Bug 702039

Description of problem:
The "Location" option is defined in cupsd.conf in order to allow users see a description about printer location while browsing printers as described in # man cuspd.conf:

Location text
            Specifies human-readable text describing the location of the printer.

Customer is sharing printers via Samba3x (latest version samba3x-3.5.4-0.70.el5_6.1) and browsing printers via Windows Explorer (in Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2003 clients).

The problem is that Cups web interface shows "Location" field correctly and also lpstat :

[root@sbclps15 ~]# lpstat -l -p ADNY
printer ADNY is idle.  enabled since Tue 29 Mar 2011 11:31:02 AM BRT
	Form mounted:
	Content types: any
	Printer types: unknown
	Description: HP Color LaserJet 4700dn
	Alerts: none
	Location: Sede:Imbetiba - Predio:Prédio 111 - Andar:3 - Dep/Ger:TIC/INFRA-TIC/TIC-BC/SITI - Sala:IL
	Connection: direct
	On fault: no alert
	After fault: continue
	Users allowed:
		(all)
	Forms allowed:
		(none)
	Banner required
	Charset sets:
		(none)
	Default pitch:
	Default page size:
	Default port settings:


But Samba3x can not obtain this info:

[root@sbclps15 ~]# rpcclient -Uascyyi localhost -c "getprinter 'ADNY'"
Enter ascyyi's password: 
	flags:[0x800000]
	name:[\\LOCALHOST\ADNY]
	description:[\\LOCALHOST\ADNY,HP Universal Printing PS (v5.1),]
	comment:[HP Color LaserJet 4700dn]

[root@sbclps15 ~]# rpcclient -Uascyyi localhost -c "getprinter 'ADNY' 2"
Enter ascyyi's password: 
	servername:[\\LOCALHOST]
	printername:[\\LOCALHOST\ADNY]
	sharename:[ADNY]
	portname:[Samba Printer Port]
	drivername:[HP Universal Printing PS (v5.1)]
	comment:[HP Color LaserJet 4700dn]
	location:[]
	sepfile:[]
	printprocessor:[winprint]
	datatype:[RAW]
	parameters:[]
	attributes:[0x3048]
	priority:[0x1]
	defaultpriority:[0x1]
	starttime:[0x0]
	untiltime:[0x0]
	status:[0x0]
	cjobs:[0x0]
	averageppm:[0x0]




Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
samba3x-3.5.4-0.70.el5_6.1

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Add printers in Cups
2. Fill "location" field
3. In windows client machine, browse the shared printer
4. The location field is not displayed anymore

  
Actual results:
Windows clients can not see the location of the printers. The organization has more than 1500 printers distributed in various regions and is important to know where the printer is (location: printer in directory, printer in finance room, etc) because users need to identify the printer where the job will be printed.

Expected results:
Samba obtain this info from Cups and allow windows clients accessing the printers to know the printer location.

Additional info:

Customer has another print server using samba 3.0.33-3.29.el5_6.2 and doing the same job, with the same Windows clients and the "Location" attribute is showed.

Perhaps this was intentional. See this thread:

http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba/2008-January/137292.html

"As a workaround, please set the comment and location string of every 
printer from your windows client in the printers and faxes section. When 
samba has both strings in its ntprinter.tdb database, it will no longer 
ask cups for them."


The interesting bit is that the slow down occurred due to samba queries to cups for "comment" and "location" information. These fields may be left empty now per this comment:

http://lists.samba.org/archive/samba/2008-January/137306.html


For "comment" field, we can use rpcclient to set it:

# rpcclient localhost -U Administrator -c 'setprinter test1 "Test printer"'

But for "Location" field the only way is set it via windows. But customer has a lot of printers and would be hard to set it one by one via windows.

I'm not sure if it is considered a regression ou and RFE. 

In case of RFE, customer is fine to have the option to set "location" using  rpcclient command too (the same as for "comment" field).