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Yosemite and /var/log/cups/page_log

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Jolly Roger

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Dec 17, 2014, 1:57:25 PM12/17/14
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Mac OS X 10.10.1
Mac Mini (Late 2012)
Canon ix6520

I just noticed that the /var/log/cups/page_log log file is empty since I
upgraded to Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) - even though I have printed since
then, and there were plenty of entries in there before the upgrade. I do
see messages in other log files in /var/log/cups, such as the access_log
and error_log. However I don't see any pertinent error messages in the
error log. As far as I can tell, the configuration files in /etc/cups do
have logging to this file configured correctly. So I'm not sure why print
jobs are no longer being logged there.

Does anyone else running Yosemite has any entries in the
/var/log/cups/page_log file?

--
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

Jolly Roger

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Dec 17, 2014, 2:07:25 PM12/17/14
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On 2014-12-17, Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
> Mac OS X 10.10.1
> Mac Mini (Late 2012)
> Canon ix6520
>
> I just noticed that the /var/log/cups/page_log log file is empty since I
> upgraded to Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) - even though I have printed since
> then, and there were plenty of entries in there before the upgrade. I do
> see messages in other log files in /var/log/cups, such as the access_log
> and error_log. However I don't see any pertinent error messages in the
> error log. As far as I can tell, the configuration files in /etc/cups do
> have logging to this file configured correctly. So I'm not sure why print
> jobs are no longer being logged there.
>
> Does anyone else running Yosemite has any entries in the
> /var/log/cups/page_log file?

I just restored a copy of /etc/cups from before the upgrade and don't
see any obvious differences in cupsd.conf, cups-files.conf, or
printers.conf.

I'm starting to suspect this may be a Yosemite issue. Anyone else seeing
this?
Message has been deleted

David Empson

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Dec 17, 2014, 4:51:50 PM12/17/14
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Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:

> On 2014-12-17, Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
> > Mac OS X 10.10.1
> > Mac Mini (Late 2012)
> > Canon ix6520
> >
> > I just noticed that the /var/log/cups/page_log log file is empty since I
> > upgraded to Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) - even though I have printed since
> > then, and there were plenty of entries in there before the upgrade. I do
> > see messages in other log files in /var/log/cups, such as the access_log
> > and error_log. However I don't see any pertinent error messages in the
> > error log. As far as I can tell, the configuration files in /etc/cups do
> > have logging to this file configured correctly. So I'm not sure why print
> > jobs are no longer being logged there.
> >
> > Does anyone else running Yosemite has any entries in the
> > /var/log/cups/page_log file?
>
> I just restored a copy of /etc/cups from before the upgrade and don't
> see any obvious differences in cupsd.conf, cups-files.conf, or
> printers.conf.
>
> I'm starting to suspect this may be a Yosemite issue. Anyone else seeing
> this?

I'm using default OS X configuration for CUPS (never bothered looking
inside the files before), have done some printing since upgrading to
Yosemite (e.g. I can see a list of completed jobs in the print queue),
and I also have a zero length /var/log/cups/page_log. Its modification
time appears to be around the point I installed Yosemite.

My /etc/cups/cups-files.conf includes this line:

PageLog /private/var/log/cups/page_log

My /etc/cups/cupsd.conf includes this line:

PageLogFormat

With no format string, perhaps this suppresses the log output?

The same line appears in my /etc/cups/cups.conf.default, but there is no
"PageLogFormat" at all in my /etc/cups/cups.conf.pre-update (which dates
back to when I installed Mavericks).

I suspect this means my Mavericks system would have been logging pages
due to the default page log format being used (I don't have a clone
backup of it handy to check, which might not have that folder anyway),
but the blank PageLogFormat in Yosemite probably means that all output
to that file is suppressed, even though the file is being created.

It appears this was a deliberate choice by Apple. If so, an odd one - it
would make more sense to use PageLog with no parameter, which disables
page log generation, and omit the PageLogFormat line, allowing the
default format to be used if someone wanted to enable page logging
again.

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

Jolly Roger

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Dec 17, 2014, 5:26:35 PM12/17/14
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On 2014-12-17, David Empson <dem...@actrix.gen.nz> wrote:
> Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> wrote:
>
>> I just restored a copy of /etc/cups from before the upgrade and don't
>> see any obvious differences in cupsd.conf, cups-files.conf, or
>> printers.conf.
>>
>> I'm starting to suspect this may be a Yosemite issue. Anyone else seeing
>> this?
>
> I'm using default OS X configuration for CUPS (never bothered looking
> inside the files before), have done some printing since upgrading to
> Yosemite (e.g. I can see a list of completed jobs in the print queue),
> and I also have a zero length /var/log/cups/page_log. Its modification
> time appears to be around the point I installed Yosemite.
>
> My /etc/cups/cups-files.conf includes this line:
>
> PageLog /private/var/log/cups/page_log

Mine too.

