# $Id: README 3201 2007-07-09 19:51:01Z jerome $
PyKota - Print Quotas for CUPS and LPRng
(c) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Jerome Alet <alet@librelogiciel.com>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
====================================================================
READ SPECIAL LICENSING AND REDISTRIBUTION TERMS IN THE FILE 'LICENSE'
====================================================================
PyKota features :
-----------------
http://www.pykota.com/software/pykota/features/
====================================================================
Planned features are described in the TODO file.
Actually three (or an infinity of) page accounting methods are
implemented :
- The 'hardware' method consists in querying the printer (via SNMP
or Netatalk or any other method of your choice) for its internal
pages counter.
This is done both at the beginning and at the end of a
print job. The counters difference is then used to
decrease the user's account balance or increase his quota usage.
- The 'software' method consists in delegating the computation of the
job's size in number of pages to any external command of your choice.
The command can read the job's data from its standard input and MUST
output the job's size on its standard output. Changes to the user
account are reported immediately. PyKota by default internally
uses the code from pkpgcounter which can handle
several Page Description Languages : DSC compliant and binary PostScript,
PDF, PCLXL (aka PCL6), PCL3/4/5, ESC/P2, DVI, TIFF, OpenDocument,
Zenographics ZjStream, Samsung QPDL,Samsung SPL1, and plain text.
Of course this means you have to install pkpgcounter if you want to
use the default PDL parser.
- The 'ink' method consists in using pkpgcounter's code to compute
how much of each page is covered by ink in each color of a particular
colorspace chosen between CMYK, CMY, RGB, and BW (grayscale).
These values are then summed up together and multiplied by a set
of coefficients defined in PyKota's configuration files.
PyKota is known to work with most printers, excepted GDI ones (Windows
only). At least one of the accounting methods above should work
for you. If it's not the case, please report the problem : tell us
the exact brand and model of the printer, if possible the driver used,
and send some test files.
============================================================
SUPPORT CONTRACTS:
==================
You can now purchase 8x5x365@NextBusinessDay Technical
Support Contracts from us. The yearly fee is computed with
the following formula :
(100.0 * NbPrintServers) + (2.5 * NbPrinters) + (0.04 * NbUsers) EUROS.
This fee includes the VAT, and a free subscription to Official
PyKota packages.
Please send an email to alet@librelogiciel.com if you're
interested in purchasing such a contract.
Remember that purchasing a support contract for Free Software like PyKota
is a great way to show your appreciation for the work already being done
on this project, and will help to improve this software in the future.
============================================================
INSTALLATION:
=============
NB :
====
PyKota's documentation is available as DocBook SGML sources
files in the pykota/docs directory. If you obtained an
Official package, in the same directory you'll also find
the documentation in HTML and PDF formats. Otherwise you
have to compile it into HTML or PDF yourself by using
the appropriate tools as installed on your system.
PyKota's collaborative documentation is available from :
http://www.pykota.com/wiki/
You may learn more about PyKota, if it fits your own organization,
its internal working, and some potential performance drawbacks and
how to avoid them, in a document created by Ryan Suarez at :
http://archive.macosxlabs.org/forum/webcrossing_archive/documentation/Pykota_and_CUPS/Pykota_and_CUPS.html
You may also find the following document interesting :
http://es.tldp.org/Tutoriales/doc-openldap-samba-cups-python/
This document, written in Spanish by Sergio Gonzalez Gonzalez,
describes the integration of PyKota into an OpenLDAP + Samba
+ CUPS installation. Even for people who can't read spanish
this document is really interesting, and contains lots of
screenshots.
Prerequisite :
--------------
See :
http://www.pykota.com/wiki/Dependencies
for an up-to-date list, or see below (maybe not up-to-date) :
You need to have the following tools installed on the CUPS Server :
- CUPS (http://www.cups.org)
- Python v2.3 or higher (http://www.python.org)
- eGenix' mxDateTime Python extension (http://www.egenix.com)
- The pkpgcounter command line tool, version 1.56 or higher. This
tool is now mandatory for PyKota to work.
