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1# $Id$
2
3PyKota - Print Quota for CUPS and LPRng
4
5(c) 2003-2004 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 both CUPS and LPRng as the printing system.
38           
39    Databases :
40   
41        - Supports PostgreSQL as the Quota Storage backend.
42          Complete database creation script in SQL is included.
43       
44        - Supports OpenLDAP as the Quota Storage backend.
45          Complete LDAP schema and sample tree are included.
46          Plugging PyKota into your existing LDAP infrastructure
47          is really easy thanks to PyKota's great configurability.
48           
49    Printers :       
50   
51        - Supports any printer which can report its internal
52          page counter.
53         
54        - Supports any other printer via GhostScript.
55          Depending on the printer some configuration may
56          be needed.
57       
58        - Can ask printers for their internal page counter
59          via SNMP, Netatalk, or any other mean of your
60          choice. This is completely configurable.
61         
62        - External accounting methods are configurable.
63           
64    Quota systems :       
65   
66        - Supports printers and printers groups quotas.
67       
68        - Supports users and users 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        - Page quota and account balance can be set/reset
80          independantly.
81         
82        - Limiting factor, page quota or account balance, 
83          can be set on a per user or per group basis.
84         
85        - Price per page and per job can be set differently 
86          on any printer.
87       
88        - Low level of page quota or account balance are
89          configurable.
90         
91        - Both soft and hard limit with configurable grace delay 
92          can be set for page quota.
93         
94        - Possibility to disable quota enforcement for any user
95          or group, while still keeping page accounting.
96             
97    Administration :       
98   
99        - Powerful administration tools can be used to
100          automate setting or resetting of quotas or
101          account balances at specific intervals.
102         
103        - Administration tools can modify several users, 
104          groups, or printers at once.
105         
106        - Account balances can be set, incremented, or 
107          decremented.
108         
109        - Both printers and users can be automatically added on
110          first print in a completely configurable way.
111         
112        - Quota report generator available either from the 
113          command line or in any web browser.
114          The web-based quota report generator can be
115          user/password protected.
116         
117        - Print quote generator can tell users how much 
118          a print job will cost them in advance.
119         
120        - Policy with regard to unregistered users can   
121          be configured for each printer to either deny
122          printing, allow printing, or delegate the
123          decision to any external tool.
124         
125        - Warning and error messages can be automatically 
126          sent via email to the administrator, the user,
127          both, or none.
128         
129        - Warning and error messages' content is completely
130          configurable.
131         
132        - Configuration can be changed without needing to 
133          restart the printing system.
134       
135        - Complete print job history is kept. This can be
136          disabled if needed.
137         
138        - Automated low quota or balance remainder can be
139          scheduled regularly or launched manually.
140         
141    User Interface :         
142   
143        - All the command line tools accept the -h | --help
144          command line option which prints all the available
145          options and show usage examples.
146         
147        - Completely internationalized. Actually supports the 
148          English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Swedish
149          languages. More to come.
150
151====================================================================
152       
153Planned features are described in the TODO file.
154
155Actually three (or an infinity of) page accounting methods are
156implemented :
157
158  - The 'querying' method consists in querying the printer (via SNMP
159    or Netatalk or any other method of your choice) for its total pages
160    counter.
161   
162    With CUPS, this is done both at the beginning and at the end of a
163    print job. The counters difference is then immediately used to
164    decrease the user's account balance or increase his quota usage.
165   
166    With LPRng, this is done just before the beginning of a job, and used
167    this to modify the *preceding* user's quota. So you're always late
168    of one print job, but this is generally ok, especially because a
169    check is also done to see if the current user is allowed or not to
170    print.
171   
172  - The 'external' method consists in delegating the computation of the
173    job's size in number of pages to any external command of your choice.
174    The command can read the job's data from its standard input and MUST
175    output the job's size on its standard output. Changes to the user
176    account are reported immediately, both with CUPS and LPRng.
177   
178  - The 'stupid' method consists in counting the 'showpage' PostSript 
179    statements in the job. THIS IS UNRELIABLE, but can serve as an
180    example if you plan to write your own accounting method for
181    integration into PyKota. It basically works like the 'external'
182    method, but does the computation internally.
183 
184PyKota is known to work fine with HP Laserjet 2100 and 2200, and
185Apple LaserWriter 16/600 PS, both with CUPS and LPRng, under
186Debian GNU/Linux (Sarge and Sid) operating systems.
