root / pykota / trunk / README @ 3201

# $Id$

PyKota - Print Quotas for CUPS and LPRng

(c) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 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 :
-----------------

        http://www.pykota.com/software/pykota/features/

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

Actually three (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 internal 
    pages counter.
    This is done both at the beginning and at the end of a
    print job. The counters difference is then 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 by default internally
    uses the code from pkpgcounter which can handle
    several Page Description Languages : DSC compliant and binary PostScript,
    PDF, PCLXL (aka PCL6), PCL3/4/5, ESC/P2, DVI, TIFF, OpenDocument,
    Zenographics ZjStream, Samsung QPDL,Samsung SPL1, and plain text.
    Of course this means you have to install pkpgcounter if you want to
    use the default PDL parser.
    
  - The 'ink' method consists in using pkpgcounter's code to compute  
    how much of each page is covered by ink in each color of a particular
    colorspace chosen between CMYK, CMY, RGB, and BW (grayscale).
    These values are then summed up together and multiplied by a set
    of coefficients defined in PyKota's configuration files.
    
PyKota is known to work with most printers, excepted GDI ones (Windows
only). At least one of the accounting methods above should work
for you. If it's not the case, please report the problem : tell us
the exact brand and model of the printer, if possible the driver used,
and send some test files.

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

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. Otherwise you
  have to compile it into HTML or PDF yourself by using
  the appropriate tools as installed on your system.
  
  PyKota's collaborative documentation is available from :
  
    http://www.pykota.com/wiki/
    
  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.
  
  
Prerequisite : 
--------------
   
  See :
  
    http://www.pykota.com/wiki/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 v2.3 or higher (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.pykota.com/software/pkpgcounter)
    - The pkipplib Python library (http://www.pykota.com/software/pkipplib)  
    - The JAXML Python module to be able to dump datas in the XML format.
      (http://www.librelogiciel.com/software/)
    - The Python-PAM module if you need the pknotify command to be able  
      to check usernames and passwords. (http://www.pangalactic.org/PyPAM)
    - The Python-SNMP module to query printers for their page counter.
      (http://pysnmp.sourceforge.net) 
      IMPORTANT : version 3.4.2 or higher is REQUIRED.
      Versions 2.x won't work. Versions 4.x now work (tested with v4.1.5a).
    - The Python-OSD module to use the graphical print quota reminder.
      (http://repose.cx/pyosd/)
    - The Python-chardet module to autodetect user's character set when  
      printing. (http://chardet.feedparser.org)
    - 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 4.1 or higher. 5.x is recommended.
    
  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 almost all
    of PyKota dependencies are already included, excepted
    the pkpgcounter utility which for now have to be downloaded
    and installed separately, and maybe one or two other dependencies,
    depending on the version of Debian you are using.
    We recommend you to use Debian's Etch distribution or
    more recent. PyKota works fine on Sarge, but some additional
    dependencies are missing in Sarge and have to be installed
    manually.

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)

If you use Debian or Ubuntu, and want to use PostgreSQL as the
database backend, just type :

    $ pksetup debian
    
or :    

    $ pksetup ubuntu
    
and follow the instructions to install PyKota in interactive mode, then
skip the remaining of the section below.

Otherwise, you have to setup manually :

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, modify the initialization script to
change the passwords, or, in the case of the LDAP backend, adapt it
to your own LDAP DIT, 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. Look at the SECURITY document, PyKota's Official documentation
and PostgreSQL's documentation for details on this subject.

Copy the conf/pykota.conf.sample and  conf/pykotadmin.conf.sample 
sample configuration files to ~pykota/pykota.conf and 
~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, then in /etc/pykota.

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. 

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
          
        If you use CUPS v1.2 or higher, please do this as well :  
        
          $ chmod 700 /usr/share/pykota/cupspykota
          
          This allows the cupspykota backend to support other
          backends which must be run as user root, like the
          lpd backend for example.
          
        Restart CUPS so that the new backend can be detected.
        
          $ /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
          
          for example under Debian, or any similar command depending 
          on your operating system of choice.
          
    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. To have pkturnkey give you some hints
        about what to put into pykota.conf for a particular
        print queue, just use its --doconf command line switch :
        
          $ pkturnkey --doconf TheNameOfThePrintQueue
        
        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 print queues :
    
        You want to route the print queue through PyKota,
        and you can do this in several manners.
        
          $ pkprinters --add --cups TheNameOfThePrintQueue
          
        or   
        
          if your printer's DeviceURI is something like :
          
              socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
              
          then you can do this :    
          
          $ pkprinters --add TheNameOfThePrintQueue
          $ lpadmin -p TheNameOfThePrintQueue \
                    -v cupspykota://socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
          
        Finally, you could do it manually by modifying the 
        the DeviceURI lines in /etc/cups/printers.conf :
        You would have to preprend '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 for the changes to take effect.
        
        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 --balance 10.0 jerome
    
    would create user jerome and give him ten credits to spend
    on any printer.
    
Finally create print quota entries :

    $ edpykota --add --printer hp2100 john paul george ringo
        
    This will create print quota entries for The Beatles 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.
    
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.
    
You can also use these commands :    

    $ pkusers --list 
    $ edpykota --list
    
    $ pkusers --list john paul george ringo
    $ edpykota --list --printer hp2100 john paul george ringo
    
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 this FAQ entry :

  http://otrs.librelogiciel.com/otrs/public.pl?ID=2
           
============================================================

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. 
    
    However this tool is very old now and doesn't work
    with more recent versions of PyKota. It could be
    a good starting point if you planned to develop such
    a web user interface though.
  
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)