> My /etc/cups/cupsd.conf includes this line:
>
> PageLogFormat
>
> With no format string, perhaps this suppresses the log output?

Mine too.

Apparently in my haste earlier, I misread the diff report, which
outlined this change! Thank you for pointing this out to me!

> The same line appears in my /etc/cups/cups.conf.default, but there is no
> "PageLogFormat" at all in my /etc/cups/cups.conf.pre-update (which dates
> back to when I installed Mavericks).
>
> I suspect this means my Mavericks system would have been logging pages
> due to the default page log format being used (I don't have a clone
> backup of it handy to check, which might not have that folder anyway),
> but the blank PageLogFormat in Yosemite probably means that all output
> to that file is suppressed, even though the file is being created.
>
> It appears this was a deliberate choice by Apple. If so, an odd one - it
> would make more sense to use PageLog with no parameter, which disables
> page log generation, and omit the PageLogFormat line, allowing the
> default format to be used if someone wanted to enable page logging
> again.

It is strange that they would do it that way rather than the way you
describe, which is how I would probably go about it myself.

I wonder why they bothered to disable it at all, considering you still
get a list of completed jobs elsewhere, and even in the GUI layer.

I would prefer to keep logging print jobs to an easily-accessible log
file because I have a script that runs periodically that grabs the last
line of the log to determine how long it's been since I last printed
anything. If I haven't printed anything in more than a couple months, it
reminds me to print something (to avoid allowing the heads to dry out).
The script reported the log was empty.

I just commented the PageLogFormat line in cupsd.conf, restarted the
org.cups.cupsd launch daemon, and sure enough, logging has resumed!

Thanks again, David! : )

Jolly Roger

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Dec 17, 2014, 5:29:20 PM12/17/14
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On 2014-12-17, Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> Okay, so one time? In band camp? Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> was all, like:
>
>> I just restored a copy of /etc/cups from before the upgrade and don't
>> see any obvious differences in cupsd.conf, cups-files.conf, or
>> printers.conf.
>
> What are you expecting to find?
>
> I don't print often enough to have much of anything in cups. They are
> empty on this laptop (all of them) since October 16.

Typically, the log contains one line for each print job, in this format:

Canon_iX6500_series jr 13 [17/Dec/2014:14:12:52 -0800] 1 1 - localhost
(stdin) - -

As I explained in my reply to David, I have a script that monitors this
log file to remind me to print something every couple months to help
avoid potential ink nozzle / print head clogging.

JF Mezei

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Dec 17, 2014, 6:32:33 PM12/17/14
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FYI

/var/log/cups/page_log on Snow Leopard desktop does log.

Example below:

> LASER3 jfmezei 367 [24/Nov/2014:03:19:19 -0500] 10 1 - localhost CRTC 2013-551-hearing1a-vaxination.key Letter -


LASER3 is defined as direct IP connection to printer. So it does not
make use of CUPS on the server. (I also have another printer defined
which makes use of the server, and when using that, it does generate a
log entry on the server /var/log/cups/page_log ).


there is also the access_log file, but this does not contain print job name.


the /etc/cups/cups.conf file references "log" only here:


# Log general information in error_log - change "warn" to "debug"
# for troubleshooting...
LogLevel warn



Jolly Roger

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Dec 17, 2014, 6:34:04 PM12/17/14
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On 2014-12-17, JF Mezei <jfmezei...@vaxination.ca> wrote:
> FYI
>
> /var/log/cups/page_log on Snow Leopard desktop does log.

Yes, the change was made in Yosemite, like I said.
Message has been deleted

Jolly Roger

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Dec 18, 2014, 9:48:52 AM12/18/14
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On 2014-12-18, Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> Okay, so one time? In band camp? Jolly Roger <jolly...@pobox.com> was all, like:
>
>> Typically, the log contains one line for each print job, in this
>> format:
>
>> Canon_iX6500_series jr 13 [17/Dec/2014:14:12:52 -0800] 1 1 -
>> localhost (stdin) - -
>
>> As I explained in my reply to David, I have a script that monitors
>> this log file to remind me to print something every couple months to
>> help avoid potential ink nozzle / print head clogging.
>
> I see this on the wife's laptop in the access log:
>
> localhost - - [18/Nov/2014:09:16:22 -0700] "POST
> /printers/Brother_MFC_7860DW HTTP/1.1" 200 43474 Send-Document
> successful-ok

Different log than is being discussed.

Anyhow the problem is solved by commenting out the line Apple added to
the cupsd.conf file and restarting the cupsd daemon.
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