187
188I'm interested in receiving success or failure reports with other
189brands or models of printers, as well as with other operating
190systems.
191
192============================================================
193
194INSTALLATION:
195=============
196
197NB :
198====
199
200  Users of MacOS-X may find the following tutorial useful :
201
202      http://ell-tech.com/pages/pykota.php
203
204Prerequisite :
205--------------
206   
207  You need to have the following tools installed on the CUPS Server :
208 
209    - CUPS or LPRng
210    - Python v2.1 or above
211    - eGenix' mxDateTime Python extension
212    - SNMP tools (specifically the snmpget command) if you plan to
213      request your printer's lifetime page counter via SNMP.
214    - Netatalk (specifically the pap command) if you plan to
215      request your printer's lifetime page counter via AppleTalk.
216    - PostgreSQL's PygreSQL Python extension and the PostgreSQL client
217      libraries if you plan to use PostgreSQL as the Quota Storage
218      backend.
219 or     
220    - python-ldap Python module and the OpenLDAP client libraries 
221      if you plan to use OpenLDAP as the Quota Storage backend.
222   
223  You may also benefit from having the following tools installed to
224  deal with some printers :
225 
226    - npadmin
227    - netcat
228    - ghostscript
229   
230  You need to have the following tools installed on the Quota Storage 
231  Server :
232 
233    - PostgreSQL
234   
235  or 
236 
237    - OpenLDAP
238   
239NB :   
240
241  PygreSQL must be linked with the PostgreSQL client libraries on
242  the Print Server. The PostgreSQL client libraries' version must
243  match the PostgreSQL version used on the Quota Storage Server.
244 
245or 
246
247  python-ldap must be linked with the OpenLDAP client libraries on the
248  Print Server. The OpenLDAP client libraries' version must match the
249  OpenLDAP version used on the Quota Storage Server.
250 
251  This list of prerequisite software may change in the future, when
252  PyKota will support more functionnalities you will be given
253  alternatives.
254 
255  Of course the Print Server and the Quota Storage Server can be the
256  very same machine if you've got a tiny network, or you can have
257  multiple Print Servers all storing their quotas on the same Quota
258  Storage Server if you've got a bigger network.
259 
260Then :   
261------
262 
263Download the latest PyKota version from the CVS tree on :
264
265    http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/pykota
266
267Just type :
268
269    python setup.py install
270
271You may need to be logged in with sufficient privileges (e.g. root)
272
273The installation script will now automatically check if some software
274is missing and ask you if you still want to proceed with the
275installation or abort it completely.
276
277Go to the initscripts subdirectory of PyKota's sources, and choose
278the appropriate storage backend for your configuration. Read
279the associated README file and execute the initialization script
280to create an empty PyKota Storage. Upgrade scripts may be
281provided as well.
282
283Copy the conf/pykota.conf.sample and  conf/pykotadmin.conf.sample
284sample configuration files to /etc/pykota/pykota.conf and
285/etc/pykota/pykotadmin.conf. The installation script tries to do
286this for you if needed and you agreed to this action. You need to
287adapt these files to your own needs. Especially you have to create
288sections named after your own printers, and change the
289administrator's email address which by default is root@localhost.
290Read and try to understand these two very well commented files,
291so that you'll encounter less problems later.
292
293Also be sure to double check that commands that query printers
294for their internal page counter work from the command line
295before using them in PyKota's configuration.
296
297The rest of the installation depends on your printing system :
298
299  - CUPS Printing System :
300 
301    Once and for all :
302   
303        Create a symbolic link to the cupspykota backend
304        in CUPS's backend directory :
305       
306          $ cd /usr/lib/cups/backend
307          $ ln -s /usr/share/pykota/cupspykota cupspykota
308         
309        Restart CUPS so that the new backend can be detected.
310       
311          $ /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
312         
313    For dumb printers :
314   
315        The FAQ contains both the PyKota's definition of a 'dumb'
316        printer, and how to deal with them.
317   
318    For new printers :
319   
320        Go to CUPS management interface (http://localhost:631)
321        and choose the appropriate PyKota managed device depending
322        on the type of printer you use. For example, if your
323        printer is waiting on :
324       
325            socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
326           
327        Then choose :   
328       
329            cupspykota:socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
330           
331        Configure your printer as usual.   
332       
333        Now double check /etc/pykota/pykota.conf
334        This file should contain a section named after the
335        printer you've just added.
