samba - Dec 2002 - PDF printing problem - can't find Samba's spool file?

I'm still struggling with this, and people keep asking me why the PDF
printer still isn't working...does anyone have any suggestions?

-----Original Message-----
From: David Brodbeck 
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 4:09 PM
To: 'samba@samba.org'
Subject: PDF printing problem - can't find Samba's file?


I'm sure this is something simple, but I can't figure it out.

After a printing system upgrade, my old PDF-writer script (which acted as an
lp input filter) stopped working.  I took this as an opportunity to rewrite
it to work straight from Samba.  But I'm having an odd problem -- I
can't
find Samba's job file.  Here's the entry:

[pdf2]
        path = /export/spool
        printable = yes
        guest ok = yes
        print command = /usr/local/bin/mkpdf2.pl %s %U %I >>/tmp/pdf.log
2>&1
        lpq command         lprm command 
I had the script print out the parameters it got.  It's getting filenames
like:
smbprn.000413.8dCLi2

Note that there's no path on the front of that filename, like I expected
with %s.  And sure enough, the file isn't in /export/spool.  In fact, I
can't find it *anywhere*.  Any ideas where it's going?

----------

David Brodbeck, System Administrator
InterClean Equipment, Inc.
Ypsilanti, Michigan
davidb@mail.interclean.com
(734) 975-2967 x221

Dave Brodbeck wrote on Samba-digest:
> Message: 21
> From: David Brodbeck <DavidB@mail.interclean.com>
> To: "'samba@samba.org'" <samba@samba.org>
> Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 09:06:45 -0500
> Subject: [Samba] PDF printing problem - can't find Samba's spool
file?
> 
> I'm still struggling with this, and people keep asking me why the PDF
> printer still isn't working...does anyone have any suggestions?
Hi, Dave,

I guess anybody here on the list who is slightly interested in printing thought
when reading your first mail: "Well, if Dave is System Admin, he'll
surely
know *which* printing system he upgraded, and to *which version*. If he
doesn't want to tell us -- we can't help him. Maybe he realizes the gap
in the info he's provided and and he'll deliver it in an afterglow.
Let's
wait until he comes forward with it..."

Cheers,
Kurt.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Brodbeck 
> Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 4:09 PM
> To: 'samba@samba.org'
> Subject: PDF printing problem - can't find Samba's file?
> 
> 
> I'm sure this is something simple, but I can't figure it out.
> 
> After a printing system upgrade, my old PDF-writer script (which acted as
an
> lp input filter) stopped working.  I took this as an opportunity to rewrite
> it to work straight from Samba.  But I'm having an odd problem -- I
can't
> find Samba's job file.  Here's the entry:
> 
> [pdf2]
>         path = /export/spool
>         printable = yes
>         guest ok = yes
>         print command = /usr/local/bin/mkpdf2.pl %s %U %I
>>/tmp/pdf.log
> 2>&1
>         lpq command >         lprm command > 
> I had the script print out the parameters it got.  It's getting
filenames
> like:
> smbprn.000413.8dCLi2
> 
> Note that there's no path on the front of that filename, like I
expected
> with %s.  And sure enough, the file isn't in /export/spool.  In fact, I
> can't find it *anywhere*.  Any ideas where it's going?
> 
> ----------
> 
> David Brodbeck, System Administrator
> InterClean Equipment, Inc.
> Ypsilanti, Michigan
> davidb@mail.interclean.com
> (734) 975-2967 x221

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kurt Pfeifle [mailto:kpfeifle@danka.de]
> I guess anybody here on the list who is slightly interested in printing
thought
> when reading your first mail: "Well, if Dave is System Admin, 
he'll
surely
> know *which* printing system he upgraded, and to *which  version*. If he
> doesn't want to tell us -- we can't help him. Maybe he  realizes
the gap
> in the info he's provided and and he'll deliver it in an afterglow.
Let's
> wait until he comes forward with it..."
If you had actually looked at the information I posted, you'd have noticed
that I had decided to do what everyone else seems to be doing with their PDF
printers, and avoided the printing system altogether.  I didn't post that
information because it didn't seem relevent to the question.
> > [pdf2]
> >         path = /export/spool
> >         printable = yes
> >         guest ok = yes
> >         print command = /usr/local/bin/mkpdf2.pl %s %U %I 
> >>/tmp/pdf.log
> > 2>&1
> >         lpq command > >         lprm command 
This won't go through the printing system at all, will it, since I've
specified a 'print command' entry?  My problem is that Samba never seems
to
create the job file in the /export/spool directory.  It just isn't there
when my script is called by Samba.

