root / pykota / trunk / README @ 2714

# $Id$

PyKota - Print Quotas for CUPS and LPRng

(c) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Jerome Alet <alet@librelogiciel.com>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

====================================================================

READ SPECIAL LICENSING AND REDISTRIBUTION TERMS IN THE FILE 'LICENSE'

====================================================================

PyKota features :
-----------------

    Free Software :
    
        - Licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
        
    Commercially Supported :    
    
        - Support Contracts are available from http://www.librelogiciel.com/techsupport/
        
    Operating systems :
    
        - Any Unix-like system as print server.
            
        - Any operating system as client.
            
    Printing systems :
    
        - Supports both CUPS and LPRng as the printing system.
          NB : LPRng is only supported with versions 
          of PyKota <= v1.22HotFix1, but support for LPRng 
          may be reintroduced at a later date.
          This version DOES NOT support LPRng !
       
    Databases :
    
        - Supports PostgreSQL as the database backend.
          An SQL script to create the database is included.
        
        - Supports any LDAP server as the database backend.
          Complete LDAP schema and sample empty tree are included.
          Plugging PyKota into your existing LDAP infrastructure
          is really easy thanks to PyKota's great configurability.
          
        - Supports SQLite as the database backend.
          An SQL script to create the database is included.
          
        - Supports MySQL as the database backend.
          An SQL script to create the database is included.

        - The print jobs history can be stored in any database  
          of your choice (or in plain text files) if needed. 
          
        - Master and slave databases are supported : master  
          in read+write mode, slave in readonly mode.
          Master and slave databases can be of different types !
            
    Printers :        
    
        - Hardware or Software accounting methods are completely
          configurable.
          
        - Supports any printer which can report its internal
          page counter. Can ask printers for their internal 
          page counter via SNMP, Netatalk, PJL, PS, or any 
          other way.
          This is completely configurable.
          
        - Supports DSC compliant and binary PostScript, PDF, PCL5 (up to), 
          PCLXL (aka PCL6), ESC/P2, DVI, TIFF, OpenDocument (OpenOffice.org) 
          and Zenographics ZjStream natively (through the direct use of 
          pkpgcounter's code) for software accounting methods. More formats 
          to come.
          
        - Supports any other Page Description Language for which you  
          have a parser which can be scripted.
            
    Quota systems :        
    
        - Supports printers and printers groups quotas.
        
        - Supports users and users groups quotas.
        
        - Supports page quotas.
          Page quotas can be set differently on a per printer
          and per user/group basis.
        
        - Supports account balance quotas in any currency.
          Account balance quotas can be set on a per user 
          basis. The account balance is shared amongst
          all printers. The history of payments (positive
          or negative credits to an user account) is kept.
          
        - Supports high granularity periodic print quotas : down
          to one minute intervals if needed.
        
        - Page quotas and account balance can be set/reset
          independantly.
          
        - Page quotas can be set on a per user or per group basis
          for a particular printer.
          
        - Price per page and per job can be set differently  
          on any printer.
        
        - Low level of page quota or account balance are
          configurable.
          
        - Both soft and hard limit with configurable grace delay  
          can be set for page quota.
          
        - Both soft and hard limits can be increased or decreased at will.  
        
        - Possibility to disable quota enforcement for any user
          or group, while still keeping page accounting.
          
        - Each user can have an overcharging (or undercharging) factor,  
          which is applied whenever PyKota computes the cost of a 
          print job.
          
        - Specific pages and credits counters can be defined per billing code,
          and can be reset independantly of the printing history.
          
        - Supports a passthrough mode for printers, which doesn't modify  
          users quota when they print.
          
        - Supports a maximum number of pages per job, configurable for each  
          printer.
          
        - Each user can be completely forbidden to print, independantly from
          other users.
          
        - A transparent printing mode is supported for users, in which 
          their quota is not modified when they print.
          
    Administration :        
    
        - Almost turn-key solution, with the help of the pkturnkey command
          line tool for database initialization and initial configuration.
          
        - Powerful delegation of administrative priviledges.
        
        - Powerful administration tools can be used to
          automate setting or resetting of quotas or
          account balances at specific intervals.
          
        - Administration tools can modify several users,  
          groups, or printers at once with the use of
          powerful wildcard characters.
          
        - Account balances can be set, incremented, or  
          decremented. History of payments is kept.
          
        - Number of pages used can be set, incremented, or  
          decremented.
          
        - Both printers and users can be automatically added on 
          first print in a completely configurable way.
          