336       
337        That's all.
338   
339    For existing printers :
340   
341        If you had already installed a version of PyKota earlier
342        than 1.16alpha7, then remove the *cupsFilter lines in your
343        PPD files for each printer already managed printers. Each
344        line to remove is of the form :
345       
346          *cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0 /usr/share/pykota/pykota"
347       
348        This means that each time the pstops filter will be executed, it will
349        pass the job's data through the pykota filter which is present in
350        /usr/share/pykota
351       
352        Don't touch anything else, especially any other *cupsFilter line.
353        Then save each of these files.
354       
355        Then, the easiest is to directly modify the DeviceURI lines
356        in /etc/cups/printers.conf, you just have to put
357        'cupspykota:' in front of what is already on these lines.
358        For example, replace :
359   
360            DeviceURI socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
361       
362        with :   
363   
364            DeviceURI cupspykota:socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
365           
366        or :   
367       
368            DeviceURI cupspykota://socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
369       
370        Save the file and restart CUPS.
371
372  - LPRng Printing System :
373 
374    Modify the /etc/printcap file to add two lines identical to these ones :
375   
376    :achk=true
377    :as=|/usr/share/pykota/pykota
378   
379    For each printer on which you want to use print accounting.
380   
381    And then save the file and restart LPRng :
382   
383        $ /etc/init.d/lprng restart
384       
385Now you can begin to populate the PyKota's database with printers,
386users and groups :
387 
388Add printers and users to the quota system and set their quota values :
389
390Starting from version 1.18alpha2, the preferred command to manage
391printers is named pkprinters
392
393    $ pkprinters --help
394   
395    will tell you how to create, manage or delete printers and
396    printers groups.
397
398    $ edpykota --add -P hp2100 -S 40 -H 50 user1 ... userN
399       
400    launching edpykota without any argument or with the --help
401    command line option will show you all the possibilities.
402   
403    by default, each user is limited by "quota", this means that on
404    each printer he can have a different soft and hard limit.
405    You may want to limit the user by his account balance value,
406    in which case, the print quota is shared between all printers
407    instead of being different. To do this, use the following :
408   
409    $ edpykota --add -P hp2100 --limitby balance --balance 10 user1 ... userN
410   
411    This will put 10 $ (or Euros, PyKota doesn't care) on each user's account
412    balance, and tell PyKota to limit them by their account balance value.
413    Whenever they print on any printer, their account balance value is
414    decreased by an amount which depends on the particular price per page
415    and per job that you may have defined on the printer with edpykota's
416    --charge command line option.
417    Soft and Hard limits are not used if "--limitby balance" is used,
418    but you can define a "poorman"'s threshold in /etc/pykota/pykota.conf
419    to obtain a similar result (warning message when quota is low).
420
421Restart CUPS or LPRng, for example under Debian GNU/Linux systems :         
422
423    $ /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
424   
425  or :
426 
427    $ /etc/init.d/lprng restart
428       
429Your users now should be able to print but not exceed their
430printing quota.
431
432To see printer quota usage, you can use :
433
434    $ repykota --printer lp
435   
436or :
437
438    $ repykota
439   
440    which will print quota usage for all users on all printers,
441    along with totals, if you are the root user. If you are
442    a regular user, only your own quota report will be produced.
443   
444Quota reports are also available remotely by using the CGI script
445printquota.cgi provided in the cgi-bin/ subdirectory. You can
446also use the CSS stylesheet present in the stylesheets/ subdirectory
447and put it at your web server's DocumentRoot.
448
449For different security concerns, please give a look at the SECURITY
450file which is part of this software.
451           
452============================================================
453
454Mailing list :
455--------------
456
457  A mailing list is dedicated to Pykota, you can subscribe to it
458  or consult its archives at :
459 
460    http://cgi.librelogiciel.com/mailman/listinfo/pykota
461   
462IRC :   
463-----
464
465  You can also chat with us :
466 
467        /server irc.freenode.net
468        /join #pykota
469   
470============================================================
471   
472Please e-mail bugs to the mailing list at : pykota@librelogiciel.com
473or to the main author at : alet@librelogiciel.com (Jerome Alet)
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