(http://www.pykota.com/software/pkpgcounter)
- The pkipplib Python library (http://www.pykota.com/software/pkipplib)
- The JAXML Python module to be able to dump datas in the XML format.
(http://www.librelogiciel.com/software/)
- The Python-PAM module if you need the pknotify command to be able
to check usernames and passwords. (http://www.pangalactic.org/PyPAM)
- The Python-SNMP module to query printers for their page counter.
(http://pysnmp.sourceforge.net)
IMPORTANT : version 3.4.2 or higher is REQUIRED.
Versions 2.x won't work. Versions 4.x now work (tested with v4.1.5a).
- The Python-OSD module to use the graphical print quota reminder.
(http://repose.cx/pyosd/)
- The Python-chardet module to autodetect user's character set when
printing. (http://chardet.feedparser.org)
- SNMP tools (specifically the snmpget command) if you prefer to
use your own script to request query printers.
(http://www.net-snmp.org)
- Netatalk (specifically the pap command) if you plan to
request your printer's lifetime page counter via AppleTalk.
(http://netatalk.sourceforge.net)
- The ReportLab Python module (http://www.reportlab.org) if you want
to have PyKota generate nice banners for you.
- The Python Imaging Library (aka PIL) module
(http://www.pythonware.com/downloads) if you want to have PyKota
generate nice banners for you.
- PostgreSQL's PygreSQL Python extension and the PostgreSQL client
libraries if you plan to use PostgreSQL as the database backend.
(http://www.postgresql.org and http://www.pygreql.org)
or
- python-ldap Python module and the OpenLDAP client libraries
if you plan to use an LDAP server as the database backend.
(http://www.openldap.org and http://python-ldap.sourceforge.net)
or
- SQLite v3.2.7 and the SQLite libraries if you plan to use SQLite
as the database backend (http://www.sqlite.org). You also need the
PySQLite module v2.0.5 or higher (http://www.pysqlite.org)
or
- The MySQL-python bindings.
IMPORTANT: If you are using MySQL 4.1, then MySQL-python must be
version 1.2 or greater. Version 1.0 does not work correctly with 4.1.
On Intel i386 architecture, and for performance reasons, it is
strongly suggested that you install the Python accelerator Psyco,
available at :
http://psyco.sourceforge.net
Under Debian :
$ apt-get install python-psyco
Other architectures may be supported as well in the future, check
this on Psyco's website.
Installing Psyco is not mandatory, but it will speedup PCL5 parsing
by almost 3 times. PostScript and PDF parsing can also benefit,
but in an almost unnoticeable manner since this part of the code
is already optimal. For PCL5 this is a completely different matter,
and if you install Psyco you will never regret it !
Same remark applies for PCL6 (aka PCLXL) : the parser is completely
different, but the performance gain with Psyco is impressive.
You may also benefit from having the following tools installed to
deal with some printers :
- npadmin
- netcat
- ghostscript
You need to have the following tools installed on the database
server :
- PostgreSQL (http://www.postgresql.org)
or
- OpenLDAP, or any other LDAP server (http://www.openldap.org)
or
- SQLite, v3.2.7 or higher (http://www.sqlite.org).
Beware : with SQLite the database server and the print
servers MUST be the very same machine.
or
- MySQL 4.1 or higher. 5.x is recommended.
This list of prerequisite software may change in the future, when
PyKota will support more functionnalities you will be given
alternatives.
Of course the Print Server and the database server can be the
very same machine if you've got a tiny network, or you can have
multiple Print Servers all storing their quotas on the same database
server if you've got a bigger network. (NB : with SQLite, the database
can't be shared between several print servers)
Hint :
------
- The Debian GNU/Linux distribution is to our knowledge the
easiest distribution to install PyKota on, because almost all
of PyKota dependencies are already included, excepted
the pkpgcounter utility which for now have to be downloaded
and installed separately, and maybe one or two other dependencies,
depending on the version of Debian you are using.
We recommend you to use Debian's Etch distribution or
more recent. PyKota works fine on Sarge, but some additional
dependencies are missing in Sarge and have to be installed
manually.
