[Samba] Printer Passwords and Print Auditing

[daniel.jarboe at custserv.com]

These both seem better left to the print subsystem.

> 1) I've been trying to password the use of my two laser 
> printers so that
> printing has to be assisted by my computer attendant (we are 
> losing too much
> paper and toner to people clicking print five to ten times).  
> But, I have
> not figured out how to force passwords on my samba printer (HP LJ1200
> running under cupsd and samba).  Is it possible for me to require
> administrator intervention?

Don't know about cups, but in LPRng there is a facility to have all jobs
that enter a queue held, and an administrator can release whichever
he/she chooses.  No doubt cups has something equivalent.  Also, some
printers support this kind of thing themselves (enter a 4 digit pin to
release a job, or somesuch).

> 2) I would like to have a page based audit of printing as 
> well.  Does samba
> support that?  I've also been curious to do a "pixel" based 
> audit whereby I
> can estimate toner consumption.

Again, this is probably better left to the print subsystem, which
handles accounting, etc.  I imagine you'd be looking at some kind of
filter to interpret the PCL (or whatever) data the user submitted, and
write the accounting info wherever you or cups want it.


~ Daniel










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