Printing reports in CUPS

Question

how can i get detailed printing reports from the CUPS printing server? for example, the user sending the job, IP address, especially number of pages sent to printer

Answer 1

Assuming your CUPS is on Linux, installed with all components into their default path. Then have a look at the file

/var/log/cups/page_log

This file holds all information about jobs having been completed by CUPS. To understand the file's format, have a look at

• http://localhost:631/help/ref-page_log.html or
• http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/doc-1.3/ref-page_log.html or
• http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/doc-1.4/ref-page_log.html or
• http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/doc-1.5/ref-page_log.html

Each line in the file tells you for each job, copy and page the following info (if it's format is not customized):

1. Printer Name
2. User Name
3. Job-ID
4. Date+Time of Printout
5. Page Number
6. Copy Number
7. Job Billing Info (if submitted)
8. Print Client's Host Name
9. Job Name (if provided)
10. Media Name (if provided)
11. Sides: one- or two-sided? (if provided)