cupsd-logs(5)

NAME 💖

cupsd-logs — the cupsd log files, bestie: access_log, error_log, and page_log. Three files, one whole personality each. 🎀

---

DESCRIPTION ✨

So cupsd(8) — our scheduler king 👑 — normally keeps three log files going at all times:

• access_log — tracks every request that gets submitted to the scheduler. It's giving receipts. 🧾
• error_log — tracks progress and errors. The vibes journal. 😭
• page_log — tracks pages that are actually printed. The "did it slay" report. 🖨️

The configuration directives over in cupsd.conf(5) and cups-files.conf(5) are what control what gets logged and where it gets stored. So like, you have options. 💅

---

ACCESS LOG FILE FORMAT 🌸

The access_log file lists every HTTP resource that a web browser or client touches. Each line is an extended version of the so-called "Common Log Format" that tons of web servers and web reporting tools use. No cap.

host group user date-time "method resource version" status bytes
  ipp-operation ipp-status

For example:

10.0.1.2 - - [01/Dec/2005:21:50:28 +0000] "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 317
  CUPS-Get-Printers successful-ok-ignored-or-substituted-attributes
localhost - - [01/Dec/2005:21:50:32 +0000] "GET /admin HTTP/1.1"
  200 0 - -
localhost - - [01/Dec/2005:21:50:32 +0000] "POST / HTTP/1.1"
  200 157 CUPS-Get-Printers
  successful-ok-ignored-or-substituted-attributes
localhost - - [01/Dec/2005:21:50:32 +0000] "POST / HTTP/1.1"
  200 1411 CUPS-Get-Devices -
localhost - - [01/Dec/2005:21:50:32 +0000] "GET /admin HTTP/1.1"
  200 6667 - -

Now let's break down every single field, because we are not skimming. 🙅♀️

The host field will normally only be an IP address — unless you've enabled the HostNameLookups directive in the cupsd.conf file, or the IP address corresponds to your local machine.

The group field always contains -. That's it. That's the whole field. It's just vibing. 💀

The user field is the authenticated username of the requesting user. If no username and password is supplied for the request, then this field contains -.

The date-time field is the date and time of the request in local time, and it's in the format "[DD/MON/YYYY:HH:MM:SS +ZZZZ]".

The method field is the HTTP method used: "GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS", "POST", or "PUT". Here's the tea on each one 🍵:

• "GET" requests are used to get files from the server — both for the web interface and to get configuration and log files.
• "HEAD" requests are used to get information about a resource before a "GET".
• "OPTIONS" requests are used to upgrade connections to TLS encryption.
• "POST" requests are used for web interface forms and IPP requests.
• "PUT" requests are used to upload configuration files.

The resource field is the filename of the requested resource.

The version field is the HTTP specification version used by the client. For CUPS clients this will always be "HTTP/1.1". Consistent queen. 👑

The status field contains the HTTP result status of the request, and here's the full roster:

• 200 — Successful operation. ✨
• 201 — File created/modified successfully.
• 304 — The requested file has not changed.
• 400 — Bad HTTP request; typically this means that you have a malicious program trying to access your server. 🚨
• 401 — Unauthorized, authentication (username + password) is required.
• 403 — Access is forbidden; typically this means that a client tried to access a file or resource they do not have permission to access. Not them thinking they could. 🙈
• 404 — The file or resource does not exist.
• 405 — URL access method is not allowed; typically this means you have a web browser using your server as a proxy.
• 413 — Request too large; typically this means that a client tried to print a file larger than the MaxRequestSize allows. 😳
• 426 — Upgrading to TLS-encrypted connection.
• 500 — Server error; typically this happens when the server is unable to open/create a file — consult the error_log file for details.
• 501 — The client requested encryption but encryption support is not enabled/compiled in.
• 505 — HTTP version number not supported; typically this means that you have a malicious program trying to access your server.

The bytes field contains the number of bytes in the request. For POST requests the bytes field contains the number of bytes of non-IPP data that is received from the client.

The ipp-operation field contains either - for non-IPP requests, or the IPP operation name for POST requests containing an IPP request.