However, if the information will satisfy your sarcasm reflex, I was
previously using LPRng, but a RedHat security update seems to have changed
me over to CUPS 1.1.14.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ben Griffith [mailto:bgriffit@email.unc.edu]
> It may be a "cups thing".
> If smb.conf has printing = cups, any manually set print 
> commands are ignored.
Yeah, I thought of that too, so I commented out the printing = cups line
(actually, the whole generic [printers] section.)  It still didn't work,
though.
> Are there any hints in the cups logs?
The errors in the CUPS logs are all from before I made that change, and have
to do with it being unhappy with my old PDF printer (which was an lpd input
filter).  I don't get any CUPS errors with the current configuration.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ben Griffith [mailto:bgriffit@email.unc.edu]
> It may be a "cups thing".
> If smb.conf has printing = cups, any manually set print 
> commands are ignored.
One other thing -- I know my manually set 'print command' is being
executed
because I get debugging output from my script.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kurt Pfeifle [mailto:kpfeifle@danka.de]
> *Seems*...
> 
> I tell you what mine is doing: It *uses* the printing system. 
Okay.  I know the one Linux Journal talked about a while back did not -- it
was just a shell script that was run as a 'print command'.  This has
some
advantages, one being it's a lot easier to send a popup notification, since
you already have the client IP.  My old script, the one that was an lpd
input filter, had to go through some gyrations to figure out the IP
associated with the username that the job was submitted under.
> My printing
> system is CUPS, the most flexible one of them all. I use a bash shell
> script which is made to work as a CUPS "backend".
This sounds interesting, and I may look into it if I can't figure this out.
I was hoping to get rid of the added complication of the printing system
altogether, since it shouldn't really be necessary for what I'm trying
to
do.  There are NO physical printers on the system, so running a full-blown
spooling and printing system doesn't get me anything but configuration
headaches and another running service for someone to exploit.  And frankly,
editing /etc/printcap gives me a raging headache. ;)
> > I didn't post that
> > information because it didn't seem relevent to the question.
> 
> You yourself indicated that it is relevant because you said after
> the upgrade your script stopped working...
Right, but that script isn't the same one I'm trying to use now.  That
script was an lpd input filter, linked in through /etc/printcap.  This one
is run directly from Samba.  It does work, except for the fact that Samba
never creates a temporary file with the print job in it.  This makes me
skeptical that CUPS will work, either -- where would it get the data from?
I know under LPRng, Samba simply created a temporary file, then called lpr
on it.  That won't work if there's no temporary file created.
> And, BTW, you shouldn't call people any names, who are giving their
> private time for free to help people who seem to have 
> problems in their profession -- or be prepared to get no answer at all.
I'm sorry, but if someone is rude to me I tend to return the favor.  You may
want to go back and look at the tone of voice you used in your original
reply to me.

I *do* appreciate the help, but I don't appreciate being treated like an
idiot in the process.
> * Samba has a great little utility, which lets you increase
>    and decrease the debuglevel "on the fly", without editing
>    and reloading the smb.conf or stopping and starting the
>    daemon:
> 
>     "smbcontrol smbd debuglevel"  # tells you the current
debuglevel
>     "smbcontrol smbd debug 3"     # set the debuglevel to 3
Good idea.  I will give this a try after business hours.  Right now there's
so much traffic on the system that the debug output is overwhelming at level
3.

I'll keep your other suggestions, and use them if I can't get this
working
as-is.  I really feel like it shouldn't be necessary to build a whole CUPS
configuration just to do this, though.  Other examples I've seen for
creating PDF printers didn't.

>Cheers,
>Kurt   [ who was missing a comment about his previous hints and questions
>          regarding the "printing = cups" and "printcap =
cups" settings
>          and the question if your smbd is linked against libcups?  ]
>
Is libcups related to hiccups?

Sorry.