        - Quota report generator available either from the  
          command line or in any web browser.
          The web-based quota report generator can be 
          user/password protected.
          
        - Print quote generator can tell users how much  
          a print job will cost them in advance.
          
        - PDF invoice generator to charge back users.
          
        - Policy with regard to unregistered users can   
          be configured for each printer to either deny
          printing, allow printing, or delegate the
          decision to any external tool.
          
        - Warning and error messages can be automatically  
          sent via email or via any other mean to the administrator, 
          the user, both, or none.
          
        - Warning and error messages' content is completely 
          configurable.
          
        - Configuration can be changed without needing to  
          restart the printing system.
        
        - Complete print job history is kept. This can be
          disabled if needed.
          
        - Automated low quota or balance remainder can be 
          scheduled regularly or launched manually.
          
        - Starting and Ending personalized dynamic banners can be
          generated on the fly, and accounted for or not, depending 
          on some configuration settings.
          Banners can still be enabled even if the print job is denied.
          NB : Banners are a CUPS only feature for now.
          
        - Duplicate print jobs can be forbidden automatically. The decision
          can be left to any script to decide this on a per job basis.
          
        - Username and billing code can be overwritten at printing time,
          to allow people to login as guest users and print as authenticated
          users, for example.
          
        - Powerful data dumper to export datas to other
          software (spreadsheets for example). Actually
          supported formats are :
          
            - Comma separated values ;
            
            - Semicolon separated values ;
            
            - Tab separated values ;
            
            - XML.
            
            - CUPS' page_log format, to easily interface in
              real time with third party apps like phpPrintAnalyzer
              and similar tools.
          
    User Interface :          
    
        - All the command line tools accept the -h | --help 
          command line option which prints all the available 
          options and show usage examples.
          
        - Completely internationalized. Actually supports at least partially
          English, French, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian, Swedish,
          Thai, Greek, German, Italian, Norwegian (Bokm�, Turkish 
          and traditional Chinese languages. 
          More to come.
          
        - Web enabled print quota monitor, data dumper, and quote
          generator.
        
        - An On Screen Display X-Window print quota monitor is included.
        
        - An email gateway to allow users to retrieve their print quota
          information by sending an email message to a dedicated address
          is included.
        
        - A cross-platform print quota monitor will soon be available 
          as an purchaseable add-on.
          
        - Third party web based management tools are available.

====================================================================
        
Planned features are described in the TODO file.

Actually two (or an infinity of) page accounting methods are
implemented :

  - The 'hardware' method consists in querying the printer (via SNMP
    or Netatalk or any other method of your choice) for its total pages 
    counter.
    This is done both at the beginning and at the end of a
    print job. The counters difference is then immediately used to 
    decrease the user's account balance or increase his quota usage.
    
  - The 'software' method consists in delegating the computation of the
    job's size in number of pages to any external command of your choice.
    The command can read the job's data from its standard input and MUST
    output the job's size on its standard output. Changes to the user
    account are reported immediately.
    
    PyKota featured an internal software accounting method which handles 
    several Page Description Languages : DSC compliant and binary PostScript,
    PDF, PCLXL (aka PCL6), PCL3/4/5, ESC/P2, DVI, TIFF, OpenOffice.org Writer
    and OpenOffice.org Impress. This software is now distributed separately
    as 'pkpgcounter', and not included anymore in PyKota, so you must now
    download and install it before running PyKota.
    
PyKota is known to work fine with most laser printers, either with
software accounting, or with hardware accounting if the printer
supports this.

============================================================

SUPPORT CONTRACTS:
==================

  You can now purchase 8x5x365@NextBusinessDay Technical
  Support Contracts from us. The yearly fee is computed with  
  the following formula :

  (100.0 * NbPrintServers) + (2.5 * NbPrinters) + (0.04 * NbUsers) EUROS.
  
  This fee includes the VAT, and a free subscription to Official
  PyKota packages.

  Please send an email to alet@librelogiciel.com if you're
  interested in purchasing such a contract.   

  Remember that purchasing a support contract for Free Software like PyKota
  is a great way to show your appreciation for the work already being done 
  on this project, and will help to improve this software in the future.

============================================================

INSTALLATION:
=============

NB :
====

  PyKota's documentation is available as DocBook SGML sources
  files in the pykota/docs directory. If you obtained an
  Official package, in the same directory you'll also find
  the documentation in HTML and PDF formats.
  
