38 | | - The 'hardware' method consists in querying the printer (via SNMP |
39 | | or Netatalk or any other method of your choice) for its internal |
40 | | pages counter. |
41 | | This is done both at the beginning and at the end of a |
42 | | print job. The counters difference is then used to |
43 | | decrease the user's account balance or increase his quota usage. |
44 | | |
45 | | - The 'software' method consists in delegating the computation of the |
46 | | job's size in number of pages to any external command of your choice. |
47 | | The command can read the job's data from its standard input and MUST |
48 | | output the job's size on its standard output. Changes to the user |
49 | | account are reported immediately. PyKota by default internally |
50 | | uses the code from pkpgcounter which can handle |
51 | | several Page Description Languages : DSC compliant and binary PostScript, |
52 | | PDF, PCLXL (aka PCL6), PCL3/4/5, ESC/P2, DVI, TIFF, OpenDocument, |
53 | | Zenographics ZjStream, Samsung QPDL,Samsung SPL1, and plain text. |
54 | | Of course this means you have to install pkpgcounter if you want to |
55 | | use the default PDL parser. |
56 | | |
57 | | - The 'ink' method consists in using pkpgcounter's code to compute |
58 | | how much of each page is covered by ink in each color of a particular |
59 | | colorspace chosen between CMYK, CMY, RGB, and BW (grayscale). |
60 | | These values are then summed up together and multiplied by a set |
61 | | of coefficients defined in PyKota's configuration files. |
62 | | |
63 | | PyKota is known to work with most printers, excepted GDI ones (Windows |
64 | | only). At least one of the accounting methods above should work |
65 | | for you. If it's not the case, please report the problem : tell us |
66 | | the exact brand and model of the printer, if possible the driver used, |
67 | | and send some test files. |
68 | | |
69 | | ============================================================ |
70 | | |
71 | | SUPPORT CONTRACTS: |
72 | | ================== |
73 | | |
74 | | You can now purchase 8x5x365@NextBusinessDay Technical |
75 | | Support Contracts from us. The yearly fee is computed with |
76 | | the following formula : |
77 | | |
78 | | (100.0 * NbPrintServers) + (2.5 * NbPrinters) + (0.04 * NbUsers) EUROS. |
79 | | |
80 | | This fee includes the VAT, and a free subscription to Official |
81 | | PyKota packages. |
82 | | |
83 | | Please send an email to alet@librelogiciel.com if you're |
84 | | interested in purchasing such a contract. |
85 | | |
86 | | Remember that purchasing a support contract for Free Software like PyKota |
87 | | is a great way to show your appreciation for the work already being done |
88 | | on this project, and will help to improve this software in the future. |
89 | | |
90 | | ============================================================ |
91 | | |
92 | | INSTALLATION: |
93 | | ============= |
94 | | |
95 | | NB : |
96 | | ==== |
97 | | |
98 | | PyKota's documentation is available as DocBook SGML sources |
99 | | files in the pykota/docs directory. If you obtained an |
100 | | Official package, in the same directory you'll also find |
101 | | the documentation in HTML and PDF formats. Otherwise you |
102 | | have to compile it into HTML or PDF yourself by using |
103 | | the appropriate tools as installed on your system. |
104 | | |
105 | | PyKota's collaborative documentation is available from : |
106 | | |
107 | | http://www.pykota.com/wiki/ |
108 | | |
109 | | You may learn more about PyKota, if it fits your own organization, |
110 | | its internal working, and some potential performance drawbacks and |
111 | | how to avoid them, in a document created by Ryan Suarez at : |
112 | | |
113 | | http://archive.macosxlabs.org/forum/webcrossing_archive/documentation/Pykota_and_CUPS/Pykota_and_CUPS.html |
114 | | |
115 | | You may also find the following document interesting : |
