From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Aug 20 05:29:49 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id FAA25977 for questions-outgoing; Tue, 20 Aug 1996 05:29:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: from itsdsv1.enc.edu (itsdsv1.enc.edu [199.93.252.241]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id FAA25972 for ; Tue, 20 Aug 1996 05:29:47 -0700 (PDT) Received: from alpha.enc.edu (alpha.enc.edu [199.93.252.250]) by itsdsv1.enc.edu (8.6.12/8.6.9) with SMTP id IAA02316 for ; Tue, 20 Aug 1996 08:29:15 -0400 Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 08:29:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Jonathan Anderson To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Printer accounting woes Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk I posted a question on this forum not to long ago regarding printer accounting. My institution needs to be able to track and account for on a user by user basis the number of pages printed. We have more than 10 Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4 printers, with a smattering of others. The crux of the question at this point is, "How can we get the printer to report the number of pages it prints on each job?" The FBSD handbook suggests that it can be done (see below) but I've been unable to locate any information at HP or on the web about this issue. A further question is whether or not any more sophisticated printer use management programs exist out there for FreeBSD. Danke schoen. JA .............................................................................. Jonathan Stephen Anderson Life's no picnic Information Technology when you're infinitesimal Eastern Nazarene College - Jon's Ode to a Differential - Voice: (617) 745-3506, andersoj@enc.edu (alpha) The following is excerpted from the FreeBSD handbook: ---------begin excerpt text 7.6.5.2. How Can You Count Pages Printed? In order to perform even remotely accurate accounting, you need to be able to determine how much paper a job uses. This is the essential problem of printer accounting. ... blah blah ... There is only one sure way to do accurate accounting. Get a printer that can tell you how much paper it uses, and attach it via a serial line or a network connection. Nearly all PostScript printers support this notion. Other makes and models do as well (networked Imagen laser printers, for example). Modify the filters for these printers to get the page usage after they print each job and have them log accounting information based on that value only. There is no line counting nor error-prone file examination required. ---------end excerpt text