root / pykota / trunk / README @ 1174

Revision 1161, 14.1 kB (checked in by jalet, 21 years ago)

Clarification wrt non-postscript printers

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1# $Id$
2
3PyKota - Print Quota for CUPS and LPRng
4
5(c) 2003 Jerome Alet <alet@librelogiciel.com>
6This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
7it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
8the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
9(at your option) any later version.
10
11This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
12but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
13MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
14GNU General Public License for more details.
15
16You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
17along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
18Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
19
20====================================================================
21
22READ SPECIAL LICENSING AND REDISTRIBUTION TERMS IN THE FILE 'LICENSE'
23
24====================================================================
25
26PyKota features :
27-----------------
28
29    Operating systems :
30   
31        - Any Unix-like system as print server.
32           
33        - Any operating system as client.
34           
35    Printing systems :
36   
37        - Supports CUPS as the printing system.
38       
39        - Supports LPRng as the printing system.
40           
41    Databases :
42   
43        - Supports PostgreSQL as the Quota Storage backend.
44          Complete database creation SQL script is included.
45       
46        - Supports OpenLDAP as the Quota Storage backend.
47          Complete LDAP schema and sample tree are included.
48          Plugging PyKota into your existing LDAP infrastructure
49          is really easy thanks to PyKota's great configurability.
50           
51    Printers :       
52   
53        - Supports any printer which can report its internal
54          page counter.
55         
56        - Supports any other printer via GhostScript.
57          Depending on the printer some configuration may
58          be needed.
59       
60        - Can ask printers for their internal page counter
61          via SNMP, Netatalk, or any other mean of your
62          choice. This is completely configurable.
63         
64        - External accounting methods are configurable.
65           
66    Quota systems :       
67   
68        - Supports user and groups quotas.
69       
70        - Supports page quotas.
71          Page quotas can be set differently on a per printer
72          and per user/group basis.
73       
74        - Supports account balance quotas in any currency.
75          Account balance quotas can be set on a per user
76          basis. The account balance is shared amongst
77          all printers.
78         
79        - Experimental support for printer groups, so that
80          you can share quota between printers of the same
81          type but in different locations.
82         
83        - Page quota and account balance can be set/reset
84          independantly.
85         
86        - Limiting factor, page quota or account balance, 
87          can be set on a per user or per group basis.
88         
89        - Price per page and per job can be set differently 
90          on any printer.
91       
92        - Low level of page quota or account balance are
93          configurable.
94         
95        - Both soft and hard limit with configurable grace delay 
96          can be set for page quota.
97         
98        - Possibility to disable quota enforcement for any user
99          or group, while still keeping page accounting.
100             
101    Administration :       
102   
103        - Powerful administration tools can be used to
104          automate setting or resetting of quotas or
105          account balances at specific intervals.
106         
107        - Administration tools can modify several users, 
108          groups, or printers at once.
109         
110        - Account balances can be set, incremented, or 
111          decremented.
112         
113        - Users can be automatically added on first print 
114          in a completely configurable way.
115         
116        - Quota report generator available either from the 
117          command line or in any web browser.
118          The web-based quota report generator can be
119          user/password protected.
120         
121        - Print quote generator can tell users how much 
122          a print job will cost them in advance.
123         
124        - Policy with regard to unregistered users can   
125          be configured for each printer to either deny
126          printing, allow printing, or delegate the
127          decision to any external tool.
128         
129        - Warning and error messages can be automatically 
130          sent via email to the administrator, the user,
131          both, or none.
132         
133        - Warning and error messages' content is completely
134          configurable.
135         
136        - Configuration can be changed without needing to 
137          restart the printing system.
138       
139        - Complete print job history is kept. This can be
140          disabled if needed.
141         
142        - Automated low quota or balance remainder can be
143          scheduled regularly or launched manually.
144         
145    User Interface :         
146   
147        - All the command line tools accept the -h | --help
148          command line option which prints all the available
149          options and show usage examples.
150         
151        - Completely internationalized. Actually supports the 
152          English and French languages. More to come.
153
154====================================================================
155       
156Planned features are described in the TODO file.
