[695] | 1 | # $Id$ |
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| 2 | |
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[952] | 3 | PyKota - Print Quota for CUPS and LPRng |
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[695] | 4 | |
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| 5 | (c) 2003 Jerome Alet <alet@librelogiciel.com> |
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[873] | 6 | This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify |
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| 7 | it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by |
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| 8 | the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or |
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| 9 | (at your option) any later version. |
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[695] | 10 | |
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[873] | 11 | This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, |
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| 12 | but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of |
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| 13 | MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the |
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| 14 | GNU General Public License for more details. |
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[695] | 15 | |
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[873] | 16 | You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License |
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| 17 | along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software |
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| 18 | Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. |
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| 19 | |
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[761] | 20 | ==================================================================== |
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[695] | 21 | |
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[761] | 22 | READ SPECIAL LICENSING AND REDISTRBUTION TERMS IN THE FILE 'LICENSE' |
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| 23 | |
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| 24 | ==================================================================== |
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| 25 | |
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[695] | 26 | PyKota is a complete Print Quota system for the Common Unix Printing |
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[952] | 27 | System (aka CUPS) or LPR Next Generation (LPRng), which works by directly |
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| 28 | querying the printers for the number of pages they have printed. |
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[695] | 29 | |
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[739] | 30 | Actual working features : |
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| 31 | |
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[952] | 32 | - Supports both CUPS and LPRng backends. |
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| 33 | |
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[927] | 34 | - Per printer user and group quotas. |
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[739] | 35 | |
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| 36 | - Automated email warning of users above quota to the |
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| 37 | user himself and to the print quota administrator. |
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| 38 | |
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[952] | 39 | - Filter for quota accounting : pykota |
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[739] | 40 | |
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| 41 | - Command line print quota editor : edpykota |
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| 42 | |
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| 43 | - Command line print quota report generator : repykota |
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| 44 | |
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| 45 | - Command line print quota automated warning sender : warnpykota |
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| 46 | |
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[760] | 47 | - Command line tools mimic the disk quota utilities for |
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| 48 | easier mastering. |
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| 49 | |
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[739] | 50 | - Centralized storage of quotas : you can manage quotas for |
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| 51 | different printers on different print servers and store them all |
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| 52 | on the same quota storage server. |
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| 53 | |
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[794] | 54 | - SNMP querying of any networked SNMP-enabled printer. |
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[739] | 55 | |
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[920] | 56 | - Netatalk querying of any networked AppleTalk-enabled printer. |
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| 57 | |
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[794] | 58 | - External command querying of any printer : you can use |
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| 59 | you own querying command, e.g. to query a printer via |
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| 60 | the serial port, sending it a special PJL job and |
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[840] | 61 | reading the result. See the example scripts in the |
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| 62 | "untested" directory and try to adapt them to your |
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| 63 | configuration. |
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[980] | 64 | |
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| 65 | - External accounting methods : you can use your own accounting |
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| 66 | method to compute each job's size. Just create a shell script |
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[985] | 67 | which reads the job's data from its standard input and prints |
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| 68 | the job's size on its standard output, and you're done ! |
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[794] | 69 | |
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[739] | 70 | - Special scripts included for a seamless integration of |
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| 71 | PyKota on Debian machines. |
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| 72 | |
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[900] | 73 | - Complete job history is saved. This will allow more |
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| 74 | complex reports in the future. |
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| 75 | |
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[925] | 76 | - Price per page and price per job can be defined for |
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[926] | 77 | every printer. A job's price is the sum of the |
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[925] | 78 | price per job for this printer plus the number of |
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| 79 | pages multiplied by the price per page for this |
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| 80 | printer. |
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| 81 | |
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| 82 | - User's account balance and lifetime paid money are now |
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| 83 | stored in the Quota Storage, and account balance can be |
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| 84 | used to limit the user printing instead of a print quota. |
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| 85 | Actually you can limit either by account balance OR by |
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[1027] | 86 | print quota. Account balance is shared between printers |
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| 87 | for an user, while quotas are define separately for |
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| 88 | each printer the user prints on. |
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[925] | 89 | |
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[739] | 90 | All the command line tools accept the -h | --help command line option |
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| 91 | which prints all the available options and show usage examples. |
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| 92 | |
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| 93 | Planned features are described in the TODO file. |
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| 94 | |
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[980] | 95 | Actually three (or an infinity of) page accounting methods are |