Then :
------
Download the latest PyKota version from the Subversion tree :
$ svn co svn://svn.librelogiciel.com/pykota/trunk pykota
You can now check if the dependencies are correct by typing :
$ python checkdeps.py
An availability report for all the software needed by PyKota
will be displayed : you'll have to install the missing
software if you want PyKota to work correctly.
To install the software, just type :
$ python setup.py install
You may need to be logged in with sufficient privileges (e.g. root)
If you use Debian or Ubuntu, and want to use PostgreSQL as the
database backend, just type :
$ pksetup debian
or :
$ pksetup ubuntu
and follow the instructions to install PyKota in interactive mode, then
skip the remaining of the section below.
Otherwise, you have to setup manually :
Create a system user for PyKota :
$ adduser --system --group --home /etc/pykota --gecos PyKota pykota
Put the user your printing system is run as in the pykota system group :
$ adduser lp pykota
NB : on our system, the CUPS printing system runs as system user 'lp'.
Please adapt this to your own system.
Go to the initscripts/ subdirectory of PyKota's sources, and choose
the appropriate storage backend for your configuration. Read carefully
the associated README file, modify the initialization script to
change the passwords, or, in the case of the LDAP backend, adapt it
to your own LDAP DIT, and execute the initialization script
to create an empty PyKota database. Upgrade scripts may be
provided as well. NB : if you use PostgreSQL, a good way to
make PyKota work first time is to modify PostgreSQL's pg_hba.conf
to allow the 'trust' database connection mode. However once PyKota
works it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO CHANGE THIS TO A MORE SECURE
VALUE. Look at the SECURITY document, PyKota's Official documentation
and PostgreSQL's documentation for details on this subject.
Copy the conf/pykota.conf.sample and conf/pykotadmin.conf.sample
sample configuration files to ~pykota/pykota.conf and
~pykota/pykotadmin.conf
The installation script usually copies these files into /usr/share/pykota
NB : You can move PyKota's configuration files elsewhere, they will
be searched first in user pykota's home directory, then in /etc/pykota.
You need to adapt these files to your own needs. Especially you may
have to create sections named after your own printers, and change
the administrator's email address which by default is
root@localhost. Read and try to understand these two very well
commented files, so that you'll encounter less problems later.
The rest of the installation depends on your printing system :
- CUPS Printing System :
Once and for all :
Create a symbolic link to the cupspykota backend
in CUPS's backend directory :
$ cd /usr/lib/cups/backend
$ ln -s /usr/share/pykota/cupspykota cupspykota
If you use CUPS v1.2 or higher, please do this as well :
$ chmod 700 /usr/share/pykota/cupspykota
This allows the cupspykota backend to support other
backends which must be run as user root, like the
lpd backend for example.
Restart CUPS so that the new backend can be detected.
$ /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
for example under Debian, or any similar command depending
on your operating system of choice.
For new printers :
Go to CUPS management interface (http://localhost:631)
and choose the appropriate PyKota managed device depending
on the type of printer you use. For example, if your
printer is waiting on :
socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
Then choose :
cupspykota:socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
Configure your printer as usual.
Now double check /etc/pykota/pykota.conf
You should manually create a section named after the
printer you've just added, unless you have set
all options globally.
The new pkturnkey command can help you with correct settings
for your printers. To have pkturnkey give you some hints
about what to put into pykota.conf for a particular
print queue, just use its --doconf command line switch :
$ pkturnkey --doconf TheNameOfThePrintQueue
pkturnkey will try to tell you what is the best accounting
method for each printer and will print some lines you'll
just have to copy&paste in the appropriate sections in
/etc/pykota/pykota.conf
For more informations about what pkturnkey can do for you,
see pkturnkey's manual page or use the --help command
line switch :
$ pkturnkey --help | less
That's all.
For existing print queues :
You want to route the print queue through PyKota,
and you can do this in several manners.
$ pkprinters --add --cups TheNameOfThePrintQueue
or
if your printer's DeviceURI is something like :
socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
then you can do this :
$ pkprinters --add TheNameOfThePrintQueue
$ lpadmin -p TheNameOfThePrintQueue \
-v cupspykota://socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
Finally, you could do it manually by modifying the
the DeviceURI lines in /etc/cups/printers.conf :
You would have to preprend 'cupspykota://' in front
of what is already on these lines. For example, replace :
DeviceURI socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
with :
DeviceURI cupspykota://socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
or :
DeviceURI cupspykota://socket://myprinter.example.com:9100
Save the file and restart CUPS for the changes to take effect.
