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List:       lprng
Subject:    Re: LPRng: Questions about accounting
From:       Rick Cochran <rcc2 () cornell ! edu>
Date:       2005-01-28 19:41:58
Message-ID: 41FA9586.7030308 () cornell ! edu
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Toby,

I think you're out of luck.

But how about this for a modest proposal:

Many recent printer models (what I say will apply to the Xerox Phaser series 
since that's what I use) keep detailed job accounting data.  This data is 
available as arrays via SNMP.  If LPRng sends the jobs with numeric indexes as 
user names, then one could possibly set up an SNMP trap (I know nothing about 
this) which would report job accounting information to your server whenever a 
job finished.  You could use the numeric index to verify that you were getting 
the data for the right job.

This would eliminate the need to wait between jobs.

Let me know when you get it working.  :-)

-Rick

Toby Blake wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> This goes back to a discussion of Jan 16 2004 with a subject of "I'm
> lost with accounting", in particular I'm replying to a post made by
> Jamie Jennings...
> 
> 
>>Also, you need to adjust the following lines in ifhp.conf to have
>>appropriate settings for your environment. These lines affect how
>>pagecounting will be done. 'pagecount_poll_start' specifies how many
>>times to check the page counter when a job starts. In my case, I
>>have it check once (ie. just get the number). Then it continues
>>polling the pagecounter at 15 second intervals
>>('pagecount_interval') until it gets 2 ('pagecount_poll_end')
>>consecutive values that match. Again, adjust these values based on
>>testing with your printers (ie. the speed of your printers and the
>>amount of delay you want/need between jobs).
> 
> 
>>##pagecount_poll=5
>>pagecount_poll_end=2
>>pagecount_poll_start=1
>>pagecount_interval=15
>>pagecount_timeout=0
> 
> 
> I've been experimenting with various values for these variables with
> an HP2300.  I'm using ifhp as an output filter *only*, purely in an
> attempt to get it to write start/end pagecounts to the acct file.
> 
> However, on experimenting with the above variables, I find the results
> to be unsatisfactory purely on the grounds that to get accurate start
> and end pagecounts, I have to slow down the printing process to an
> unnacceptable degree.  For instance, I've found that I have to have a
> pagecount_poll_start value of 2, as otherwise it will sometimes come
> back with a value of 0.  Also, I seem to need a pagecount_interval of
> at least 10 and a pagecount_poll_end value of at least 3 for the end
> pagecount to be logged correctly.  All this means that every print job
> has a delay of at least 10 seconds at the start and at least 20
> seconds at the end.  This is unacceptable for a busy printer.
> 
> I was wondering if other people have come up across this kind of
> problem and what they do to overcome it?
> 
> Cheers
> Toby Blake
> University of Edinburgh
> 
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> If you have major problems,  call Patrick Powell or one of the friendly
> staff at Astart Technologies for help.  Astart also does support for LPRng.
> Also, check the Web Page at: http://www.lprng.com for any announcements.
> Astart Technologies  (LPRng - Print Spooler http://www.lprng.com)
> 6741 Convoy Court
> San Diego, CA 92111
> 858-874-6543 FAX 858-751-2435
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
|Rick Cochran                                   phone: 607-255-7618|
|Cornell CIT - Systems & Operations - Net-Print   FAX: 607-255-8521|
|730 Rhodes Hall, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853        email: rcc2@cornell.edu|

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The address you post from or your Reply-To address MUST be your
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or lprng-digest-requests) with the word 'help' in the body.
To subscribe to a list with name LIST,  send mail to majordomo@lprng.com
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subscribe LIST <mailaddr>       |  subscribe lprng-digest myname@host.org
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If you have major problems,  call Patrick Powell or one of the friendly
staff at Astart Technologies for help.  Astart also does support for LPRng.
Also, check the Web Page at: http://www.lprng.com for any announcements.
Astart Technologies  (LPRng - Print Spooler http://www.lprng.com)
6741 Convoy Court
San Diego, CA 92111
858-874-6543 FAX 858-751-2435
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