The ipp-status field contains either - for non-IPP requests, or the IPP status code name for POST requests containing an IPP response.

---

ERROR LOG FILE FORMAT 😭

The error_log file lists messages from the scheduler — errors, warnings, etc. The LogLevel directive in the cupsd.conf(5) file controls which messages are logged:

level date-time message

For example:

I [20/May/1999:19:18:28 +0000] [Job 1] Queued on 'DeskJet' by 'mike'.
D [20/May/1999:19:18:28 +0000] [Job 1] argv[0]="DeskJet"
D [20/May/1999:19:18:28 +0000] [Job 1] argv[1]="1"
D [20/May/1999:19:18:28 +0000] [Job 1] argv[2]="mike"
D [20/May/1999:19:18:28 +0000] [Job 1] argv[3]="myjob"
D [20/May/1999:19:18:28 +0000] [Job 1] argv[4]="1"
D [20/May/1999:19:18:28 +0000] [Job 1] argv[5]="media=
  na_letter_8.5x11in sides=one-sided"
D [20/May/1999:19:18:28 +0000] [Job 1] argv[6]="/var/spool/cups/
  d000001-001"
I [20/May/1999:19:21:02 +0000] [Job 2] Queued on 'DeskJet' by 'mike'.
I [20/May/1999:19:22:24 +0000] [Job 2] Canceled by 'mike'.

The level field contains the type of message, and here's every single one:

• A — Alert message (LogLevel alert)
• C — Critical error message (LogLevel crit)
• D — Debugging message (LogLevel debug)
• d — Detailed debugging message (LogLevel debug2)
• E — Normal error message (LogLevel error)
• I — Informational message (LogLevel info)
• N — Notice message (LogLevel notice)
• W — Warning message (LogLevel warn)
• X — Emergency error message (LogLevel emerg)

The date-time field contains the date and time of when the page started printing. The format of this field is identical to the data-time field in the access_log file.

The message field contains a free-form textual message. Messages from job filters are prefixed with "[Job NNN]" where NNN is the job ID. 🏷️

---

PAGE LOG FILE FORMAT 🦋

The page_log file lists the total number of pages (sheets) that are printed. By default, each line contains the following information:

printer user job-id date-time total num-sheets job-billing
  job-originating-host-name job-name media sides

For example, the entry for a two page job called "myjob" might look like:

DeskJet root 1 [20/May/1999:19:21:06 +0000] total 2 acme-123
  localhost myjob na_letter_8.5x11in one-sided

The PageLogFormat directive in the cupsd.conf(5) file can be used to change this information. Customization era. 💅

The printer field contains the name of the printer that printed the page. If you send a job to a printer class, this field will contain the name of the printer that was assigned the job.

The user field contains the name of the user (the IPP requesting-user-name attribute) that submitted this file for printing.

The job-id field contains the job number of the page being printed.

The date-time field contains the date and time of when the page started printing. The format of this field is identical to the data-time field in the access_log file.

The num-sheets field provides the total number of pages (sheets) that have been printed on for the job.

The job-billing field contains a copy of the job-billing or job-account-id attributes provided with the IPP Create-Job or Print-Job requests, or - if neither was provided.

The job-originating-host-name field contains the hostname or IP address of the client that printed the job.

The job-name field contains a copy of the job-name attribute provided with the IPP Create-Job or Print-Job requests, or - if none was provided.

The media field contains a copy of the media or media-col/media-size attribute provided with the IPP Create-Job or Print-Job requests, or - if none was provided.

The sides field contains a copy of the sides attribute provided with the IPP Create-Job or Print-Job requests, or - if none was provided.

---

SEE ALSO 👀

• cupsd(8)
• cupsd.conf(5)
• cups-files.conf(5)
• CUPS Online Help (http://localhost:631/help)

---

COPYRIGHT 🎀

Copyright © 2020-2024 by OpenPrinting.

---

Okay that's the whole page, bestie — this one's cupsd-logs(5) from CUPS by OpenPrinting, dated 2021-02-28. Log responsibly, read your error_log before you panic, and remember: the group field is always just -. Periodt. 💖✨