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| 96 | implemented : |
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[695] | 97 | |
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[980] | 98 | - The 'querying' method consists in querying the printer (via SNMP |
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| 99 | or Netatalk) for its total pages counter, just before the beginning |
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| 100 | of a job, and use this to modify the *preceding* user's quota. So |
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| 101 | you're always late of one print job, but this is generally ok, |
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| 102 | especially because a check is also done to see if the current user |
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| 103 | is allowed or not to print. You're not limited to SNMP or Netatalk, |
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| 104 | because you can also use any external command instead if you want. |
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| 105 | |
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| 106 | - The 'external' method consists in delegating the computation of the |
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| 107 | job's size in number of pages to any external command of your choice. |
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| 108 | The command can read the job's data from its standard input and MUST |
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| 109 | output the job's size on its standard output. |
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| 110 | |
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| 111 | - The 'stupid' method consists in counting the 'showpage' PostSript |
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| 112 | statements in the job. THIS IS UNRELIABLE, but can serve as an |
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| 113 | example if you plan to write your own accounting method for |
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| 114 | integration into PyKota. |
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[724] | 115 | |
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[919] | 116 | PyKota is known to work fine with HP Laserjet 2100 and 2200, and |
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[980] | 117 | Apple LaserWriter 16/600 PS, both with CUPS and LPRng, under |
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| 118 | Debian GNU/Linux (Sarge and Sid) operating systems. |
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[724] | 119 | |
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[980] | 120 | I'm interested in receiving success or failure reports with other |
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| 121 | brands or models of printers, as well as with other operating |
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| 122 | systems. |
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[859] | 123 | |
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[695] | 124 | ============================================================ |
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| 125 | |
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| 126 | INSTALLATION: |
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| 127 | ============= |
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| 128 | |
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[887] | 129 | WARNING : |
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| 130 | ========= |
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| 131 | |
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[942] | 132 | If you run a PyKota version lower than 1.03, you definitely have to |
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[887] | 133 | upgrade you Quota Storage Database. Please read the documentation |
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| 134 | included in the initscripts subdirectory first ! |
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| 135 | |
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[1034] | 136 | Users of MacOS-X may find the following tutorial useful : |
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| 137 | |
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| 138 | http://ell-tech.com/pages/pykota.php |
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| 139 | |
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[714] | 140 | Prerequisite : |
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| 141 | -------------- |
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| 142 | |
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| 143 | You need to have the following tools installed on the CUPS Server : |
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| 144 | |
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[952] | 145 | - CUPS or LPRng |
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[809] | 146 | - Python v2.1 or above |
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[714] | 147 | - eGenix' mxDateTime Python extension |
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| 148 | - PostgreSQL's PygreSQL Python extension and the PostgreSQL client |
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| 149 | libraries. |
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[919] | 150 | - SNMP tools (specifically the snmpget command) if you plan to |
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| 151 | request your printer's lifetime page counter via SNMP. |
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| 152 | - Netatalk (specifically the pap command) if you plan to |
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| 153 | request your printer's lifetime page counter via AppleTalk. |
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[714] | 154 | |
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| 155 | You need to have the following tools installed on the Quota Storage |
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| 156 | Server : |
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| 157 | |
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| 158 | - PostgreSQL |
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| 159 | |
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[952] | 160 | PygreSQL and the PostgreSQL client libraries's versions on the Print |
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[714] | 161 | Server must match the PostgreSQL version used on the Quota Storage |
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| 162 | Server. |
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| 163 | |
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| 164 | This list of prerequisite software may change in the future, when |
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| 165 | PyKota will support more functionnalities you will be given |
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| 166 | alternatives. |
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| 167 | |
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[952] | 168 | Of course the Print Server and the Quota Storage Server can be the |
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[851] | 169 | very same machine if you've got a tiny network, or you can have |
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[952] | 170 | multiple Print Servers all storing their quotas on the same Quota |
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[851] | 171 | Storage Server if you've got a bigger network. |
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| 172 | |
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[714] | 173 | Then : |
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| 174 | ------ |
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| 175 | |
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[724] | 176 | Download the latest PyKota version from the CVS tree on : |
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[695] | 177 | |
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[725] | 178 | http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/pykota |
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[695] | 179 | |
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[714] | 180 | Just type : |
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[695] | 181 | |
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[725] | 182 | python setup.py install |
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[695] | 183 | |
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| 184 | You may need to be logged in with sufficient privileges (e.g. root) |
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| 185 | |
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[878] | 186 | The installation script will now automatically check if some software |
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| 187 | is missing and ask you if you still want to proceed with the |
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| 188 | installation or abort it completely. |
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| 189 | |
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[695] | 190 | Go to the initscripts subdirectory of PyKota's sources, and choose |
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| 191 | the appropriate storage backend for your configuration. Read |
