ables@hi3.aca.mcc.com (King Ables) (03/25/88)
In case you haven't come across this one, beware. Interleaf's
WPS product (under Unix) uses a directory in the user's desktop
for scratch files used in printing files. The problem is it
doesn't delete the files after printing (or ever!). The
user's ~/desktop/.deskprint directory just keeps filling up
with junk. Since the directory begins with a dot, the user
doesn't always even know it exists!
At best you waste a lot of disk space, at worst, WPS uses up
all the names it can generate for scratch names and you lose
your ability to print a certain file after a while! The scratch
file name is based on the name of the document, so if you cut
parts out of it, you can print those since they will have another
name. It is all VERY confusing until you know why it's happening!
Since I don't read this group, I didn't know if this had been
described long ago or not, so I figured too much info was better
than not enough. The problem seems to start with WPS 2.5.
-king
ARPA: ables@mcc.com
UUCP: {gatech,ihnp4,nbires,seismo,ucb-vax}!ut-sally!im4u!milano!ables
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UUCP: {amdahl,decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4}!sun!plaid!desktop{-request}robert@setting.weitek.UUCP (Robert Plamondon) (03/25/88)
>In case you haven't come across this one, beware. Interleaf's >WPS product (under Unix) uses a directory in the user's desktop >for scratch files used in printing files. The problem is it >doesn't delete the files after printing (or ever!). The >user's ~/desktop/.deskprint directory just keeps filling up >with junk. Since the directory begins with a dot, the user >doesn't always even know it exists! I've seen a similar problem when a user's umask was set to prevent other users from reading files in his desktop directory. This kept WPS (or OPS, or TPS, or whatever flavor you use) from being able to create or write to the .deskprint directory. Your problem will probably go away if you try "chmod a+rwx ~/desktop/.deskprint." The spooling is done from the user's directory because of the limited spooling space on /tmp in small standalone sun systems. While it's not Interleaf's problem if you want to restrict access to your files the point that daemons can't access them, it would be nice if they printed a warning message. Robert Plamondon UUCP: {pyramid,cae780}!weitek!robert ARPA: "pyramid!weitek!robert"@decwrl.dec.COM "The paper IS the product" ---------------------------------------- Submissions to: desktop@plaid.sun.com Administrivia to: desktop-request@plaid.sun.com UUCP: {amdahl,decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4}!sun!plaid!desktop{-request}
md@umb.edu (Mark Dionne) (03/26/88)
Robert Plamondon writes: >>In case you haven't come across this one, beware. Interleaf's >>WPS product (under Unix) uses a directory in the user's desktop >>for scratch files used in printing files. The problem is it >>doesn't delete the files after printing (or ever!). The >>user's ~/desktop/.deskprint directory just keeps filling up >>with junk. Since the directory begins with a dot, the user >>doesn't always even know it exists! >I've seen a similar problem when a user's umask was set to prevent >other users from reading files in his desktop directory. This kept >WPS (or OPS, or TPS, or whatever flavor you use) from being able to >create or write to the .deskprint directory. Your problem will >probably go away if you try "chmod a+rwx ~/desktop/.deskprint." Thanks for answering this problem. Here is some more information. (By the way, "chmod a+wx ..." should do the job, and provide a bit more security for those who want it.) To print files, Interleaf uses "/usr/ucb/lpr -r -s ...". This reduces the chance that you will run out of disk space with a huge print file. Unless you patch your kernel, your local lpd, no matter what permissions it seems to have, does not have any extra permissions for NFS files which reside on a different machine. (This is a Sun security feature. Interleaf Customer Support should be able to tell you how to get this patch, which is normally installed in systems we sell.) This may include your desktop/.deskprint if it does not have liberal permissions as described above. The files can also be cleaned up if you run the Interleaf cleanup script. (Check the documentation: it also cleans up other things like backup files.) > ...it would nice if they [Interleaf] printed a warning message. Good idea. We will do it. ...!mit-eddie!ileaf!md Mark Dionne, Interleaf ...!sun!sunne!ileaf!md Ten Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 (617) 577-9813 x5551 ---------------------------------------- Submissions to: desktop@plaid.sun.com Administrivia to: desktop-request@plaid.sun.com UUCP: {amdahl,decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4}!sun!plaid!desktop{-request}