root / pykota / trunk / README @ 1855

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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 any LDAP server as the Quota Storage backend.
45          Complete LDAP schema and sample empty 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        - Hardware or Software accounting methods are completely
52          configurable.
53         
54        - Supports any printer which can report its internal
55          page counter. Can ask printers for their internal
56          page counter via SNMP, Netatalk, PJL, PS, or any
57          other way.
58          This is completely configurable.
59         
60        - Supports DSC compliant and binary PostScript, PDF, PCL5 (up to),
61          PCLXL (aka PCL6) and ESC/P2 printers natively for software
62          accounting methods. More formats to come.
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. The history of payments (positive
78          or negative credits to an user account) is kept.
79         
80        - Page quotas and account balance can be set/reset
81          independantly.
82         
83        - Page quotas and account balances can be set on
84          a per user or per group basis.
85         
86        - Price per page and per job can be set differently 
87          on any printer.
88       
89        - Low level of page quota or account balance are
90          configurable.
91         
92        - Both soft and hard limit with configurable grace delay 
93          can be set for page quota.
94         
95        - Possibility to disable quota enforcement for any user
96          or group, while still keeping page accounting.
97             
98    Administration :       
99   
100        - Powerful administration tools can be used to
101          automate setting or resetting of quotas or
102          account balances at specific intervals.
103         
104        - Administration tools can modify several users, 
105          groups, or printers at once.
106         
107        - Account balances can be set, incremented, or 
108          decremented. History of payments is kept.
109         
110        - Both printers and users can be automatically added on
111          first print in a completely configurable way.
112         
113        - Quota report generator available either from the 
114          command line or in any web browser.
115          The web-based quota report generator can be
116          user/password protected.
117         
118        - Print quote generator can tell users how much 
119          a print job will cost them in advance.
120         
121        - Policy with regard to unregistered users can   
122          be configured for each printer to either deny
123          printing, allow printing, or delegate the
124          decision to any external tool.
125         
126        - Warning and error messages can be automatically 
127          sent via email to the administrator, the user,
128          both, or none.
129         
130        - Warning and error messages' content is completely
131          configurable.
132         
133        - Configuration can be changed without needing to 
134          restart the printing system.
135       
136        - Complete print job history is kept. This can be
137          disabled if needed.
138         
139        - Automated low quota or balance remainder can be
140          scheduled regularly or launched manually.
141         
142        - Powerful data dumper to export datas to other
143          software (spreadsheets for example). Actually
144          supported formats are :
145         
146            - Comma separated values ;
147           
148            - Semicolon separated values ;
149           
150            - Tab separated values ;
151           
152            - XML.
153         
154    User Interface :         
155   
156        - All the command line tools accept the -h | --help
157          command line option which prints all the available
158          options and show usage examples.
159         
160        - Completely internationalized. Actually supports the 
161          English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Brasilian, Swedish,
162          Thai, Greek, German, and Italian languages. More to come.
163
164====================================================================
165       
166Planned features are described in the TODO file.
167
168Actually two (or an infinity of) page accounting methods are
169implemented :
170
171  - The 'hardware' method consists in querying the printer (via SNMP
172    or Netatalk or any other method of your choice) for its total pages
173    counter.
174   
175    This is done both at the beginning and at the end of a
176    print job. The counters difference is then immediately used to
177    decrease the user's account balance or increase his quota usage.
178   
179  - The 'software' method consists in delegating the computation of the
180    job's size in number of pages to any external command of your choice.
181    The command can read the job's data from its standard input and MUST
182    output the job's size on its standard output. Changes to the user
183    account are reported immediately.
184   
185PyKota is known to work fine with most laser printers, either with
186software accounting, or with hardware accounting if the printer
187supports this.
