root / pykota / trunk / docs / pkusers.sgml @ 2949

<!-- $Id$ -->

<chapter>
  <title id="pkusers">Manage Users and Groups with pkusers</title>
  <para>Last modified on $Date$</para>
  
  <para>
    You'll use this tool to create, manage or delete users or users groups from the database.
    Before you can assign print quotas to an user or group with the <command>edpykota</command> you
    MUST add this user or group to the database using <command>pkusers</command>.
  </para>
  
  <para>
    The simplest way to add an user named <literal>jerome</literal> to the database is
    to type :
<screen>    
$ pkusers --add jerome
</screen>
  </para>
  
  <para>
    The commands above have created user <literal>jerome</literal> in the database. By default this
    user will be limited by page quotas, that is a maximal number of pages can be assigned to this
    user on any printer. This has to be done through the <command>edpykota</command> command line tool.
  </para>
  
  <para>
    You can apply different sorts of limitations to an user or users group, by specifying a
    different value for the <literal>--limitby</literal> command line option to <command>pkusers</command> :
    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <literal>--limitby quota</literal> : Page quotas are defined for each user on each printer. 
          This means that an user can be
          limited to print more than 20 pages on printer <literal>HP2100</literal> while still
          being allowed to print 500 pages on printer <literal>TekTro</literal>.
          This is the default.
        </para>
      </listitem>  
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <literal>--limitby balance</literal> : Account balance quotas are defined once for each user.
          You give a number of credits
          to an user, and whenever he prints on any printer, his number of credits diminishes
          by the cost of the current print job, until his balance reaches 0 (or the value
          defined in the <literal>balancezero</literal> configuration directive in <filename>~pykota/pykota.conf</filename>).
          In other terms, while page quotas are specific to a particular printer for a particular
          user, account balance quotas are shared between all printers for a particular user.
        </para>
      </listitem>  
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <literal>--limitby noquota</literal> : the user or group can print without any limitation, but
          accounting continues to be done.
        </para>
      </listitem>  
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <literal>--limitby nochange</literal> : the user can print without any limitation, but
          accounting is not done.
          This value is not supported for users groups.
        </para>
      </listitem>  
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <literal>--limitby noprint</literal> : the user can not print.
          This value is not supported for users groups.
        </para>
      </listitem>  
    </itemizedlist>  
  </para>
  
  <para>
    Here's an incomplete list of features :
    
    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Add and delete users and groups ;
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Add or remove users from users groups ;
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Choose the way you will limit printing for users or groups ;
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Set users' account balances. An optional comment can be added to each payment ;
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Set users' overcharging (or undercharging) factor ;
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Sets a textual description for users or groups ;
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Sets users' email addresses (on creation only) ;
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          Lists users or groups ;
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </para>
  
  <para>
    For more details on the use of <command>pkusers</command>, please see this command's manual
    page or help.
  </para>
  
</chapter>