  PyKota's collaborative documentation is available from :
  
    http://www.librelogiciel.com/software/PyKota/WiKota/
    
  You may learn more about PyKota, if it fits your own organization,
  its internal working, and some potential performance drawbacks and
  how to avoid them, in a document created by Ryan Suarez at :
  
    http://archive.macosxlabs.org/forum/webcrossing_archive/documentation/Pykota_and_CUPS/Pykota_and_CUPS.html

  You may also find the following document interesting :
  
    http://es.tldp.org/Tutoriales/doc-openldap-samba-cups-python/
    
  This document, written in Spanish by Sergio Gonzalez Gonzalez,  
  describes the integration of PyKota into an OpenLDAP + Samba
  + CUPS installation. Even for people who can't read spanish 
  this document is really interesting, and contains lots of
  screenshots.
  
  Finally, SuSe users may find the following document to best describe
  how to install PyKota on their favorite distribution. It's a Spanish
  document written by Dennis Romero, and is mostly outdated now :
  
    http://www.cvr.espol.edu.ec/people/dennis/Pykota1.19-SuSE9.1.pdf
  
  
Prerequisite : 
--------------
   
  See :
  
    http://www.librelogiciel.com/software/PyKota/WiKota/Dependencies
    
  for an up-to-date list, or see below (maybe not up-to-date) :
  
  You need to have the following tools installed on the CUPS Server :
  
    - CUPS (http://www.cups.org)
    - Python v2.1 or above (http://www.python.org)
    - eGenix' mxDateTime Python extension (http://www.egenix.com)
    - The pkpgcounter command line tool, version 1.56 or higher. This
      tool is now mandatory for PyKota to work. 
      (http://www.librelogiciel.com/software/)
    - The JAXML Python module to be able to dump datas in the XML format.
      (http://www.librelogiciel.com/software/)
    - The Python-SNMP module to query printers for their page counter.
      (http://pysnmp.sourceforge.net). 
      IMPORTANT : version 3.4.4 (or 3.4.3 or 3.4.2) is REQUIRED.
      Versions 2.x or 4.x won't work for now.
    - The Python-OSD module to use the graphical print quota reminder.
      (http://repose.cx/pyosd/)
    - SNMP tools (specifically the snmpget command) if you prefer to
      use your own script to request query printers.
      (http://www.net-snmp.org)
    - Netatalk (specifically the pap command) if you plan to
      request your printer's lifetime page counter via AppleTalk.
      (http://netatalk.sourceforge.net)
    - The ReportLab Python module (http://www.reportlab.org) if you want  
      to have PyKota generate nice banners for you.
    - The Python Imaging Library (aka PIL) module 
      (http://www.pythonware.com/downloads) if you want to have PyKota 
      generate nice banners for you.
    - PostgreSQL's PygreSQL Python extension and the PostgreSQL client
      libraries if you plan to use PostgreSQL as the database backend.
      (http://www.postgresql.org and http://www.pygreql.org)
 or     
    - python-ldap Python module and the OpenLDAP client libraries  
      if you plan to use an LDAP server as the database backend.
      (http://www.openldap.org and http://python-ldap.sourceforge.net)
 or 
    - SQLite v3.2.7 and the SQLite libraries if you plan to use SQLite
      as the database backend (http://www.sqlite.org). You also need the 
      PySQLite module v2.0.5 or higher (http://www.pysqlite.org)
 or
    - The MySQL-python bindings. 
      IMPORTANT: If you are using MySQL 4.1, then MySQL-python must be 
      version 1.2 or greater. Version 1.0 does not work correctly with 4.1.
      
    
  On Intel i386 architecture, and for performance reasons, it is
  strongly suggested that you install the Python accelerator Psyco, 
  available at :
  
      http://psyco.sourceforge.net
      
  Under Debian :    
  
      $ apt-get install python-psyco
      
  Other architectures may be supported as well in the future, check    
  this on Psyco's website.
  
  Installing Psyco is not mandatory, but it will speedup PCL5 parsing
  by almost 3 times. PostScript and PDF parsing can also benefit,
  but in an almost unnoticeable manner since this part of the code
  is already optimal. For PCL5 this is a completely different matter,
  and if you install Psyco you will never regret it !
  Same remark applies for PCL6 (aka PCLXL) : the parser is completely
  different, but the performance gain with Psyco is impressive.
  