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| 192 | the associated README file and execute the initialization script |
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[878] | 193 | to create an empty PyKota Storage. Upgrade scripts may be |
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| 194 | provided as well. |
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[695] | 195 | |
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| 196 | Copy the conf/pykota.conf.sample sample configuration file to |
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[1015] | 197 | /etc/pykota.conf. The installation script tries to do this for |
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[927] | 198 | you if needed and you agreed to this action. |
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[1015] | 199 | You need to adapt the /etc/pykota.conf file to your own needs. |
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| 200 | Especially you have to create sections named after your own |
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| 201 | printers, and change the administrator's email address. |
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[695] | 202 | |
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[952] | 203 | - CUPS Print Backend : |
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| 204 | |
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| 205 | Modify the PPD files for each printer on which you want to manage |
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| 206 | print quotas, for example /etc/cups/ppd/lp.ppd : |
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| 207 | |
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| 208 | --- Add the line below exactly as-is somewhere near the top --- |
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| 209 | *cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0 /usr/bin/pykota" |
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| 210 | --- Add the line above exactly as-is somewhere near the top --- |
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| 211 | |
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| 212 | Modify the path to the pykota executable if needed, unfortunately |
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| 213 | you have to supply the correct absolute path here due to CUPS |
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| 214 | internals, or put the pykota executable into /usr/lib/cups/filter |
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| 215 | instead of into /usr/bin. |
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| 216 | |
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| 217 | Do this for each ppd file present in this directory if you want |
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| 218 | to enable quota on every printer. |
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| 219 | |
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| 220 | WARNING : In the case you've got a non-postscript printer, chances |
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| 221 | are that the *cupsFilter is already filled-in and points |
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| 222 | to cupsomatic or such a print filter. In this case please |
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| 223 | check if you can switch your printer to PostScript mode |
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| 224 | or if there's a way to make it accept PostScript jobs. |
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| 225 | If yes then ensure that your workstations uses a PostScript |
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| 226 | printer driver, and replace the *cupsFilter line with the |
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| 227 | one pointing to the pykota filter. This should work, but |
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| 228 | is currently untested. |
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| 229 | If your printer really needs the original *cupsFilter line |
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| 230 | then you may not be able to use PyKota easily for now. |
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[695] | 231 | |
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[952] | 232 | - LPRng Print Backend : |
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| 233 | |
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| 234 | Modify the /etc/printcap file to add two lines identical to these ones : |
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| 235 | |
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| 236 | :achk=true |
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| 237 | :as=|/usr/bin/pykota |
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| 238 | |
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| 239 | For each printer on which you want to use print accounting. |
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| 240 | |
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[716] | 241 | Add printers and users to the quota system and set their quota values : |
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[695] | 242 | |
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[725] | 243 | $ edpykota --add -P printer -S softlimit -H hardlimit user1 ... userN |
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[724] | 244 | |
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[725] | 245 | launching edpykota without any argument or with the --help |
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| 246 | command line option will show you all the possibilities. |
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[695] | 247 | |
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[990] | 248 | Restart CUPS or LPRng, for example under Debian GNU/Linux systems : |
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[695] | 249 | |
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[725] | 250 | $ /etc/init.d/cupsys restart |
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[990] | 251 | |
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| 252 | or : |
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| 253 | |
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| 254 | $ /etc/init.d/lprng restart |
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[695] | 255 | |
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| 256 | Your users now should be able to print but not exceed their |
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| 257 | printing quota. |
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| 258 | |
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[794] | 259 | To see printer command usage, you can use : |
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| 260 | |
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| 261 | $ repykota --printer lp |
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| 262 | |
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| 263 | or : |
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| 264 | |
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| 265 | $ repykota |
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| 266 | |
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| 267 | which will print quota usage for all users on all printers, |
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| 268 | along with totals. |
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| 269 | |
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[990] | 270 | Quota reports are also available remotely by using the CGI scripts |
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| 271 | provided in the cgi-bin/ subdirectory. |
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| 272 | |
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[980] | 273 | For different security concerns, please give a look at the SECURITY |
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| 274 | file which is part of this software. |
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[741] | 275 | |
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[695] | 276 | ============================================================ |
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| 277 | |
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[958] | 278 | Mailing list : |
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| 279 | -------------- |
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| 280 | |
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| 281 | A mailing list is dedicated to Pykota, you can subscribe to it |
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| 282 | or consult its archives at : |
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| 283 | |
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| 284 | http://cgi.librelogiciel.com/mailman/listinfo/pykota |
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| 285 | |
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| 286 | ============================================================ |
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| 287 | |
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[695] | 288 | Please e-mail bugs to: alet@librelogiciel.com (Jerome Alet) |
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