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Date:      Tue, 20 Aug 1996 08:29:15 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Jonathan Anderson <andersoj@enc.edu>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Printer accounting woes
Message-ID:  <Pine.A32.3.91.960820082121.29996A-100000@alpha.enc.edu>

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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




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