  You may also benefit from having the following tools installed to
  deal with some printers :
  
    - npadmin
    - netcat
    - ghostscript
    
  You need to have the following tools installed on the database
  server :
  
    - PostgreSQL (http://www.postgresql.org)
    
  or  
  
    - OpenLDAP, or any other LDAP server (http://www.openldap.org)
    
  or   
  
    - SQLite, v3.2.7 or higher (http://www.sqlite.org).
      Beware : with SQLite the database server and the print
      servers MUST be the very same machine.
      
  or     
  
    - MySQL 4.0 or higher.
    
  This list of prerequisite software may change in the future, when
  PyKota will support more functionnalities you will be given 
  alternatives.
  
  Of course the Print Server and the database server can be the 
  very same machine if you've got a tiny network, or you can have 
  multiple Print Servers all storing their quotas on the same database
  server if you've got a bigger network. (NB : with SQLite, the database
  can't be shared between several print servers)
  
Hint :  
------

  - The Debian GNU/Linux distribution is to our knowledge the 
    easiest distribution to install PyKota on, because all
    of PyKota dependencies are already included, excepted
    for the PySNMP (http://pysnmp.sourceforge.net) module
    and the pkpgcounter utility which for now have to be downloaded
    and installed separately.

Then :   
------
 
Download the latest PyKota version from the Subversion tree :

    $ svn co svn://svn.librelogiciel.com/pykota/trunk pykota

You can now check if the dependencies are correct by typing :

    $ python checkdeps.py
    
    An availability report for all the software needed by PyKota
    will be displayed : you'll have to install the missing
    software if you want PyKota to work correctly.
    
To install the software, just type :

    $ python setup.py install

You may need to be logged in with sufficient privileges (e.g. root)

Create a system user for PyKota :

    $ adduser --system --group --home /etc/pykota --gecos PyKota pykota
    
Put the user your printing system is run as in the pykota system group :

    $ adduser lp pykota
    
    NB : on our system, the CUPS printing system runs as system user 'lp'.
    Please adapt this to your own system.

Go to the initscripts subdirectory of PyKota's sources, and choose
the appropriate storage backend for your configuration. Read carefully
the associated README file and execute the initialization script
to create an empty PyKota database. Upgrade scripts may be 
provided as well. NB : if you use PostgreSQL, a good way to
make PyKota work first time is to modify PostgreSQL's pg_hba.conf
to allow the 'trust' database connection mode. However once PyKota
works it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO CHANGE THIS TO A MORE SECURE
VALUE.

Copy the conf/pykota.conf.sample and  conf/pykotadmin.conf.sample 
sample configuration files to /etc/pykota/pykota.conf and 
/etc/pykota/pykotadmin.conf  
The installation script usually copies these files into /usr/share/pykota

NB : You can move PyKota's configuration files elsewhere, they will
be searched first in user pykota's home directory.

You need to adapt these files to your own needs. Especially you may 
have to create sections named after your own printers, and change 
the administrator's email address which by default is 
root@localhost. Read and try to understand these two very well 
commented files, so that you'll encounter less problems later. 

Also be sure to double check that commands that query printers
for their internal page counter work from the command line
before using them in PyKota's configuration.

The rest of the installation depends on your printing system :

  - CUPS Printing System :
  
    Once and for all :
    
        Create a symbolic link to the cupspykota backend 
        in CUPS's backend directory :
        
          $ cd /usr/lib/cups/backend
          $ ln -s /usr/share/pykota/cupspykota cupspykota
          
        Restart CUPS so that the new backend can be detected.
        
          $ /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
          
        or :    
      
          $ /etc/rc.d/init.d/cupsys restart
          
        or any similar command depending on your operating system.  
          
    For new printers :
    
        Go to CUPS management interface (http://localhost:631) 
        and choose the appropriate PyKota managed device depending
        on the type of printer you use. For example, if your
        printer is waiting on :
        
            socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
            
        Then choose :    
        
            cupspykota:socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
            
        Configure your printer as usual.    
        
        Now double check /etc/pykota/pykota.conf 
        
        You should manually create a section named after the
        printer you've just added, unless you have set
        all options globally.
        
        The new pkturnkey command can help you with correct settings 
        for your printers, but don't rely on it because it is still
        experimental work. To have pkturnkey give you some hints
        about what to put into pykota.conf, just use its --doconf
        command line switch :
        
          $ pkturnkey --doconf
        
        pkturnkey will try to tell you what is the best accounting
        method for each printer and will print some lines you'll
        just have to copy&paste in the appropriate sections in
        /etc/pykota/pykota.conf
        
        For more informations about what pkturnkey can do for you,
        see pkturnkey's manual page or use the --help command
        line switch :
        
          $ pkturnkey --help | less
        
        That's all.
    