116 | | |
117 | | http://es.tldp.org/Tutoriales/doc-openldap-samba-cups-python/ |
118 | | |
119 | | This document, written in Spanish by Sergio Gonzalez Gonzalez, |
120 | | describes the integration of PyKota into an OpenLDAP + Samba |
121 | | + CUPS installation. Even for people who can't read spanish |
122 | | this document is really interesting, and contains lots of |
123 | | screenshots. |
124 | | |
125 | | |
126 | | Prerequisite : |
127 | | -------------- |
128 | | |
129 | | See : |
130 | | |
131 | | http://www.pykota.com/wiki/Dependencies |
132 | | |
133 | | for an up-to-date list, or see below (maybe not up-to-date) : |
134 | | |
135 | | You need to have the following tools installed on the CUPS Server : |
136 | | |
137 | | - CUPS (http://www.cups.org) |
138 | | - Python v2.3 or higher (http://www.python.org) |
139 | | - eGenix' mxDateTime Python extension (http://www.egenix.com) |
140 | | - The pkpgcounter command line tool, version 1.56 or higher. This |
141 | | tool is now mandatory for PyKota to work. |
142 | | (http://www.pykota.com/software/pkpgcounter) |
143 | | - The pkipplib Python library (http://www.pykota.com/software/pkipplib) |
144 | | - The JAXML Python module to be able to dump datas in the XML format. |
145 | | (http://www.librelogiciel.com/software/) |
146 | | - The Python-PAM module if you need the pknotify command to be able |
147 | | to check usernames and passwords. (http://www.pangalactic.org/PyPAM) |
148 | | - The Python-SNMP module to query printers for their page counter. |
149 | | (http://pysnmp.sourceforge.net) |
150 | | IMPORTANT : version 3.4.2 or higher is REQUIRED. |
151 | | Versions 2.x won't work. Versions 4.x now work (tested with v4.1.5a). |
152 | | - The Python-OSD module to use the graphical print quota reminder. |
153 | | (http://repose.cx/pyosd/) |
154 | | - The Python-chardet module to autodetect user's character set when |
155 | | printing. (http://chardet.feedparser.org) |
156 | | - SNMP tools (specifically the snmpget command) if you prefer to |
157 | | use your own script to request query printers. |
158 | | (http://www.net-snmp.org) |
159 | | - Netatalk (specifically the pap command) if you plan to |
160 | | request your printer's lifetime page counter via AppleTalk. |
161 | | (http://netatalk.sourceforge.net) |
162 | | - The ReportLab Python module (http://www.reportlab.org) if you want |
163 | | to have PyKota generate nice banners for you. |
164 | | - The Python Imaging Library (aka PIL) module |
165 | | (http://www.pythonware.com/downloads) if you want to have PyKota |
166 | | generate nice banners for you. |
167 | | - PostgreSQL's PygreSQL Python extension and the PostgreSQL client |
168 | | libraries if you plan to use PostgreSQL as the database backend. |
169 | | (http://www.postgresql.org and http://www.pygreql.org) |
170 | | or |
171 | | - python-ldap Python module and the OpenLDAP client libraries |
172 | | if you plan to use an LDAP server as the database backend. |
173 | | (http://www.openldap.org and http://python-ldap.sourceforge.net) |
174 | | or |
175 | | - SQLite v3.2.7 and the SQLite libraries if you plan to use SQLite |
176 | | as the database backend (http://www.sqlite.org). You also need the |
177 | | PySQLite module v2.0.5 or higher (http://www.pysqlite.org) |
178 | | or |
179 | | - The MySQL-python bindings. |
180 | | IMPORTANT: If you are using MySQL 4.1, then MySQL-python must be |
181 | | version 1.2 or greater. Version 1.0 does not work correctly with 4.1. |
182 | | |
183 | | |
184 | | On Intel i386 architecture, and for performance reasons, it is |
185 | | strongly suggested that you install the Python accelerator Psyco, |
186 | | available at : |
187 | | |
188 | | http://psyco.sourceforge.net |
189 | | |
190 | | Under Debian : |
191 | | |
192 | | $ apt-get install python-psyco |
193 | | |
194 | | Other architectures may be supported as well in the future, check |
195 | | this on Psyco's website. |
