Re: LPRng: accounting problem with 2 queues sharing 1 physical printer

[Rabellino Sergio]

Chang Kai Cheong wrote:
Hi all,

Our organisation plans to roll out duplex printing to users using existing
printers (HP8100).  I have set up another set of print queues for duplex
printing so that we can better keep the statistics and work out some
schemes to encourage users to use duplex printing, i.e., one physical
printer shared by two print queues (one for simplex printing, one for
duplex printing).  

On testing the environment, we encountered a print accounting problem.  
Our print accounting scripts utilize ifhp to get the page counter from the
printer and work well most of the time.  On encountering problem with
getting the print job pagecount, our script will save a copy of current
print status (username and counter) to a file and will bill back the user
on next print job.  This works pretty well with a printer and a simplex
queue as the page counter should not be altered until the next print job
is printing.  For two print queues sharing a printer, this would cause
problem as the print counter will keep on changing with print jobs on
counterpart queue (simple/duplex).  

Is there anyone implemented similar configuration without problem (2
queues sharing a printer accounting problem) or is there elegant way to
tell whether a print job is duplex if using a single print queue for both 
simplex and duplex?

Thanks for your help.
KC Chang


We have an Hp8100 printer shared by 2 queues, setting the accounting script option in ifhp, (my script is in attachment 
as an example) I save the accounting info in a mysql DB (through pipes for efficiency).

All things are right, no problems at all, and the system is running since '00.

Then with the accounting info saved in the DB, I can do any thing I can think...

Bye.
--
Dott. Sergio Rabellino
 Technical Staff
 Department of Computer Science
 University of Torino (Italy)
http://www.di.unito.it/~rabser
Tel. +39-0116706701
Fax. +39-011751603
#!/bin/sh
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
export PATH
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/mysql/lib/mysql
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
pages=
pid=
controlfile=
login=
host=
printer=
pagecounter=
format=
elapsed=
time=
accountingfile=
remoteaccount=

# Check for file 
if [ ! -f "/opt/LPRng/tmp/account.log" ]; then
   echo > /opt/LPRng/tmp/account.log
fi
if [ ! -f "/opt/LPRng/tmp/debug.log" ]; then
   echo > /opt/LPRng/tmp/debug.log
fi

command=$1
if [ "x$command" = "xstart" ]; then
  echo "COMMAND IS: $command" >>  /opt/LPRng/tmp/debug.log
fi

echo $0 $* 1>&2 >> /opt/LPRng/tmp/debug.log


while [ $# != 0 ];
do case "$1" in
 -b* ) pages=`echo "$1" | sed s/..//` ;;
 -q* ) pid=`echo "$1" | sed s/..//` ;;
 -k* ) controlfile=`echo "$1" | sed s/..//` ;;
 -n* ) login=`echo "$1" | sed s/..//` ;;
 -h* ) host=`echo "$1" | sed s/..//` ;;
 -P* ) printer=`echo "$1" | sed s/..//` ;;
 -p* ) pagecounter=`echo "$1" | sed s/..//` ;;
 -F* ) format=`echo "$1" | sed s/..//` ;;
 -Z* ) zoption=`echo "$1" |  sed s/..//'`;;
 -T* ) time=`echo "$1" | sed 's/..//'` ;;
 -R* ) remoteaccount=`echo "$1" | sed 's/..//'` ;;
 -*  ) ;;
 *   ) accountingfile=$1;;
 esac;
 shift;
done

if [ "x$pages" != "x"  ] ; then
   /bin/echo "INSERT INTO stampe (user,pages,printername) VALUES ( \"$login\", $pages, 
\"$printer\" );" | /opt/LPRng/scripts/tolower >> /opt/LPRng/tmp/account.log
   #SAVE accounting info in the DB
   /opt/LPRng/scripts/accounting_mysql $login $pages $printer >> 
/opt/LPRng/tmp/debug.log
   if [ "x$remoteaccount" != "x" ]; then
        /bin/echo "Job Printed on $printer: $pages pages" | 
/opt/LPRng/scripts/notifyWin32.pl $remoteaccount >> /opt/LPRng/tmp/debug.log
      else
        /bin/echo "Job Printed on $printer: $pages pages" | 
/opt/LPRng/scripts/notifyWin32.pl $host >> /opt/LPRng/tmp/debug.log
   fi
else
  if [ "x$time" != "x" ]; then
   # This is a fileend call, with no pages printed !
   /bin/echo "Printing ERROR from job ( \"$login\", \"$printer\" )" >> 
/opt/LPRng/tmp/debug.log
   #SAmba message
   /opt/LPRng/scripts/advertise $login $pages $printer >> /opt/LPRng/tmp/debug.log
   if [ "x$remoteaccount" != "x" ]; then
      /bin/echo "Job Failed on $printer, contact Technicians a.s.a.p." | 
/opt/LPRng/scripts/notifyWin32.pl $remoteaccount >> /opt/LPRng/tmp/debug.log
      else
        /bin/echo "Job Failed on $printer, contact Technicians a.s.a.p." | 
/opt/LPRng/scripts/notifyWin32.pl $host >> /opt/LPRng/tmp/debug.log
   fi
  fi
fi

exit 0