From: Ohad Lutzky <lutzky@...>
Date: 2006-05-17T23:23:21+09:00
Subject: Print quota management in Ruby?

I'm a unix admin at a lab, and we use Pykota to manage print quotas 
(essentially, each user has a 'balance', each printer has a 'cost per 
page', and Pykota manages that). I've grown to hate Pykota (it was 
installed before my time), and so have the other admins. Unable to find 
alternatives, I thought I might be able to write my own.

Requirements:
  - Per-user granular modifications - ability to precisely set a user's 
quota,
    or give him unlimited quota.
  - One printer will be enough.
  - Printable from Windows workstations over Samba (this is what makes 
it tricky,
    otherwise I'd just hack up an alternative lpr)
  - Users need to be able to see how much quota they have left

Bonus points:
  - Web-based interface for administration (simple if data is kept in 
SQL, then
    I can use Rails)
  - Web-based queue-view (much less important)
  - Error message when out of queue displayed on the Windows box while 
attempting
    the print.

It would be nice if I could just have an "upload your file, we'll print 
it"
solution, but since people want to print Powerpoint slides (in Hebrew, 
which
Openoffice doesn't properly convert), that's not possible. (Adobe 
Acrobat isn't
installed on the workstations, so we can't make people upload PDFs.

The big questions are these:
  - Do I 'spoof' a printer for the queue? Or do I 'block' other printers 
like Pykota does? Something else perhaps?
  - How do I count pages? Will postscript be able to do that?

Any input would be appreciated.

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