196 | | |
197 | | Installing Psyco is not mandatory, but it will speedup PCL5 parsing |
198 | | by almost 3 times. PostScript and PDF parsing can also benefit, |
199 | | but in an almost unnoticeable manner since this part of the code |
200 | | is already optimal. For PCL5 this is a completely different matter, |
201 | | and if you install Psyco you will never regret it ! |
202 | | Same remark applies for PCL6 (aka PCLXL) : the parser is completely |
203 | | different, but the performance gain with Psyco is impressive. |
204 | | |
205 | | You may also benefit from having the following tools installed to |
206 | | deal with some printers : |
207 | | |
208 | | - npadmin |
209 | | - netcat |
210 | | - ghostscript |
211 | | |
212 | | You need to have the following tools installed on the database |
213 | | server : |
214 | | |
215 | | - PostgreSQL (http://www.postgresql.org) |
216 | | |
217 | | or |
218 | | |
219 | | - OpenLDAP, or any other LDAP server (http://www.openldap.org) |
220 | | |
221 | | or |
222 | | |
223 | | - SQLite, v3.2.7 or higher (http://www.sqlite.org). |
224 | | Beware : with SQLite the database server and the print |
225 | | servers MUST be the very same machine. |
226 | | |
227 | | or |
228 | | |
229 | | - MySQL 4.1 or higher. 5.x is recommended. |
230 | | |
231 | | This list of prerequisite software may change in the future, when |
232 | | PyKota will support more functionnalities you will be given |
233 | | alternatives. |
234 | | |
235 | | Of course the Print Server and the database server can be the |
236 | | very same machine if you've got a tiny network, or you can have |
237 | | multiple Print Servers all storing their quotas on the same database |
238 | | server if you've got a bigger network. (NB : with SQLite, the database |
239 | | can't be shared between several print servers) |
240 | | |
241 | | Hint : |
242 | | ------ |
243 | | |
244 | | - The Debian GNU/Linux distribution is to our knowledge the |
245 | | easiest distribution to install PyKota on, because almost all |
246 | | of PyKota dependencies are already included, excepted |
247 | | the pkpgcounter utility which for now have to be downloaded |
248 | | and installed separately, and maybe one or two other dependencies, |
249 | | depending on the version of Debian you are using. |
250 | | We recommend you to use Debian's Etch distribution or |
251 | | more recent. PyKota works fine on Sarge, but some additional |
252 | | dependencies are missing in Sarge and have to be installed |
253 | | manually. |
254 | | |
255 | | Then : |
256 | | ------ |
257 | | |
258 | | Download the latest PyKota version from the Subversion tree : |
259 | | |
260 | | $ svn co svn://svn.librelogiciel.com/pykota/trunk pykota |
261 | | |
262 | | You can now check if the dependencies are correct by typing : |
263 | | |
264 | | $ python checkdeps.py |
265 | | |
266 | | An availability report for all the software needed by PyKota |
267 | | will be displayed : you'll have to install the missing |
268 | | software if you want PyKota to work correctly. |
269 | | |
270 | | To install the software, just type : |
271 | | |
272 | | $ python setup.py install |
273 | | |
274 | | You may need to be logged in with sufficient privileges (e.g. root) |
275 | | |
276 | | If you use Debian or Ubuntu, and want to use PostgreSQL as the |
277 | | database backend, just type : |
278 | | |
279 | | $ pksetup debian |
280 | | |
281 | | or : |
282 | | |
283 | | $ pksetup ubuntu |
284 | | |
285 | | and follow the instructions to install PyKota in interactive mode, then |
286 | | skip the remaining of the section below. |
287 | | |
288 | | Otherwise, you have to setup manually : |
289 | | |
290 | | Create a system user for PyKota : |
291 | | |
292 | | $ adduser --system --group --home /etc/pykota --gecos PyKota pykota |
293 | | |
294 | | Put the user your printing system is run as in the pykota system group : |
