[thirdparty/cups.git] / doc / help / accounting.html

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<!-- SECTION: Getting Started -->
<HEAD>
	<TITLE>Printer Accounting Basics</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<P>CUPS supports a variety of printer accounting schemes. Aside from the
built-in <A HREF="#QUOTAS">quota</A> and <A HREF="#PAGELOG">page logging</A>
support, there are several third-party solutions that can be found on
<A HREF="http://www.cups.org/">www.cups.org</A>.</P>


<H2 CLASS="title"><A NAME="QUOTAS">Quota Support</A></H2>

<P>CUPS supports page and size-based quotas for each printer.
The quotas are tracked individually for each user, but a single set of
limits applies to all users for a partiuclar printer. For example, you
can limit every user to 5 pages per day on an expensive printer, but
you cannot limit every user except Johnny.</P>

<P>The <CODE>job-k-limit</CODE>, <CODE>job-page-limit</CODE>, and <CODE>job-quota-peiod</CODE>
options determine whether and how quotas are enforced for a printer.
The <CODE>job-quota-period</CODE> option determines the time interval for
quota tracking. The interval is expressed in seconds, so a day is
86,400, a week is 604,800 and a month is 2,592,000 seconds. The
<CODE>job-k-limit</CODE> option specifies the job size limit in killobytes. The 
<CODE>job-page-limit</CODE> option specifies the number of pages limit.</P>

<P>For quotas to be enforced, the period and at least one of the limits
must be set to a non-zero value. The following options will enable
weekly quotas with the given size and page count limits:</P>

<PRE CLASS="command">
<KBD>/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p <I>printer</I> -o job-quota-period=604800 \
    -o job-k-limit=1024 ENTER</KBD>
<KBD>/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p <I>printer</I> -o job-quota-period=604800 \
    -o job-page-limit=100 ENTER</KBD>
</PRE>

<P>Or, you can combine all three options on the same line.</P>

<P>While there is no way to query the current quota state for a particular
user, any application can request a list of jobs for a user and printer that
can be used to easily determine that information.</P>


<H2 CLASS="title"><A NAME="PAGELOG">Page Logging</A></H2>

<P>CUPS logs every page that is printed on a system to the
<VAR><A HREF="ref-page_log.html">page_log</A></VAR> file. Page logging
is only available for drivers that provide page accounting information,
typically all PostScript and CUPS raster devices. Raw queues and queues
using third-party solutions such as Foomatic generally do not have
useful page accounting information available.</P>
 

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Commit	Line	Data
09a101d6	1	<HTML>
	2	<!-- SECTION: Getting Started -->
	3	<HEAD>
	4	<TITLE>Printer Accounting Basics</TITLE>
	5	</HEAD>
	6	<BODY>
	7
	8	<P>CUPS supports a variety of printer accounting schemes. Aside from the
	9	built-in <A HREF="#QUOTAS">quota</A> and <A HREF="#PAGELOG">page logging</A>
	10	support, there are several third-party solutions that can be found on
	11	<A HREF="http://www.cups.org/">www.cups.org</A>.</P>
	12
	13
	14	<H2 CLASS="title"><A NAME="QUOTAS">Quota Support</A></H2>
	15
	16	<P>CUPS supports page and size-based quotas for each printer.
	17	The quotas are tracked individually for each user, but a single set of
	18	limits applies to all users for a partiuclar printer. For example, you
	19	can limit every user to 5 pages per day on an expensive printer, but
	20	you cannot limit every user except Johnny.</P>
	21
	22	<P>The <CODE>job-k-limit</CODE>, <CODE>job-page-limit</CODE>, and <CODE>job-quota-peiod</CODE>
	23	options determine whether and how quotas are enforced for a printer.
	24	The <CODE>job-quota-period</CODE> option determines the time interval for
	25	quota tracking. The interval is expressed in seconds, so a day is
	26	86,400, a week is 604,800 and a month is 2,592,000 seconds. The
	27	<CODE>job-k-limit</CODE> option specifies the job size limit in killobytes. The
	28	<CODE>job-page-limit</CODE> option specifies the number of pages limit.</P>
	29
	30	<P>For quotas to be enforced, the period and at least one of the limits
	31	must be set to a non-zero value. The following options will enable
	32	weekly quotas with the given size and page count limits:</P>
	33
	34	<PRE CLASS="command">
	35	<KBD>/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p <I>printer</I> -o job-quota-period=604800 \
	36	-o job-k-limit=1024 ENTER</KBD>
	37	<KBD>/usr/sbin/lpadmin -p <I>printer</I> -o job-quota-period=604800 \
	38	-o job-page-limit=100 ENTER</KBD>
	39	</PRE>
	40
	41	<P>Or, you can combine all three options on the same line.</P>
	42
	43	<P>While there is no way to query the current quota state for a particular
	44	user, any application can request a list of jobs for a user and printer that
	45	can be used to easily determine that information.</P>
	46
	47
	48	<H2 CLASS="title"><A NAME="PAGELOG">Page Logging</A></H2>
	49
	50	<P>CUPS logs every page that is printed on a system to the
	51	<VAR><A HREF="ref-page_log.html">page_log</A></VAR> file. Page logging
	52	is only available for drivers that provide page accounting information,
	53	typically all PostScript and CUPS raster devices. Raw queues and queues
	54	using third-party solutions such as Foomatic generally do not have
	55	useful page accounting information available.</P>
	56
	57
	58	</BODY>
	59	</HTML>