Here too, you may find it interesting to use the pkturnkey command as
described above to help with manual configuration of the file
/etc/pykota/pykota.conf
- LPRng Printing System :
IMPORTANT : This release of PyKota DOES NOT support LPRng.
If you want to use PyKota with LPRng, you have to download
an earlier release of PyKota, for example v1.22HotFix1.
Now you can begin to populate the PyKota's database with printers,
users and groups :
Add printers and users to the quota system and set their quota values :
You can either use pkturnkey, or do the same things manually by
using the pkprinters, pkusers and edpykota command line tools :
Create printers :
$ pkprinters --help
will tell you how to create, manage or delete printers and
printers groups.
$ pkprinters --add --charge 0.05 hp2100
would add the printer named hp2100 with a price per page
of 0.05 unit.
Create users :
$ pkusers --add --limitby balance --balance 10.0 jerome
would create user jerome and give him ten credits to spend
on any printer.
Finally create print quota entries :
$ edpykota --add --printer hp2100 john paul george ringo
This will create print quota entries for The Beatles on
printer hp2100. The print quota entry holds the number of
pages printed on a particular printer for a particular
user, as well as optional page limits to be used instead
of balance limits. See pkusers and edpykota's manual
pages for details.
Your users now should be able to print but not exceed their
printing quota.
To see printer quota usage on printer hp2100, you can use :
$ repykota --printer hp2100
or :
$ repykota
which will print quota usage for all users on all printers,
along with totals, if you are a PyKota Administator. If you are
a regular user, only your own quota report will be produced.
You can also use these commands :
$ pkusers --list
$ edpykota --list
$ pkusers --list john paul george ringo
$ edpykota --list --printer hp2100 john paul george ringo
Quota reports are also available remotely by using the CGI script
printquota.cgi provided in the cgi-bin/ subdirectory. You can
also use the CSS stylesheet present in the stylesheets/ subdirectory
and put it at your web server's DocumentRoot, to benefit from a nicer
look, especially quota violations will appear in different colors.
For additionnal security concerns, please give a look at the SECURITY
file which is part of this software.
To diagnose a problem when something doesn't work as expected,
please read this FAQ entry :
http://otrs.librelogiciel.com/otrs/public.pl?ID=2
============================================================
Additionnal tools :
-------------------
Some people have developped tools around PyKota, and make
them available under the GNU General Public License :
- Kanakorn Horsiritham developped phpPykotaAdmin which is
a web based database independant administrative GUI,
written in PHP.
http://opensource.psu.ac.th/~kanakorn/mambo/
He was also kind enough to write an installation guide
in english for CUPS and PyKota with phpPykotaAdmin on Fedora
Core 3. You'll find this document on the same website.
This great software currently at version 0.3 is a wonderful
basis for an administrative GUI since it only depends on
PyKota commands to be present to successfully manage
PyKota's database.
However this tool is very old now and doesn't work
with more recent versions of PyKota. It could be
a good starting point if you planned to develop such
a web user interface though.
Additionnal software will be listed here when they will be
ready.
============================================================
Mailing list :
--------------
A mailing list is dedicated to Pykota, you can subscribe to it
or consult its archives at :
http://cgi.librelogiciel.com/mailman/listinfo/pykota
The mailing list is the preferred way to obtain support, because
all members can help and can also benefit from the solutions
proposed by other members.
Posts by non-members are usually rejected.
The mailing list language is english and only english.
IRC :
-----
You can also chat with us :
/server irc.freenode.net
/join #pykota
Preferred language on this channel is english, but french
is also accepted. Try to avoid exposing complex problems
in french because english speaking people on the channel
wouldn't benefit from the solutions.
PyKota's main author is known as 'tamere' on IRC.
============================================================
Please e-mail bugs to the mailing list at : pykota@librelogiciel.com
or to the main author at : alet@librelogiciel.com (Jerome Alet)