188
189============================================================
190
191INSTALLATION:
192=============
193
194NB :
195====
196
197  You may learn more about PyKota, if it fits your own organization,
198  its internal working, and some potential performance drawbacks and
199  how to avoid them, in a WiKi administered by Ryan Suarez at :
200 
201    http://webcrossing.macosxlabs.org/webx?14@30.QAu3a5k0c4z.7@.26bf4661
202
203  You may also find the following document interesting :
204 
205    http://es.tldp.org/Tutoriales/doc-openldap-samba-cups-python/
206   
207  This document, written in Spanish by Sergio Gonzalez Gonzalez, 
208  describes the integration of PyKota into an OpenLDAP + Samba
209  + CUPS installation. Even for people who can't read spanish
210  this document is really interesting, and contains lots of
211  screenshots.
212 
213Prerequisite :
214--------------
215   
216  You need to have the following tools installed on the CUPS Server :
217 
218    - CUPS or LPRng
219    - Python v2.1 or above
220    - eGenix' mxDateTime Python extension
221    - The JAXML Python module to be able to dump datas in the XML format.
222    - The Python-SNMP module to query printers for their page counter.
223    - The Python-OSD module to use the graphical print quota reminder.
224    - SNMP tools (specifically the snmpget command) if you prefer to
225      use your own script to request query printers.
226    - Netatalk (specifically the pap command) if you plan to
227      request your printer's lifetime page counter via AppleTalk.
228    - PostgreSQL's PygreSQL Python extension and the PostgreSQL client
229      libraries if you plan to use PostgreSQL as the Quota Storage
230      backend.
231 or     
232    - python-ldap Python module and the OpenLDAP client libraries 
233      if you plan to use an LDAP server as the Quota Storage backend.
234   
235  On Intel i386 architecture, and for performance reasons, it is
236  strongly suggested that you install the Python accelerator Psyco,
237  available at :
238 
239      http://psyco.sourceforge.net
240     
241  Under Debian :   
242 
243      $ apt-get install python-psyco
244     
245  Other architectures may be supported as well in the future, check   
246  this on Psyco's website.
247 
248  Installing Psyco is not mandatory, but it will speedup PCL5 parsing
249  by almost 3 times. PostScript and PDF parsing can also benefit,
250  but in an almost unnoticeable manner since this part of the code
251  is already optimal. For PCL5 this is a completely different matter,
252  and if you install Psyco you will never regret it !
253  Same remark applies for PCL6 (aka PCLXL) : the parser is completely
254  different, but the performance gain with Psyco is impressive.
255 
256  You may also benefit from having the following tools installed to
257  deal with some printers :
258 
259    - npadmin
260    - netcat
261    - ghostscript
262   
263  You need to have the following tools installed on the Quota Storage 
264  Server :
265 
266    - PostgreSQL
267   
268  or 
269 
270    - OpenLDAP (or any other LDAP server)
271   
272NB :   
273
274  PygreSQL must be linked with the PostgreSQL client libraries on
275  the Print Server. The PostgreSQL client libraries' version must
276  match the PostgreSQL version used on the Quota Storage Server.
277 
278or 
279
280  python-ldap must be linked with the OpenLDAP client libraries on the
281  Print Server. The OpenLDAP client libraries' version should match the
282  OpenLDAP version used on the Quota Storage Server, if applicable.
283 
284  This list of prerequisite software may change in the future, when
285  PyKota will support more functionnalities you will be given
286  alternatives.
287 
288  Of course the Print Server and the Quota Storage Server can be the
289  very same machine if you've got a tiny network, or you can have
290  multiple Print Servers all storing their quotas on the same Quota
291  Storage Server if you've got a bigger network.
292 
293Then :   
294------
295 
296Download the latest PyKota version from the CVS tree on :
297
298    http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/pykota
299
300Just type :
301
302    python setup.py install
303
304You may need to be logged in with sufficient privileges (e.g. root)
305
306The installation script will now automatically check if some software
307is missing and ask you if you still want to proceed with the
308installation or abort it completely.
309
310Go to the initscripts subdirectory of PyKota's sources, and choose
311the appropriate storage backend for your configuration. Read carefully
312the associated README file and execute the initialization script
313to create an empty PyKota Storage. Upgrade scripts may be
314provided as well.
