GNU bug report logs - #64741
CUPS: fix the PATH settings for filters

Previous Next

To add a comment to this bug, you must first unarchive it, by sending
a message to control AT debbugs.gnu.org, with unarchive 64741 in the body.
You can then email your comments to 64741 AT debbugs.gnu.org in the normal way.

Toggle the display of automated, internal messages from the tracker.

Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Emmanuel Beffara <manu <at> beffara.org>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: CUPS: fix the PATH settings for filters
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2023 10:32:48 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hello,

I would like to propose the attached patch for the `cups-filters` package. The
point is to add the paths for `coreutils` and `sed` to the PATH setting in the
wrapper scripts so that the filters can find them. Maybe other packages should
be added, at least this patch fixes the issue I was facing.

About my specific case: I want to use the printing service of my university,
an instance of PaperCut. This is as simple as setting an LPD queue at the
right address with the PPD printer driver provided by the university (a Ricoh
IM C5500 PS in my case, if that makes any difference). After switching to Guix
system a few months ago, this stopped working: print jobs were sent with no
error message but they all appeared as 1 page in PaperCut and nothing actually
came out of the printers. I finally took the time to explore the logs and it
appears that CUPS at some point calls `foomatic-rip` and that this filter
fails, as shown in these extracts from `/var/log/cups/error_log`:

```
I [18/Jul/2023:16:34:10 +0200] [Job 12] Started filter /gnu/store/nhjpc32034v6186v37l51j0z2jq8xlkm-cups-server-bin/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip (PID 27451)
[...]
D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] Starting process \"renderer\" (generation 2)                                                                                                                                                    
D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] JCL: \033%-12345X <at> PJL                                                                                                                                                                           
D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] <job data>                                                                                                                                                                                      
D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] /gnu/store/rib9g2ig1xf3kclyl076w28parmncg4k-bash-minimal-5.1.16/bin/bash: line 5: date: command not found                                                                                       
D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] /gnu/store/rib9g2ig1xf3kclyl076w28parmncg4k-bash-minimal-5.1.16/bin/bash: line 5: sed: command not found                                                                                        
D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] /gnu/store/rib9g2ig1xf3kclyl076w28parmncg4k-bash-minimal-5.1.16/bin/bash: line 5: date: command not found                                                                                       
D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] /gnu/store/rib9g2ig1xf3kclyl076w28parmncg4k-bash-minimal-5.1.16/bin/bash: line 5: sed: command not found                                                                                        
D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] /gnu/store/rib9g2ig1xf3kclyl076w28parmncg4k-bash-minimal-5.1.16/bin/bash: line 5: cat: command not found                                                                                        
D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] renderer exited with status 127                                                                                                                                                                 
D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] Process is dying with \"Encountered error Broken pipe during fwrite\", exit stat 1                                                                                                              
[...]
D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] PID 27451 (/gnu/store/nhjpc32034v6186v37l51j0z2jq8xlkm-cups-server-bin/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip) stopped with status 1.                                                                     
```

So `foomatic-rip` actually needs `date`, `sed` and `cat` but does not find
them. The issue with required tools is known in Guix because the package
definition for `cups-filters` already adds paths for `ghostscript-with-cups`
and `grep`. The patch just adds necessary inputs for those, and it makes
printing work for me. I don't know what other tools the filters might require
in other situations.

On a different level, I am surprised that the failure above does not lead to
an actual user-visible error by CUPS. A corrupted job is actually sent
silently (probably with some error messages mixed with the printing job or
with malformed printing commands) although the filter does return an error
code. Maybe this should be sent upstream as a CUPS bug?

-- 
Emmanuel

[cups-filters.patch (text/plain, attachment)]

Message #10 received at 64741-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>
To: Emmanuel Beffara <manu <at> beffara.org>
Cc: 64741-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#64741: CUPS: fix the PATH settings for filters
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2023 17:28:29 -0400

Hello,

Emmanuel Beffara <manu <at> beffara.org> writes:

> Hello,
>
> I would like to propose the attached patch for the `cups-filters` package. The
> point is to add the paths for `coreutils` and `sed` to the PATH setting in the
> wrapper scripts so that the filters can find them. Maybe other packages should
> be added, at least this patch fixes the issue I was facing.
>
> About my specific case: I want to use the printing service of my university,
> an instance of PaperCut. This is as simple as setting an LPD queue at the
> right address with the PPD printer driver provided by the university (a Ricoh
> IM C5500 PS in my case, if that makes any difference). After switching to Guix
> system a few months ago, this stopped working: print jobs were sent with no
> error message but they all appeared as 1 page in PaperCut and nothing actually
> came out of the printers. I finally took the time to explore the logs and it
> appears that CUPS at some point calls `foomatic-rip` and that this filter
> fails, as shown in these extracts from `/var/log/cups/error_log`:
>
> ```
> I [18/Jul/2023:16:34:10 +0200] [Job 12] Started filter
> /gnu/store/nhjpc32034v6186v37l51j0z2jq8xlkm-cups-server-bin/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip
> (PID 27451)
> [...]
> D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] Starting process \"renderer\"
> (generation 2)
> D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] JCL: \033%-12345X <at> PJL
> D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] <job data>
> D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12]
> /gnu/store/rib9g2ig1xf3kclyl076w28parmncg4k-bash-minimal-5.1.16/bin/bash:
> line 5: date: command not found
> D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12]
> /gnu/store/rib9g2ig1xf3kclyl076w28parmncg4k-bash-minimal-5.1.16/bin/bash:
> line 5: sed: command not found
> D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12]
> /gnu/store/rib9g2ig1xf3kclyl076w28parmncg4k-bash-minimal-5.1.16/bin/bash:
> line 5: date: command not found
> D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12]
> /gnu/store/rib9g2ig1xf3kclyl076w28parmncg4k-bash-minimal-5.1.16/bin/bash:
> line 5: sed: command not found
> D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12]
> /gnu/store/rib9g2ig1xf3kclyl076w28parmncg4k-bash-minimal-5.1.16/bin/bash:
> line 5: cat: command not found
> D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] renderer exited with status
> 127
> D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] Process is dying with
> \"Encountered error Broken pipe during fwrite\", exit stat 1
> [...]
> D [18/Jul/2023:16:34:21 +0200] [Job 12] PID 27451
> (/gnu/store/nhjpc32034v6186v37l51j0z2jq8xlkm-cups-server-bin/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip)
> stopped with status 1.
> ```
>
> So `foomatic-rip` actually needs `date`, `sed` and `cat` but does not find
> them. The issue with required tools is known in Guix because the package
> definition for `cups-filters` already adds paths for `ghostscript-with-cups`
> and `grep`. The patch just adds necessary inputs for those, and it makes
> printing work for me. I don't know what other tools the filters might require
> in other situations.

That sounds reasonable.

> On a different level, I am surprised that the failure above does not lead to
> an actual user-visible error by CUPS. A corrupted job is actually sent
> silently (probably with some error messages mixed with the printing job or
> with malformed printing commands) although the filter does return an error
> code. Maybe this should be sent upstream as a CUPS bug?

That's indeed surprising.  I'd encourage you to try to reach out to
upstream with the problem, if that's feasible for you.

I've installed the change to the recently reintroduced core-updates
branch.

Bonus points next time if you write a GNU ChangeLog style commit message
to go along with it!

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.