--
Bob Crandell
Assured Computing
When you need to be sure.
Voice 541-689-9159
FAX   240-371-7237
bob@assuredcomp.com
www.assuredcomp.com
Eugene, Or. 97402

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kurt Pfeifle [mailto:kpfeifle@danka.de]
> > Good idea.  I will give this a try after business hours.  
> Right now there's
> > so much traffic on the system that the debug output is 
> overwhelming at level
> > 3.
Okay, I tried this and didn't see anything that (to me) looked like a
smoking gun.  It's definately running my script, and with the options I
expect, but there's no spool file being created.  I don't see any errors
related to printing.  If you want I can post the debug output.
> No, it isn't. If your clients don't run CUPS, you'd have to 
> upgrade them
> to CUPS to reap the fullest of benefits from that approach 
> (PDF backend
> script on the server). If your clients run CUPS anyway, then it is the
> most easy and complete approach. If you don't have any 
> physical printer
> in your net served by CUPS, you can well stick with what you plan.
Right...currently all the clients are just Windows NT machines printing
through SMB.
> Please tell us the content of the smb.conf file (without comments),
[global]
        kernel oplocks = false
        workgroup = INTERCLEAN
        security = domain
        server string = Main file server (Samba %v)
        encrypt passwords = true
        name resolve order = lmhosts wins bcast host
        stat cache = false
        winbind uid = 10000-20000
        winbind gid = 10000-20000
        password server = SERVERDELL2200
        winbind separator = +
        create mask = 701
        directory mask = 700
        template homedir = /export/home/%U
        wins server = 152.160.178.23
        map hidden = yes
        dos filemode = yes
        printer admin = @"INTERCLEAN+Domain Admins"
[Admin]
        path = /export
        browsable = no
        force user = root
        valid users = @"INTERCLEAN+Domain Admins"
[pdf2]
        path = /export/spool
        printable = yes
        guest ok = yes
        print command = /usr/local/bin/mkpdf2.pl %s %U %I >>/tmp/pdf.log
2>&1
        lpq command         lprm command [print$]
        path = /export/printers
        browsable = yes
        read only = yes
        write list = @"INTERCLEAN+Domain Admins"
[PDF-Output]
        comment = Output directory for PDF converter.
        path = /export/pdf
        writable = yes
        printable = no
[homes]
        writable = yes
        printable = no
        browsable = no
[Downloads]
        comment = Downloaded files
        path = /export/downloads
        writable = yes
        printable = no
[IT-Group]
        comment = Information Technology Group
        path = /export/it-group
        writable = yes
        printable = no
[Engineering]
        comment = Design and Build Division
        path = /export/engineering
        writable = yes
        printable = no
[xrefs]
        comment = AutoCAD xrefs
        path = /export/xrefs
        writable = yes
        printable = no
[Shared]
        comment = Files shared between departments
        path = /export/shared
        writable = yes
        printable = no
[Sales]
        comment = Sales & Marketing Division
        path = /export/sales
        writable = yes
        printable = no
[Financial]
        comment = Financial
        path = /export/financial
        writable = yes
        printable = no
[HR]
        comment = Human Resources files
        path = /export/hr
        writable = yes
        printable = no
[Management]
        comment = Management files
        path = /export/management
        writable = yes
        printable = no
[CDs]
        comment = Install CD-ROMs
        path = /export/CDs
        writable = yes
        printable = no
[PLC]
        comment = PLC Programs
        path = "/export/engineering/R&D/Controls/PLC Programs"
        writable = yes
        printable = no


This is such a basic problem that I feel like there must be something stupid
I've done that I'm not seeing, but I'll be damned if I can figure
out what
it is.  I've even tried running 'find' against the filename I get
from my
debug output to see if maybe the file is just going somewhere weird, but it
never turns up.
> Only if you tell us all your other settings will someone be able to
> guess why your Samba spool directory doesn't seem to get the jobs,
> or why your custom print command isn't executed (questions coming to
> mind are "What's in the [general] section?"; "What's
in the [printers]
> section?" etc.)
The custom command *is* executed.  That was one of the first things I
checked.  I know it's being executed because I get debug output from it in
/tmp/pdf.log (note the redirection in the config file above.)  Also, I
confirmed this by looking at the debug level 3 logs.  Right now the only
problem I'm having is the absence of the spool file.  If I can just figure
out where that's going everything else should fall into place.
> Cheers,
> Kurt   [ who was missing a comment about his previous hints 
> and questions
>           regarding the "printing = cups" and "printcap = 
> cups" settings
>           and the question if your smbd is linked against libcups?  ]
Sorry, snipped it by accident.  Samba is *not* linked against libcups.  (I
do *have* libcups, but it's possible I don't have the header files.)