Is there a way to change the CUPS PDF printer output file name? I use Ubuntu and most recent CUPS.

I tried a script, cups-pdf.conf file, lp options but I was not able to find a way.

If you have a solution for this please let me know

I have not played with cups-pdf in awhile but you should be able to add a post-processing script in the cups-pdf.conf file.

1 members found this post helpful.

I have already written a script. So should I just paste it with the starting Key, "PostProcessing"? How can I use my script for this?

#PDFVer 1.4

### Key: PostProcessing (config, lptoptions)
## postprocessing script that will be called after the creation of the PDF
## as arguments the filename of the PDF, the username as determined by
## CUPS-PDF and the one as given to CUPS-PDF will be passed
## the script will be called with user privileges
## set this to an empty value to use no postprocessing
### Default: <empty>

PostProcessing



My Script:

#!/bin/bash
# /etc/cups/generate_pdf_filename.sh

# Get current user login
USER=$(whoami)

# Get hostname
HOSTNAME=$(hostname)

# Generate timestamp
TIMESTAMP=$(date +'%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S')

# Construct filename
FILENAME="${HOME}/PDF/stdntrns_${USER}_${HOSTNAME}_${TIMESTAMP}.pdf"

It seems like you copied the script from another forum/thread that did not appear to work.

In another thread it appeared like it was not possible to create another file name via the cups configuration file since Ubuntu developers changed the cups-pdf code. I have not looked at the source code. I don't see any option with cups-pdf from debian repository either.

Change cups-pdf.conf to make the script executable. I don't necessarily like /etc/ for executable scripts.
untested.

I am the one who asks this question for different forums. The script was written by me. So I will try on PostProssesing. Can you provide more information about this?
The question is when I change the cups-pdf.conf file as you stated and with my script. Is there anything else should I do? Like -lp options or something like that? Or you said that one right script and cups-pdf.conf are enough for this. Right?

My script and posted changes to the conf file should be enough.

I will let you know. Thank you so much, Michael.

Unfortunately, it did not work. Are you sure about the script you send me?


#!/bin/bash

USER=$2 # 2nd command line argument passed is user name
OLD_FILE=$1 # 1st command line argument file name as generated by cups-pdf
HOSTNAME=$(hostname)
TIMESTAMP=$(/usr/bin/date +'%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S')
mv "$OLD_FILE" "/home/$USER/PDF/stdntrns_${USER}_${HOSTNAME}_${TIMESTAMP}.pdf"

I tested it using debian versus Ubuntu but I am fairly certain it will work. Did you remove the leading '#' in front of postprocessing? Did you use the full path to your script and is it executable?

Hello again, unfortunately, it does not work. Do you have any ideas ? I have added all the related information below. Please help me.

I use Ubuntu.

You may find my cups-pdf.conf below:

## set this to an empty value to use no postprocessing
### Default: <empty>

PostProcessing /etc/cups/generate_pdf_filename.sh

###########################################################################

And this is my generate_pdf_filename.sh script with permission information.

PERMISSIONS

informix@legacysparc:/etc/cups$ ls -la generate_pdf_filename.sh
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 181 May 17 15:01 generate_pdf_filename.sh

SCRIPT

GNU nano 6.2 generate_pdf_filename.sh
#!/bin/bash

USER=$2
OLD_FILE=$1
HOSTNAME=$(hostname)
TIMESTAMP=$(/usr/bin/date +'%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S')
mv "$OLD_FILE" "/home/$USER/PDF/stdntrns_${USER}_${HOSTNAME}_${TIMESTAMP}.pdf"

LPOPTIONS

informix@legacysparc:/etc/cups$ lpoptions
copies=1 device-uri=cups-pdf:/ finishings=3 job-cancel-after=10800 job-hold-until=no-hold job-priority=50 job-sheets=none,none marker-change-time=0 name=PDF number-up=1 OutputFile=/home/informix/PDF OutputScript=/etc/cups/generate_pdf_filename.sh page-bottom=36 page-left=36 page-right=36 page-top=36 PDF=true pdftops-renderer=pdftocairo PDFVer=1.5 print-color-mode=color printer-commands=AutoConfigure,Clean,PrintSelfTestPage printer-info=PDF printer-is-accepting-jobs=true printer-is-shared=false printer-is-temporary=false printer-location printer-make-and-model='Generic CUPS-PDF Printer (w/ options)' printer-state=3 printer-state-change-time=1716237954 printer-state-reasons=none printer-type=10678348 printer-uri-supported=ipp://localhost/printers/PDF

Does your script actually contain the above? If so, it would cause an error and should be deleted. Otherwise the script should work as posted. I am testing the script by printing a text file from the command line.

lp -d PDF some_text.file

FWIW

No, my script does not have that line.

When I run below command..

informix@legacysparc:~$ lp -d PDF mytextfile.txt
request id is PDF-323 (1 file(s))


I got this. So the script did not work!

-rw------- 1 informix informix 9000 May 21 12:51 mytextfile-job_323.pdf