295 | | |
296 | | $ adduser lp pykota |
297 | | |
298 | | NB : on our system, the CUPS printing system runs as system user 'lp'. |
299 | | Please adapt this to your own system. |
300 | | |
301 | | Go to the initscripts/ subdirectory of PyKota's sources, and choose |
302 | | the appropriate storage backend for your configuration. Read carefully |
303 | | the associated README file, modify the initialization script to |
304 | | change the passwords, or, in the case of the LDAP backend, adapt it |
305 | | to your own LDAP DIT, and execute the initialization script |
306 | | to create an empty PyKota database. Upgrade scripts may be |
307 | | provided as well. NB : if you use PostgreSQL, a good way to |
308 | | make PyKota work first time is to modify PostgreSQL's pg_hba.conf |
309 | | to allow the 'trust' database connection mode. However once PyKota |
310 | | works it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO CHANGE THIS TO A MORE SECURE |
311 | | VALUE. Look at the SECURITY document, PyKota's Official documentation |
312 | | and PostgreSQL's documentation for details on this subject. |
313 | | |
314 | | Copy the conf/pykota.conf.sample and conf/pykotadmin.conf.sample |
315 | | sample configuration files to ~pykota/pykota.conf and |
316 | | ~pykota/pykotadmin.conf |
317 | | The installation script usually copies these files into /usr/share/pykota |
318 | | |
319 | | NB : You can move PyKota's configuration files elsewhere, they will |
320 | | be searched first in user pykota's home directory, then in /etc/pykota. |
321 | | |
322 | | You need to adapt these files to your own needs. Especially you may |
323 | | have to create sections named after your own printers, and change |
324 | | the administrator's email address which by default is |
325 | | root@localhost. Read and try to understand these two very well |
326 | | commented files, so that you'll encounter less problems later. |
327 | | |
328 | | The rest of the installation depends on your printing system : |
329 | | |
330 | | - CUPS Printing System : |
331 | | |
332 | | Once and for all : |
333 | | |
334 | | Create a symbolic link to the cupspykota backend |
335 | | in CUPS's backend directory : |
336 | | |
337 | | $ cd /usr/lib/cups/backend |
338 | | $ ln -s /usr/share/pykota/cupspykota cupspykota |
339 | | |
340 | | If you use CUPS v1.2 or higher, please do this as well : |
341 | | |
342 | | $ chmod 700 /usr/share/pykota/cupspykota |
343 | | |
344 | | This allows the cupspykota backend to support other |
345 | | backends which must be run as user root, like the |
346 | | lpd backend for example. |
347 | | |
348 | | Restart CUPS so that the new backend can be detected. |
349 | | |
350 | | $ /etc/init.d/cupsys restart |
351 | | |
352 | | for example under Debian, or any similar command depending |
353 | | on your operating system of choice. |
354 | | |
355 | | For new printers : |
356 | | |
357 | | Go to CUPS management interface (http://localhost:631) |
358 | | and choose the appropriate PyKota managed device depending |
359 | | on the type of printer you use. For example, if your |
360 | | printer is waiting on : |
361 | | |
362 | | socket://myprinter.example.com:9100 |
363 | | |
364 | | Then choose : |
365 | | |
366 | | cupspykota:socket://myprinter.example.com:9100 |
367 | | |
368 | | Configure your printer as usual. |
369 | | |
370 | | Now double check /etc/pykota/pykota.conf |
371 | | |
372 | | You should manually create a section named after the |
373 | | printer you've just added, unless you have set |
374 | | all options globally. |
375 | | |
376 | | The new pkturnkey command can help you with correct settings |
377 | | for your printers. To have pkturnkey give you some hints |
378 | | about what to put into pykota.conf for a particular |
379 | | print queue, just use its --doconf command line switch : |
380 | | |
381 | | $ pkturnkey --doconf TheNameOfThePrintQueue |
382 | | |