157
158Actually three (or an infinity of) page accounting methods are
159implemented :
160
161  - The 'querying' method consists in querying the printer (via SNMP
162    or Netatalk) for its total pages counter, just before the beginning
163    of a job, and use this to modify the *preceding* user's quota. So
164    you're always late of one print job, but this is generally ok,
165    especially because a check is also done to see if the current user
166    is allowed or not to print. You're not limited to SNMP or Netatalk,
167    because you can also use any external command instead if you want.
168   
169  - The 'external' method consists in delegating the computation of the
170    job's size in number of pages to any external command of your choice.
171    The command can read the job's data from its standard input and MUST
172    output the job's size on its standard output.
173   
174  - The 'stupid' method consists in counting the 'showpage' PostSript 
175    statements in the job. THIS IS UNRELIABLE, but can serve as an
176    example if you plan to write your own accounting method for
177    integration into PyKota.
178 
179PyKota is known to work fine with HP Laserjet 2100 and 2200, and
180Apple LaserWriter 16/600 PS, both with CUPS and LPRng, under
181Debian GNU/Linux (Sarge and Sid) operating systems.
182
183I'm interested in receiving success or failure reports with other
184brands or models of printers, as well as with other operating
185systems.
186
187============================================================
188
189INSTALLATION:
190=============
191
192WARNING :
193=========
194
195  If you run a PyKota version lower than 1.03, you definitely have to
196  upgrade you Quota Storage Database. Please read the documentation
197  included in the initscripts subdirectory first !
198 
199  Users of MacOS-X may find the following tutorial useful :
200
201      http://ell-tech.com/pages/pykota.php
202
203Prerequisite :
204--------------
205   
206  You need to have the following tools installed on the CUPS Server :
207 
208    - CUPS or LPRng
209    - Python v2.1 or above
210    - eGenix' mxDateTime Python extension
211    - SNMP tools (specifically the snmpget command) if you plan to
212      request your printer's lifetime page counter via SNMP.
213    - Netatalk (specifically the pap command) if you plan to
214      request your printer's lifetime page counter via AppleTalk.
215    - PostgreSQL's PygreSQL Python extension and the PostgreSQL client
216      libraries if you plan to use PostgreSQL as the Quota Storage
217      backend.
218 or     
219    - python-ldap Python module and the OpenLDAP client libraries 
220      if you plan to use OpenLDAP as the Quota Storage backend.
221   
222  You need to have the following tools installed on the Quota Storage 
223  Server :
224 
225    - PostgreSQL
226   
227  or 
228 
229    - OpenLDAP
230   
231NB :   
232
233  PygreSQL must be linked with the PostgreSQL client libraries on
234  the Print Server. The PostgreSQL client libraries' version must
235  match the PostgreSQL version used on the Quota Storage Server.
236 
237or 
238
239  python-ldap must be linked with the OpenLDAP client libraries on the
240  Print Server. The OpenLDAP client libraries' version must match the
241  OpenLDAP version used on the Quota Storage Server.
242 
243  This list of prerequisite software may change in the future, when
244  PyKota will support more functionnalities you will be given
245  alternatives.
246 
247  Of course the Print Server and the Quota Storage Server can be the
248  very same machine if you've got a tiny network, or you can have
249  multiple Print Servers all storing their quotas on the same Quota
250  Storage Server if you've got a bigger network.
251 
252Then :   
253------
254 
255Download the latest PyKota version from the CVS tree on :
256
257    http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/pykota
258
259Just type :
260
261    python setup.py install
262
263You may need to be logged in with sufficient privileges (e.g. root)
264
265The installation script will now automatically check if some software
266is missing and ask you if you still want to proceed with the
267installation or abort it completely.
268
269Go to the initscripts subdirectory of PyKota's sources, and choose
270the appropriate storage backend for your configuration. Read
271the associated README file and execute the initialization script
272to create an empty PyKota Storage. Upgrade scripts may be
273provided as well.