    For existing printers :
    
        The easiest is to directly modify the DeviceURI lines 
        in /etc/cups/printers.conf, you just have to put 
        'cupspykota:' in front of what is already on these lines. 
        For example, replace :
    
            DeviceURI socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
        
        with :    
    
            DeviceURI cupspykota:socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
            
        or :    
        
            DeviceURI cupspykota://socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
        
        Save the file and restart CUPS.
        
        Here too, you may find it interesting to use the pkturnkey command as
        described above to help with manual configuration of the file
        /etc/pykota/pykota.conf

  - LPRng Printing System :
  
    IMPORTANT : This release of PyKota DOES NOT support LPRng.
    
    If you want to use PyKota with LPRng, you have to download
    an earlier release of PyKota, for example v1.22HotFix1.
        
Now you can begin to populate the PyKota's database with printers,
users and groups :
  
Add printers and users to the quota system and set their quota values : 

You can either use pkturnkey, or do the same things manually by
using the pkprinters, pkusers and edpykota command line tools :

Create printers :

    $ pkprinters --help
    
    will tell you how to create, manage or delete printers and
    printers groups.
    
    $ pkprinters --add --charge 0.05 hp2100
    
    would add the printer named hp2100 with a price per page
    of 0.05 unit.

Create users :

    $ pkusers --add --limitby balance --balane 10.0 jerome
    
    would create user jerome and give him ten credits to spend
    on any printer.
    
Finally create print quota entries :

    $ edpykota --add -P hp2100 jerome
        
    This will create a print quota entry for user jerome on    
    printer hp2100. The print quota entry holds the number of
    pages printed on a particular printer for a particular
    user, as well as optional page limits to be used instead
    of balance limits. See pkusers and edpykota's manual
    pages for details.
    
Restart CUPS, for example under Debian GNU/Linux systems :          

    $ /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
    
Your users now should be able to print but not exceed their 
printing quota.

To see printer quota usage on printer hp2100, you can use :

    $ repykota --printer hp2100
    
or :

    $ repykota
    
    which will print quota usage for all users on all printers,
    along with totals, if you are a PyKota Administator. If you are
    a regular user, only your own quota report will be produced.
    
Quota reports are also available remotely by using the CGI script
printquota.cgi provided in the cgi-bin/ subdirectory. You can 
also use the CSS stylesheet present in the stylesheets/ subdirectory
and put it at your web server's DocumentRoot, to benefit from a nicer 
look, especially quota violations will appear in different colors.

For additionnal security concerns, please give a look at the SECURITY
file which is part of this software.

To diagnose a problem when something doesn't work as expected,
please read the very first entry in the FAQ document.
           
============================================================

Additionnal tools :
-------------------

Some people have developped tools around PyKota, and make
them available under the GNU General Public License :

  - Kanakorn Horsiritham developped phpPykotaAdmin which is 
    a web based database independant administrative GUI,
    written in PHP.
  
      http://opensource.psu.ac.th/~kanakorn/mambo/
      
    He was also kind enough to write an installation guide  
    in english for CUPS and PyKota with phpPykotaAdmin on Fedora
    Core 3. You'll find this document on the same website.
    
    This great software currently at version 0.3 is a wonderful
    basis for an administrative GUI since it only depends on 
    PyKota commands to be present to successfully manage
    PyKota's database. 
  
Additionnal software will be listed here when they will be  
ready.

============================================================

Mailing list :
--------------

  A mailing list is dedicated to Pykota, you can subscribe to it
  or consult its archives at :
  
    http://cgi.librelogiciel.com/mailman/listinfo/pykota
    
  The mailing list is the preferred way to obtain support, because  
  all members can help and can also benefit from the solutions
  proposed by other members. 
  
  Posts by non-members are usually rejected.
  
  The mailing list language is english and only english.
    
IRC :    
-----

  You can also chat with us :
  
        /server irc.freenode.net
        /join #pykota
        
  Preferred language on this channel is english, but french      
  is also accepted. Try to avoid exposing complex problems
  in french because english speaking people on the channel
  wouldn't benefit from the solutions.
  
  PyKota's main author is known as 'tamere' on IRC.
    
============================================================
    
Please e-mail bugs to the mailing list at : pykota@librelogiciel.com
or to the main author at : alet@librelogiciel.com (Jerome Alet)