383 | | pkturnkey will try to tell you what is the best accounting |
384 | | method for each printer and will print some lines you'll |
385 | | just have to copy&paste in the appropriate sections in |
386 | | /etc/pykota/pykota.conf |
387 | | |
388 | | For more informations about what pkturnkey can do for you, |
389 | | see pkturnkey's manual page or use the --help command |
390 | | line switch : |
391 | | |
392 | | $ pkturnkey --help | less |
393 | | |
394 | | That's all. |
395 | | |
396 | | For existing print queues : |
397 | | |
398 | | You want to route the print queue through PyKota, |
399 | | and you can do this in several manners. |
400 | | |
401 | | $ pkprinters --add --cups TheNameOfThePrintQueue |
402 | | |
403 | | or |
404 | | |
405 | | if your printer's DeviceURI is something like : |
406 | | |
407 | | socket://myprinter.example.com:9100 |
408 | | |
409 | | then you can do this : |
410 | | |
411 | | $ pkprinters --add TheNameOfThePrintQueue |
412 | | $ lpadmin -p TheNameOfThePrintQueue \ |
413 | | -v cupspykota://socket://myprinter.example.com:9100 |
414 | | |
415 | | Finally, you could do it manually by modifying the |
416 | | the DeviceURI lines in /etc/cups/printers.conf : |
417 | | You would have to preprend 'cupspykota://' in front |
418 | | of what is already on these lines. For example, replace : |
419 | | |
420 | | DeviceURI socket://myprinter.example.com:9100 |
421 | | |
422 | | with : |
423 | | |
424 | | DeviceURI cupspykota://socket://myprinter.example.com:9100 |
425 | | |
426 | | or : |
427 | | |
428 | | DeviceURI cupspykota://socket://myprinter.example.com:9100 |
429 | | |
430 | | Save the file and restart CUPS for the changes to take effect. |
431 | | |
432 | | Here too, you may find it interesting to use the pkturnkey command as |
433 | | described above to help with manual configuration of the file |
434 | | /etc/pykota/pykota.conf |
435 | | |
436 | | - LPRng Printing System : |
437 | | |
438 | | IMPORTANT : This release of PyKota DOES NOT support LPRng. |
439 | | |
440 | | If you want to use PyKota with LPRng, you have to download |
441 | | an earlier release of PyKota, for example v1.22HotFix1. |
442 | | |
443 | | Now you can begin to populate the PyKota's database with printers, |
444 | | users and groups : |
445 | | |
446 | | Add printers and users to the quota system and set their quota values : |
447 | | |
448 | | You can either use pkturnkey, or do the same things manually by |
449 | | using the pkprinters, pkusers and edpykota command line tools : |
450 | | |
451 | | Create printers : |
452 | | |
453 | | $ pkprinters --help |
454 | | |
455 | | will tell you how to create, manage or delete printers and |
456 | | printers groups. |
457 | | |
458 | | $ pkprinters --add --charge 0.05 hp2100 |
459 | | |
460 | | would add the printer named hp2100 with a price per page |
461 | | of 0.05 unit. |
462 | | |
463 | | Create users : |
464 | | |
465 | | $ pkusers --add --limitby balance --balance 10.0 jerome |
466 | | |
467 | | would create user jerome and give him ten credits to spend |
468 | | on any printer. |
469 | | |
470 | | Finally create print quota entries : |
471 | | |
472 | | $ edpykota --add --printer hp2100 john paul george ringo |
473 | | |
474 | | This will create print quota entries for The Beatles on |
475 | | printer hp2100. The print quota entry holds the number of |
476 | | pages printed on a particular printer for a particular |
477 | | user, as well as optional page limits to be used instead |
478 | | of balance limits. See pkusers and edpykota's manual |
479 | | pages for details. |
480 | | |
481 | | Your users now should be able to print but not exceed their |
482 | | printing quota. |
483 | | |
484 | | To see printer quota usage on printer hp2100, you can use : |
485 | | |
486 | | $ repykota --printer hp2100 |
487 | | |
488 | | or : |
489 | | |
490 | | $ repykota |
491 | | |
492 | | which will print quota usage for all users on all printers, |
