[1175] | 1 | PyKota's FAQ : |
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| 2 | |
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| 3 | # $Id$ |
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| 4 | |
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[1388] | 5 | * Why doesn't CUPS under Debian Woody automatically |
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| 6 | detects PyKota managed devices ? |
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| 7 | |
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| 8 | The CUPS version in Debian Woody is 1.1.14 which is a bit |
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| 9 | too old. To use PyKota with this version, just install |
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| 10 | your printers as usual in CUPS web interface, and ensure |
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| 11 | they work fine, then save your changes, and modify |
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| 12 | /etc/cups/printers.conf manually as explained in |
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| 13 | PyKota's toplevel README file. Finally restart CUPS, |
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| 14 | and your printers should be managed by PyKota. |
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| 15 | |
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[1175] | 16 | * Is print accounting ever exact ? |
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| 17 | |
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| 18 | No. Print accounting is **never** exact, because it depends |
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| 19 | on external factors like the presence of paper in the printer, |
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| 20 | the quantity of remaining ink in the print cartridge, paper |
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| 21 | jams, etc... All these things are very difficult to account |
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| 22 | for correctly, and no print accounting package deals with |
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| 23 | these artefacts correctly in all situations. |
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| 24 | We are however confident that PyKota is one of the more |
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| 25 | exact print accounting software, because by default it |
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| 26 | asks the printers for how many pages they have really printed. |
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| 27 | |
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| 28 | * Can PyKota account for ink usage ? |
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| 29 | |
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| 30 | No. Actually PyKota doesn't account for ink usage, but this |
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| 31 | may come in a future release. PyKota only accounts for pages |
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| 32 | printed and/or money spent. If ink accounting is a necessity |
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| 33 | for you, PrintBill is recommended instead of PyKota. PrintBill |
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| 34 | allows you to bill differently per color, and to bill depending |
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| 35 | on the percent of the ink covered part of the pages. |
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| 36 | |
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[1198] | 37 | * What is a 'dumb printer' ? |
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| 38 | |
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| 39 | In PyKota, the term 'dumb printer' defines a printer which doesn't |
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| 40 | understand PostScript AND doesn't have an internal page counter, AND |
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| 41 | for which you don't know how to compute a job's size in number of |
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| 42 | pages by analyzing its content. Any printer which is not a |
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| 43 | 'dumb printer' according to the above definition is supported |
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| 44 | with PyKota. |
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| 45 | |
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[1175] | 46 | * How can I make PyKota work with my non-postscript printer under |
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| 47 | CUPS ? |
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| 48 | |
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[1186] | 49 | From version 1.16alpha7, PyKota includes a CUPS backend which |
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[1198] | 50 | allows you to use any type of printer and any driver, provided |
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| 51 | your printer is not a 'dumb printer' (see above). |
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[1175] | 52 | |
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[1198] | 53 | * How can I use my 'dumb printer' with CUPS and PyKota. |
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[1175] | 54 | |
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[1198] | 55 | The solution is to plug the pykota filter into the |
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| 56 | filtering chain when the print job is still in |
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| 57 | PostScript format, before being converted to the |
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| 58 | dumb printer's native format. You can't use the |
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| 59 | cupspykota CUPS backend with 'dumb printers'. |
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| 60 | |
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| 61 | Here's how to do : |
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| 62 | |
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| 63 | - Disable raw mode by modifying *.convs and |
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| 64 | *.types files in /etc/cups, then restart |
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| 65 | CUPS. |
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| 66 | |
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| 67 | - If you print from Windows through Samba, |
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| 68 | don't put '-o raw' in the print command |
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| 69 | definition in smb.conf |
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| 70 | |
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| 71 | - Under Windows, use a PostScript driver |
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| 72 | set to maximum compatibility mode. |
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| 73 | |
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| 74 | - Modify *.convs and *.types files to |
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| 75 | insert the pykota filter into the |
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| 76 | filtering chain, as described |
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| 77 | here (url should be on a single line) : |
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| 78 | |
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| 79 | http://cgi.librelogiciel.com/pipermail/ ... |
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| 80 | ... pykota/attachments/20030721/753239b5/attachment.eml |
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| 81 | |
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| 82 | and restart CUPS. |
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| 83 | |
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[1199] | 84 | * I've got a great number of users. How can I automatically |
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| 85 | set an initial print quota for them on first print ? |
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| 86 | |
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| 87 | You have to define an external policy for unknown users, |
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| 88 | to automatically add them to the Print Quota database. |
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| 89 | The sample configuration file contains examples to do this. |
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| 90 | |
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[1334] | 91 | * What does the --prototype command line option to edpykota do ? |
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| 92 | |
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| 93 | This option currently (v1.17) only copies the soft and hard |
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| 94 | page limits from a template user to other users. This option |
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| 95 | needs to be updated to new PyKota functionnalities, because it |
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| 96 | currently lacks. |
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| 97 | |
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[1198] | 98 | * How can I diagnose the problem when something goes wrong ? |
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| 99 | |