274
275Copy the conf/pykota.conf.sample and  conf/pykotadmin.conf.sample
276sample configuration files to /etc/pykota/pykota.conf and
277/etc/pykota/pykotadmin.conf. The installation script tries to do this
278for you if needed and you agreed to this action.
279You need to adapt these files to your own needs.
280Especially you have to create sections named after your own
281printers, and change the administrator's email address.
282
283  - CUPS Print Backend :
284 
285    Modify the PPD files for each printer on which you want to manage
286    print quotas, for example /etc/cups/ppd/lp.ppd :
287   
288    --- Add the line below exactly as-is somewhere near the top ---
289    *cupsFilter:  "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0 /usr/bin/pykota"
290    --- Add the line above exactly as-is somewhere near the top  ---
291   
292    Modify the path to the pykota executable if needed, unfortunately
293    you have to supply the correct absolute path here due to CUPS
294    internals, or put the pykota executable into /usr/lib/cups/filter
295    instead of into /usr/bin.
296   
297    Do this for each ppd file present in this directory if you want
298    to enable quota on every printer.
299             
300    WARNING : In the case you've got a non-postscript printer, chances
301              are that the *cupsFilter is already filled-in and points
302              to cupsomatic or such a print filter. In this case please
303              check if you can switch your printer to PostScript mode
304              or if there's a way to make it accept PostScript jobs.
305              If yes then ensure that your workstations uses a PostScript
306              printer driver, and replace the *cupsFilter line with the
307              one pointing to the pykota filter. This should work, but
308              is currently untested.
309              If your printer really needs the original *cupsFilter line
310              then you may not be able to use PyKota easily for now.
311
312  - LPRng Print Backend :
313 
314    Modify the /etc/printcap file to add two lines identical to these ones :
315   
316    :achk=true
317    :as=|/usr/bin/pykota
318   
319    For each printer on which you want to use print accounting.
320 
321Add printers and users to the quota system and set their quota values :
322
323    $ edpykota --add -P hp2100 -S 40 -H 50 user1 ... userN
324       
325    launching edpykota without any argument or with the --help
326    command line option will show you all the possibilities.
327   
328    by default, each user is limited by "quota", this means that on
329    each printer he can have a different soft and hard limit.
330    You may want to limit the user by his account balance value,
331    in which case, the print quota is shared between all printers
332    instead of being different. To do this, use the following :
333   
334    $ edpykota --add -P hp2100 --limitby balance --balance 10 user1 ... userN
335   
336    This will put 10 $ (or Euros, PyKota doesn't care) on each user's account
337    balance, and tell PyKota to limit them by their account balance value.
338    Whenever they print on any printer, their account balance value is
339    decreased by an amount which depends on the particular price per page
340    and per job that you may have defined on the printer with edpykota's
341    --charge command line option.
342    Soft and Hard limits are not used if "--limitby balance" is used,
343    but you can define a "poorman"'s threshold in /etc/pykota/pykota.conf
344    to obtain a similar result (warning message when quota is low).
345
346Restart CUPS or LPRng, for example under Debian GNU/Linux systems :         
347
348    $ /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
349   
350  or :
351 
352    $ /etc/init.d/lprng restart
353       
354Your users now should be able to print but not exceed their
355printing quota.
356
357To see printer quota usage, you can use :
358
359    $ repykota --printer lp
360   
361or :
362
363    $ repykota
364   
365    which will print quota usage for all users on all printers,
366    along with totals, if you are the root user. If you are
367    a regular user, only your own quota report will be produced.
368   
369Quota reports are also available remotely by using the CGI script
370printquota.cgi provided in the cgi-bin/ subdirectory.
371
372For different security concerns, please give a look at the SECURITY
373file which is part of this software.
374           
375============================================================
376
377Mailing list :
378--------------
379
380  A mailing list is dedicated to Pykota, you can subscribe to it
381  or consult its archives at :
382 
383    http://cgi.librelogiciel.com/mailman/listinfo/pykota
384   
385============================================================
386   
387Please e-mail bugs to the mailing list at : pykota@librelogiciel.com
388or to the main author at : alet@librelogiciel.com (Jerome Alet)
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