493 | | along with totals, if you are a PyKota Administator. If you are |
494 | | a regular user, only your own quota report will be produced. |
495 | | |
496 | | You can also use these commands : |
497 | | |
498 | | $ pkusers --list |
499 | | $ edpykota --list |
500 | | |
501 | | $ pkusers --list john paul george ringo |
502 | | $ edpykota --list --printer hp2100 john paul george ringo |
503 | | |
504 | | Quota reports are also available remotely by using the CGI script |
505 | | printquota.cgi provided in the cgi-bin/ subdirectory. You can |
506 | | also use the CSS stylesheet present in the stylesheets/ subdirectory |
507 | | and put it at your web server's DocumentRoot, to benefit from a nicer |
508 | | look, especially quota violations will appear in different colors. |
509 | | |
510 | | For additionnal security concerns, please give a look at the SECURITY |
511 | | file which is part of this software. |
512 | | |
513 | | To diagnose a problem when something doesn't work as expected, |
514 | | please read this FAQ entry : |
515 | | |
516 | | http://otrs.librelogiciel.com/otrs/public.pl?ID=2 |
517 | | |
518 | | ============================================================ |
519 | | |
520 | | Additionnal tools : |
521 | | ------------------- |
522 | | |
523 | | Some people have developped tools around PyKota, and make |
524 | | them available under the GNU General Public License : |
525 | | |
526 | | - Kanakorn Horsiritham developped phpPykotaAdmin which is |
527 | | a web based database independant administrative GUI, |
528 | | written in PHP. |
529 | | |
530 | | http://opensource.psu.ac.th/~kanakorn/mambo/ |
531 | | |
532 | | He was also kind enough to write an installation guide |
533 | | in english for CUPS and PyKota with phpPykotaAdmin on Fedora |
534 | | Core 3. You'll find this document on the same website. |
535 | | |
536 | | This great software currently at version 0.3 is a wonderful |
537 | | basis for an administrative GUI since it only depends on |
538 | | PyKota commands to be present to successfully manage |
539 | | PyKota's database. |
540 | | |
541 | | However this tool is very old now and doesn't work |
542 | | with more recent versions of PyKota. It could be |
543 | | a good starting point if you planned to develop such |
544 | | a web user interface though. |
545 | | |
546 | | Additionnal software will be listed here when they will be |
547 | | ready. |
548 | | |
549 | | ============================================================ |
550 | | |
551 | | Mailing list : |
552 | | -------------- |
553 | | |
554 | | A mailing list is dedicated to Pykota, you can subscribe to it |
555 | | or consult its archives at : |
556 | | |
557 | | http://cgi.librelogiciel.com/mailman/listinfo/pykota |
558 | | |
559 | | The mailing list is the preferred way to obtain support, because |
560 | | all members can help and can also benefit from the solutions |
561 | | proposed by other members. |
562 | | |
563 | | Posts by non-members are usually rejected. |
564 | | |
565 | | The mailing list language is english and only english. |
566 | | |
567 | | IRC : |
568 | | ----- |
569 | | |
570 | | You can also chat with us : |
571 | | |
572 | | /server irc.freenode.net |
573 | | /join #pykota |
574 | | |
575 | | Preferred language on this channel is english, but french |
576 | | is also accepted. Try to avoid exposing complex problems |
577 | | in french because english speaking people on the channel |
578 | | wouldn't benefit from the solutions. |
579 | | |
580 | | PyKota's main author is known as 'tamere' on IRC. |
581 | | |
582 | | ============================================================ |
583 | | |
584 | | Please e-mail bugs to the mailing list at : pykota@librelogiciel.com |
585 | | or to the main author at : alet@librelogiciel.com (Jerome Alet) |
| 43 | ============================================================================= |