sstanfie@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (skot) (02/03/90)
We need a way to set up accounting for the NeXT Laser Printer. Since the Information Systems dept. can't afford to let people print for free, they've come up with the following scheme. A student purchases a card ($10) good for 400 pages. To print, the user must go to the lab monitor, get the printer paper tray, print, then have the monitor count the number of pages used, then decrement the value of the card. Kludge. Vendacard came up with an electronic credit-card type way for mac's and hp's but the architecture of the NeXT laser printer doesn't lend itself to this method. Is there a way to do this kind of accounting through software? It seems that if np, or lpr knew how many pages were being printed, some hack could be done. Thanks! -- <<< sstanfie@polyslo.calpoly.edu -/- NeXT Campus Consultant ~
rogerj@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Roger Jagoda) (02/03/90)
In article <25c9ee4a.5d42@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> sstanfie@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (skot) writes: > >We need a way to set up accounting for the NeXT Laser Printer. > >Is there a way to do this kind of accounting through software? YES! We have the same problem. Here's what we do: We have toyed with the idea of putting the Vendacard product on MAC LaserWriters and connecting them to the cubes we use as print- servers. This is fine for normal things except for high end Mathmatica graphics which really need the 400 dpi. For this case we use "/usr/etc/pac." Check out the man page for pac in the DL. We set the price with the -p switch and debit the user's Vendacard when they return. I too am sorry we have to charge the students, but this works for us. Let me know how it goes. Now, I have another plea. Has anyone managed to implement QUOTAS and QUOTAD on the cube. I knoew it's specifically commented as not being supported in the rc scripts, but WE REALLY NEED IT! So, if anyonew has any info they'd like to share on how it might be done, I'm all ears. We really need a way of keepiing the file- systems under a "controlled" growth pattern. Thanks in advance! Roger Jagoda FQOJ@CORNELLA.CIT.CORNELL.EDU Cornell University
chari@nueces.cactus.org (Chris Whatley) (02/03/90)
sstanfie@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (skot) writes: >We need a way to set up accounting for the NeXT Laser Printer. Try 'man -k account' and 'man printcap'. That is why all the documentation is on line. You need to nidump printcap, edit the printer info from the information you find in the printcap man page and then use '/usr/etc/pac' to see the accounting records. You don't need to go through any of that credit-card garbage. Just have them pay $10.00 up front and disable their account if they go over it and don't pay (you'll probably need a cron entry and maybe an awk script to find the overcharged accounts on a daily basis). -- Chris Whatley Work: chari@pelican.ma.utexas.edu (NeXT Mail) (512/471-7711 ext 123) Play: chari@nueces.cactus.org (NeXT Mail) (512/499-0475) Also: chari@emx.utexas.edu
rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony) (02/05/90)
I would also be interested in the implementation of the quota stuff on the NeXT. So maybe you should summarize to the net... Ronald ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - Bernhard Shaw | rca@cs.brown.edu or antony@cogsci.bitnet
peram@cs.tamu.edu (Suresh B Peram) (11/16/90)
Hi, I wish to know if anybody is familiar with setting up printer accounting on NeXt. On a BSD 4.3 machine, we update the printcap file, including a field 'af' which indicates the accounting file and then create the file with appropriate permissions. I tried the same thing on the NeXt, updated the netinfo but, still, I am unable to get it to do the accounting. I will be grateful if you could give any suggestions. Please e-mail to : peram@cs.tamu.edu Thank You Suresh Peram
agm@cs.brown.edu (Axel Merk) (05/02/91)
I release 1.0, the printer accounting was not set up. Does anyone know how whether it is set up in 2.0? If so, could someone point out to me where to look for guidelines to install it? Thanks, Axel ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Axel Merk "One needs a certain amount of blindness -- -- agm@cs.brown.edu to see perfection" - Christopher Nuzum -- -- phone/fax (401)272 2262 Brown University Box 53 Providence RI 02912 -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------