Free lpr software for linux

IPC::DirQueue is a disk-based many-to-many task queue.

SYNOPSIS

my $dq = IPC::DirQueue->new({ dir => "/path/to/queue" });
$dq->enqueue_file("filename");

my $dq = IPC::DirQueue->new({ dir => "/path/to/queue" });
my $job = $dq->pickup_queued_job();
if (!$job) { print "no jobs leftn"; exit; }
# ...do something interesting with $job->get_data_path() ...
$job->finish();

This module implements a FIFO queueing infrastructure, using a directory as the communications and storage media. No daemon process is required to manage the queue; all communication takes place via the filesystem.

A common UNIX system design pattern is to use a tool like lpr as a task queueing system; for example, http://patrick.wagstrom.net/old/weblog/archives/000128.html describes the use of lpr as an MP3 jukebox.

However, lpr isnt as efficient as it could be. When used in this way, you have to restart each task processor for every new task. If you have a lot of startup overhead, this can be very inefficient. With IPC::DirQueue, a processing server can run persistently and cache data needed across multiple tasks efficiently; it will not be restarted unless you restart it.

Multiple enqueueing and dequeueing processes on multiple hosts (NFS-safe locking is used) can run simultaneously, and safely, on the same queue.

Since multiple dequeuers can run simultaneously, this provides a good way to process a variable level of incoming tasks using a pre-defined number of worker processes.

If you need more CPU power working on a queue, you can simply start another dequeuer to help out. If you need less, kill off a few dequeuers.

If you need to take down the server to perform some maintainance or upgrades, just kill the dequeuer processes, perform the work, and start up new ones. Since theres no socket or similar point of failure aside from the directory itself, the queue will just quietly fill with waiting jobs until the new dequeuer is ready.

Arbitrary name = value string-pair metadata can be transferred alongside data files. In fact, in some cases, you may find it easier to send unused and empty data files, and just use the metadata fields to transfer the details of what will be worked on.

Gutenprint project, formerly named Gimp-Print, is a suite of printer drivers that may be used with most common UNIX print spooling systems,
including CUPS, lpr, LPRng, or others. These drivers provide high quality printing for UNIX (including Macintosh OS X 10.2, 10.3, and
10.4) and Linux systems that in many cases equal or exceed proprietary vendor-supplied drivers in quality and functionality, and can be used for demanding printing tasks requiring flexibility and high quality. This software package includes an enhanced Print plug-in for the GIMP that replaces the plug-in packaged with the GIMP, and Ghostscript and CUPS drivers, as well as Foomatic data supporting the Ghostscript driver.
Gutenprint has been renamed in order to clearly distinguish it from the GIMP. While this package started out as the original Print plugin for the GIMP, it has expanded into a collection of general purpose printer drivers, and the new, enhanced Print plugin for the GIMP is now only a small part of the package. Furthermore, the name Gutenprint recognizes Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the movable type printing press. Finally, the word "guten" means "good" in German.
Gutenprint 5.0.0 is the first stable release of Gutenprint 5.0, and incorporates extensive feedback from the first release candidate. It
is based on the Gimp-Print 4.3 series that has been in development for over three years, and includes many improvements over the very popular 4.2 series.
Gutenprint currently supports over 700 printer models.
Enhancements:
- This release offers support for almost 70 new printers, full support for CUPS 1.2 (including extended attributes and on the fly PPD file generation), corrected support for borderless printing to Epson printers, the ability to choose resizing rather than cropping when printing from CUPS, and more.
- The Mac OS X binary is much faster in some cases on PPC Macs than the initial 5.0 binary.
- All users of Gutenprint 5.0.0 should upgrade.

p910nd project is a small printer daemon intended for diskless workstations that does not spool to disk but passes the job directly to the printer. Normally a lpr daemon on a spooling host connects to it with a TCP connection on port 910n (where n=0, 1, or 2 for lp0, 1 and 2 respectively).
p910nd is particularly useful for diskless Linux workstations booted via Etherboot that have a printer hanging off them. Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) supports this protocol, its called the AppSocket protocol and has the scheme socket://. LPRng also supports this protocol and the syntax is lp=remotehost%9100 in /etc/printcap.
Enhancements:
- adds patches by Kostas Liakakis to improve behaviour when the printer device cant be opened under NetBSD, and patches by Albert Bartoszko to the Makefile.

fax4CUPS is a very simple shell script that acts as a CUPS backend for a serial fax modem. Essentially, you print with lpr and the fax is sent.
The nice thing is that you have CUPS around, and this means, for instance, that you can check whether your fax has been sent just using your favorite browser (as you would do for any other printer), even if the fax modem is really on a remote server. fax4CUPS project supports HylaFAX, efax, and mgetty-fax.
Enhancements:
- Two deadly bugs in shell syntax have been fixed.

Syslog is a almost standard UN*X daemon which gathers all the info, errors or critical messages from the local computer or other hosts on the network. For more info about syslog itself, see the corresponding syslog manpages.
Before using Interceptor, you must create 8 fifo files in /var/run/interceptor, (debug, info, notice, warning, err, crit, alert, emerg) and modify the /etc/syslog.conf so that syslog sends its messages in the corresponding fifo for a given level, e.g.
*.debug |/var/run/interceptor/debug
The mkintfifos included script will update /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit and /etc/syslog.conf for you. When done, restart your computer, install the interceptor applet and load it on the taskbar.
A button appears, which will flash green when a debug, info or notice message occurs, orange when a warning or error message occurs and red when crit, alert or emerg.
If you click on this button, a list of received messages will be displayed.
Interceptor can react to some messages according to a pattern->action scheme with up to 2 argument strings. The available actions are the following ones:
- Beep: Simply issues a beep.
- Message: Displays a dialog box with first arg string as the wanted message and optionnaly executes a shell command when the yes button is clicked. The command itself is contained in the second arg string.
- Redirect: Redirects the current message towards a specific log view.
- Run: Silently runs a shell command contained in arg string 2 and appends arg string 1 at the end of the system messages list.
Remark: if the first argument of a Run alert is null, the first line of the shell command stdout is appended to the messages list, with Info as the level and Interceptor as the source.
The pattern rules obey to the QRegExp syntax. See QRegExp in the Qt documentation for more details. In addition to the standard QRegExp syntax, Interceptor uses pattern groups, i.e. it can retrieve substring enclosed in group parenthesis. Example:
abc(.+)def
This group contains any string enclosed within abc and def. A substitution is made whenever a message matches with a given regexp. The variables $1, $2, $3 and $4 will be replaced with the corresponding pattern group in both arg 1 and arg 2 strings.
the variables $D and $T will be substituted with the current date and time
The patterns are tried against the
level##source!!host%%text
string, where level is debug, info etc..., source is the info source, i.e. kernel, the daemon name, lpr etc..., host is the hostname and text, the text of the message.
You can also choose a better suited icon, such as floppy, network or CDROM icons, for your dialog boxes.
When you select the preferences kicker applet menu, a tab widget will appears, which will allow you to edit the pattern->action rules, and some default options, such as the level colors and number of lines on the messages list box.
Enhancements:
- Aspects Scan list.
- A few bugs fixed.