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[1175] | 100 | Put "LogLevel debug2" in cupsd.conf (usually in /etc/cups/). |
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| 101 | Then put "logger: system" and "debug: yes" in |
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| 102 | /etc/pykota/pykota.conf. |
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| 103 | Finally restart CUPS. |
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| 104 | CUPS' error_log file will now contain many informations which |
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| 105 | will help diagnose your problem. Also your syslog's output for |
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| 106 | the LPR facility (usually /var/log/lpr.log) will contain |
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| 107 | PyKota's debug messages, notably all database related queries |
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| 108 | and their result, be your database PostgreSQL or OpenLDAP. |
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| 109 | With these two files the problem can usually be diagnosed within |
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| 110 | minutes. Send them to the mailing list and wait for an answer. |
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| 111 | |
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| 112 | * Some, not all, print jobs are never accounted for, why ? |
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| 113 | |
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[1186] | 114 | From version 1.16alpha7, you can now use the cupspykota |
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| 115 | CUPS backend, which ensures that all print jobs will be |
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| 116 | accounted for. The use of the old pykota filter is deprecated |
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[1198] | 117 | with CUPS. It remains the filter of choice for LPRng though, |
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| 118 | or when you absolutely need to support a 'dumb printer' (see |
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| 119 | definition above). |
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[1175] | 120 | |
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| 121 | * When printing from Windows, the jobs are never accounted for, |
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| 122 | but from *nix they are. Could you explain the reason for this ? |
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| 123 | |
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| 124 | First refer to the point above. If this doesn't solve your |
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| 125 | problem, try to set your print driver to PostScript mode |
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| 126 | and check the "maximum compatibility" box in its configuration, |
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| 127 | instead of "maximum speed". Often HP printers come with both |
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| 128 | a PCL and a PostScript driver under Windows. Don't install the |
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| 129 | PCL one. |
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| 130 | |
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[1268] | 131 | * How can I share print quota between some printers only (not all) ? |
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| 132 | |
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| 133 | To do this you have to put the printers into a printers group, and |
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[1282] | 134 | set quota on the printer group, instead of (or in addition to) |
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| 135 | the printers themselves. |
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[1268] | 136 | |
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| 137 | * What is a printer group ? |
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| 138 | |
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| 139 | A printer group is exactly like a normal printer, but is |
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| 140 | unknown by the printing system. You can use printer groups |
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| 141 | to share print quota between printers. |
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| 142 | |
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| 143 | * How can I create a printer group ? |
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| 144 | |
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| 145 | Just use edpykota, like for normal printers. |
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| 146 | |
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| 147 | * How can I put a printer into a printer group ? |
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| 148 | |
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| 149 | Use the new -G|--pgroups command line option to edpykota |
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| 150 | You can put sereval printers into several printers groups |
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| 151 | in one command using the following syntax : |
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| 152 | |
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| 153 | $ edpykota --pgroups pg1[,pg2,pg3,...] --printers p1[,p2,p3,...] |
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| 154 | |
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| 155 | What is between square brackets is optional. |
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| 156 | Both p1,p2 and pg1,pg2 can contain wildcards. |
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| 157 | |
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| 158 | * How quota checking and update is done with printer groups ? |
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| 159 | |
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| 160 | Print accounting and quota checking is done for a printer and |
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| 161 | all the printers groups it belongs to, recursively. |
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| 162 | If quota is reached on ANY of these printers for the current user, |
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| 163 | printing is denied. |
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[1286] | 164 | |
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[1268] | 165 | * Is this feature robust ? |
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| 166 | |
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| 167 | It should be. However, beware of integrity problems. LDAP has no |
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| 168 | sense of database integrity, and PostgreSQL constraints have not |
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| 169 | yet been fully implemented. The code actually *tries* to forbid |
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| 170 | circular printers groups, but if you create printer groups with |
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| 171 | another tool (e.g. psql or gq), then you are mostly on you |
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| 172 | own to not create infinite loops. |
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| 173 | |
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[1286] | 174 | * How is computed the job's price ? |
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| 175 | |
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| 176 | A job's price is computed with this formula : |
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| 177 | |
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| 178 | SUM((NbPages * PricePerPage) + PricePerJob) |
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| 179 | |
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| 180 | For current printer and all the printers groups it is |
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| 181 | a member of, if any. |
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| 182 | This may be difficult to grasp, but offers unprecedented |
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| 183 | flexibility. |
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| 184 | |
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[1175] | 185 | * My question isn't answered there, can you help ? |
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| 186 | |
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| 187 | Sure. Ask your question to the mailing list. If this is a |
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| 188 | frequently asked question, or if your problem is on the contrary |
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| 189 | very specific, it will probably be added to this document. |
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| 190 | |
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[1186] | 191 | You can also ask questions by IRC : |
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| 192 | |
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| 193 | /server irc.freenode.net |
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| 194 | /join #pykota |
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| 195 | |
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[1216] | 196 | Send any new questions to Jerome Alet - <alet@librelogiciel.com> |
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