix Natter
> Usually, the generated PDF files go to
> /var/spool_cups-pdf/<username>
> where <username> is the login name of the user who created the job either by command or via 
> the print dialogue from other applications.

/var/spool/cups-pdf$ sudo find
.
./SPOOL
./ANONYMOUS

/etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf has this:
### Key: AnonDirName
##  ABSOLUTE path for anonymously created PDF files
##  if anonymous access is disabled this setting has no effect
### Default: /var/spool/cups-pdf/ANONYMOUS

--> but how can I enable anonymous access?
(Sorry, I couldn't find it on the internet)

> For details see the documentation that comes with the installed package (or 
> look at the author’s web site.

I had a look at /usr/share/doc/printer-driver-cups-pdf and
/usr/share/doc/cups.

I also read:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems

There is not much documentation on cups-pdf.de, except for the German
quick guide, the link of which is broken.

The access_log has this when priting to the PDF printer via the java
app (when nothing arrives in ~/PDF):
localhost - - [06/May/2017:13:35:57 +0200] "POST /printers/PDF HTTP/1.1" 200 307 Create-Job successful-ok
localhost - - [06/May/2017:13:35:57 +0200] "POST /printers/PDF HTTP/1.1" 200 4110 Send-Document successful-ok

When printing successfully from firefox, I suprisingly only get:
localhost - - [06/May/2017:13:36:51 +0200] "POST /printers/PDF HTTP/1.1" 200 121987 Print-Job successful-ok

I guess this means the Java app does not use the printing API correctly?

$ sudo cupsctl LogDebugHistory=999999
$ sudo cupsctl LogLevel=debug
--> still no log output in error_log

Thanks and Best Regards,
-- 
Felix Natter