315
316Copy the conf/pykota.conf.sample and  conf/pykotadmin.conf.sample
317sample configuration files to /etc/pykota/pykota.conf and
318/etc/pykota/pykotadmin.conf (the installation script tries to do
319this for you if needed and you agreed to this action). You need to
320adapt these files to your own needs. Especially you may have to create
321sections named after your own printers, and change the
322administrator's email address which by default is root@localhost.
323Read and try to understand these two very well commented files,
324so that you'll encounter less problems later.
325
326Also be sure to double check that commands that query printers
327for their internal page counter work from the command line
328before using them in PyKota's configuration.
329
330The rest of the installation depends on your printing system :
331
332  - CUPS Printing System :
333 
334    Once and for all :
335   
336        Create a symbolic link to the cupspykota backend
337        in CUPS's backend directory :
338       
339          $ cd /usr/lib/cups/backend
340          $ ln -s /usr/share/pykota/cupspykota cupspykota
341         
342        Restart CUPS so that the new backend can be detected.
343       
344          $ /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
345         
346        or :   
347     
348          $ /etc/rc.d/init.d/cupsysrestart
349         
350        or any similar command depending on your operating system. 
351         
352    For new printers :
353   
354        Go to CUPS management interface (http://localhost:631)
355        and choose the appropriate PyKota managed device depending
356        on the type of printer you use. For example, if your
357        printer is waiting on :
358       
359            socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
360           
361        Then choose :   
362       
363            cupspykota:socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
364           
365        Configure your printer as usual.   
366       
367        Now double check /etc/pykota/pykota.conf
368       
369        You should manually create a section named after the
370        printer you've just added, unless you have set
371        all options globally.
372       
373        The new pkhint command can help you with correct settings
374        for your printers, but don't rely on it because it is still
375        experimental work. To use pkhint, you have to feed it with
376        CUPS' printers.conf file this way :
377       
378          $ pkhint </etc/cups/printers.conf
379       
380        pkhint will try to tell you what is the best accounting
381        method for each printer and will print some lines you'll
382        just have to copy&paste in the appropriate sections in
383        /etc/pykota/pykota.conf
384       
385        That's all.
386   
387    For existing printers :
388   
389        If you had already installed a version of PyKota earlier
390        than 1.16alpha7, then remove the *cupsFilter lines in your
391        PPD files for each printer already managed printers. Each
392        line to remove is of the form :
393       
394          *cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0 /usr/share/pykota/pykota"
395       
396        This means that each time the pstops filter will be executed, it will
397        pass the job's data through the pykota filter which is present in
398        /usr/share/pykota
399       
400        Don't touch anything else, especially any other *cupsFilter line.
401        Then save each of these files.
402       
403        Then, the easiest is to directly modify the DeviceURI lines
404        in /etc/cups/printers.conf, you just have to put
405        'cupspykota:' in front of what is already on these lines.
406        For example, replace :
407   
408            DeviceURI socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
409       
410        with :   
411   
412            DeviceURI cupspykota:socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
413           
414        or :   
415       
416            DeviceURI cupspykota://socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
417       
418        Save the file and restart CUPS.
419       
420        Here too, you may find it interesting to use the pkhint command as
421        described above to help with manual configuration of the file
422        /etc/pykota/pykota.conf
423
424  - LPRng Printing System :
425 
426    For each printer on which you want to use PyKota :
427   
428        Modify the printer's entry in /etc/printcap : you have to add
429        the three following lines :
430       
431          :achk=true:\
432          :as=/usr/share/pykota/lprngpykota:\
433          :ae=/usr/share/pykota/lprngpykota:\
434         
435        This will tell LPRng to activate accounting, and use the lprngpykota
436        accounting filter both at the start and at the end of printing.
