root / pykota / trunk / README @ 720

# $Id$

PyKota - Print Quota for CUPS

(c) 2003 Jerome Alet <alet@librelogiciel.com>
You're welcome to redistribute this software under the
terms of the GNU General Public Licence version 2.0
or, at your option, any higher version.

You can read the complete GNU GPL in the file COPYING
which should come along with this software, or visit
the Free Software Foundation's WEB site http://www.fsf.org

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

PyKota is a complete Print Quota system for the Common Unix Printing
System (aka CUPS), which works by directly querying the printers
for the number of pages they have printed.

Current or planned features are :

        - Easy installation.
        
        - Per printer User and Group quotas. Currently Group
          quotas are only at skeleton stage.
        
        - Centralized configurable storage : currently
          only a PostgreSQL database backend is supported,
          but at least LDAP and MySQL are planned.
          
        - Automated mailing of warning or error messages to  
          users and print administrator when print quota is 
          exceeded.
          
        - Configurable printer querying methods. Currently
          only SNMP method is supported.

Look at the documentation in the docs subdirectory to learn
more.

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

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

Prerequisite : 
--------------
   
  You need to have the following tools installed on the CUPS Server :
  
    - CUPS
    - Python
    - eGenix' mxDateTime Python extension
    - PostgreSQL's PygreSQL Python extension and the PostgreSQL client
      libraries.
    - SNMP tools (specifically the snmpget command)
    
  You need to have the following tools installed on the Quota Storage  
  Server :
  
    - PostgreSQL
    
  PygreSQL and the PostgreSQL client libraries's versions on the CUPS 
  Server must match the PostgreSQL version used on the Quota Storage 
  Server.
  
  Of course the CUPS Server and the Quota Storage Server can be the  
  very same machine. 
  
  This list of prerequisite software may change in the future, when
  PyKota will support more functionnalities you will be given 
  alternatives.
  
Then :   
------
 
Download the latest PyKota version from :

        http://www.librelogiciel.com/software/

Extract it and install it on the CUPS Server :

        gzip -d pykota-x.xx.tar.gz | tar -xf -

        where x.xx is PyKota's latest version number.

Go to PyKota's directory :

        cd pykota-x.xx

Just type :

        python setup.py install

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

Go to the initscripts subdirectory of PyKota's sources, and choose
the appropriate storage backend for your configuration. Read
the associated README file and execute the initialization script
to create an empty PyKota Storage.

Copy the conf/pykota.conf.sample sample configuration file to
CUPS' configuration directory, usually /etc/cups, under the
name pykota.conf, and adapt this file to your own needs and 
configuration.

Modify the PPD files for each printer on which you want to manage
print quotas, for example /etc/cups/ppd/lp.ppd :

--- Add the line below exactly as-is somewhere near the top ---
*cupsFilter:  "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0 /usr/bin/pykota"
--- Add the line above exactly as-is somewhere near the top  ---

Modify the path to pykota if needed, unfortunately you have to
supply the correct absolute path here due to CUPS internals, or
put the pykota executable into /usr/lib/cups/filter instead of
into /usr/bin.

Do this in each ppd file present in this directory if you want
to enable quota on every printer.
          
Add printers and users to the quota system and set their quota values : 

        $ edpykota -P printer -S softlimit -H hardlimit user1 ... userN

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.

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

Please e-mail bugs to: alet@librelogiciel.com (Jerome Alet)