437       
438    When all modifications are done, just save the /etc/printcap file and   
439    restart LPRng :
440   
441          $ /etc/init.d/lprng restart
442         
443        or :   
444     
445          $ /etc/rc.d/init.d/lprng restart
446         
447        or any similar command depending on your operating system. 
448       
449    NB : the pkhint command can't be used with LPRng for now, so you   
450         have to modify /etc/pykota/pykota.conf carefully. The comments
451         in this file will help you.
452     
453Now you can begin to populate the PyKota's database with printers,
454users and groups :
455 
456Add printers and users to the quota system and set their quota values :
457
458Starting from version 1.18alpha2, the preferred command to manage
459printers is named pkprinters
460
461    $ pkprinters --help
462   
463    will tell you how to create, manage or delete printers and
464    printers groups.
465   
466    $ pkprinters --add --charge 0.05 hp2100
467   
468    would add the printer named hp2100 with a price per page
469    of 0.05 unit.
470
471Now set quotas for users on this printer :     
472
473    $ edpykota --add -P hp2100 -S 40 -H 50 user1 ... userN
474       
475    launching edpykota without any argument or with the --help
476    command line option will show you all the possibilities.
477   
478    by default, each user is limited by "quota", this means that on
479    each printer he can have a different soft and hard limit.
480    You may want to limit the user by his account balance value,
481    in which case, the print quota is shared between all printers
482    instead of being different. To do this, use the following :
483   
484    $ edpykota --add -P hp2100 --limitby balance --balance 10 user1 ... userN
485   
486    This will put 10 $ (or Euros, PyKota doesn't care) on each user's account
487    balance, and tell PyKota to limit them by their account balance value.
488    Whenever they print on any printer, their account balance value is
489    decreased by an amount which depends on the particular price per page
490    and per job that you may have defined on the printer with edpykota's
491    --charge command line option.
492    Soft and Hard limits are not used if "--limitby balance" is used,
493    but you can define a "poorman"'s threshold in /etc/pykota/pykota.conf
494    to obtain a similar result (warning message when quota is low).
495
496Restart CUPS or LPRng, for example under Debian GNU/Linux systems :         
497
498    $ /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
499   
500  or :
501 
502    $ /etc/init.d/lprng restart
503       
504Your users now should be able to print but not exceed their
505printing quota.
506
507To see printer quota usage, you can use :
508
509    $ repykota --printer lp
510   
511or :
512
513    $ repykota
514   
515    which will print quota usage for all users on all printers,
516    along with totals, if you are the root user. If you are
517    a regular user, only your own quota report will be produced.
518   
519Quota reports are also available remotely by using the CGI script
520printquota.cgi provided in the cgi-bin/ subdirectory. You can
521also use the CSS stylesheet present in the stylesheets/ subdirectory
522and put it at your web server's DocumentRoot, to benefit from a nicer
523look, especially quota violations will appear in different colors.
524
525For different security concerns, please give a look at the SECURITY
526file which is part of this software.
527           
528============================================================
529
530Mailing list :
531--------------
532
533  A mailing list is dedicated to Pykota, you can subscribe to it
534  or consult its archives at :
535 
536    http://cgi.librelogiciel.com/mailman/listinfo/pykota
537   
538  The mailing list is the preferred way to obtain support, because 
539  all members can help and can also benefit from the solutions
540  proposed by other members.
541 
542  Posts by non-members are usually rejected.
543 
544  The mailing list language is english and only english.
545   
546IRC :   
547-----
548
549  You can also chat with us :
550 
551        /server irc.freenode.net
552        /join #pykota
553       
554  Preferred language on this channel is english, but french     
555  is also accepted. Try to avoid exposing complex problems
556  in french because english speaking people on the channel
557  wouldn't benefit from the solutions.
558 
559  PyKota's main author is known as 'tamere' on IRC.
560   
561============================================================
562   
563Please e-mail bugs to the mailing list at : pykota@librelogiciel.com
564or to the main author at : alet@librelogiciel.com (Jerome Alet)
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