<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org">
<title>Debugging, Tracing, and Log Files</title>
<meta name="GENERATOR" content=
"Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7">
<link rel="HOME" title=" LPRng Reference Manual" href=
"index.htm">
<link rel="UP" title="Print Spooling Tutorial " href=
"tutorial.htm">
<link rel="PREVIOUS" title="Interfacing to Non-LPRng Spoolers"
href="x3899.htm">
<link rel="NEXT" title=
"LPRng Clients - lpr, lprm, lpq, lpc, lpstat " href=
"lprngclients.htm">
</head>
<body class="SECT1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link=
"#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF">
<div class="NAVHEADER">
<table summary="Header navigation table" width="100%" border=
"0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<th colspan="3" align="center">LPRng Reference Manual: 24
Sep 2004 (For LPRng-3.8.28)</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="10%" align="left" valign="bottom"><a href=
"x3899.htm" accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
<td width="80%" align="center" valign="bottom">Chapter 4.
Print Spooling Tutorial</td>
<td width="10%" align="right" valign="bottom"><a href=
"lprngclients.htm" accesskey="N">Next</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<hr align="LEFT" width="100%">
</div>
<div class="SECT1">
<h1 class="SECT1"><a name="AEN3931">4.21. Debugging, Tracing,
and Log Files</a></h1>
<p>The <b class="APPLICATION">LPRng</b> software was designed
and written to provide as high a level of diagnostic
information as possible. This was largely in part due to the
problems with portability, coding errors, and other human
frailties. Approximately 80% of the <b class=
"APPLICATION">LPRng</b> source code concerns itself with
checking return values from system functions and producing
error messages, debugging and tracing information, and
various facilities used for regression testing and
diagnosis.</p>
<p>The approach used by <b class="APPLICATION">LPRng</b> is
to produce <span class="emphasis"><i class=
"EMPHASIS">trace</i></span> output for the <b class=
"APPLICATION">LPRng</b> clients or <span class="emphasis"><i
class="EMPHASIS">log</i></span> files for the <b class=
"APPLICATION">lpd</b> server that show the various events or
flow of information through the <b class=
"APPLICATION">LPRng</b> system. There are several classes or
types of actions that can be traced, and various levels of
trace information generated. The interface used to control
these actions are the command line <var class="LITERAL">-D
literals</var> flags and the <tt class="COMMAND">lpc
debug</tt> command.</p>
<p>First, we will look at how you can use the debugging
facilities for the clients. Enter the following commands:</p>
<div class="INFORMALEXAMPLE">
<a name="AEN3946"></a>
<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {292} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">lpr -D=</kbd>
debug usage: -D [ num | key=num | key=str | flag | flag@ | flag+N ]*
keys recognized: network[+N,@], database[+N,@], lpr[+N,@],
lpc[+N,@], lprm[+N,@], lpq[+N,@], test=num, job=num, log[+N,@]
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {293} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">lpr -V /tmp/hi</kbd>
LPRng-3.7.2, Copyright 1988-2000 Patrick Powell, <papowell@lprng.com>
sending job 'papowell@h4+981' to lp@localhost
connecting to 'localhost', attempt 1
connected to 'localhost'
requesting printer lp@localhost
sending control file 'cfA981h4.private' to lp@localhost
completed sending 'cfA981h4.private' to lp@localhost
sending data file 'dfA981h4.private' to lp@localhost
completed sending 'dfA981h4.private' to lp@localhost
done job 'papowell@h4+981' transfer to lp@localhost
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {294} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">lpr -D1 /tmp/hi</kbd>
09:38:08.707 h4 [13991] lpr Get_printer: original printer '<NULL>'
09:38:08.708 h4 [13991] lpr Get_all_printcap_entries: starting
09:38:08.708 h4 [13991] lpr Select_pc_info: looking for 'all', depth 0
09:38:08.708 h4 [13991] lpr Select_pc_info: returning '<NULL>'
09:38:08.708 h4 [13991] lpr Select_pc_info: looking for '*', depth 0
09:38:08.708 h4 [13991] lpr Select_pc_info: returning '<NULL>'
09:38:08.708 h4 [13991] lpr Dump_line_list: Get_all_printcap_entries
...
</pre>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<p>The <tt class="COMMAND">lpr -D=</tt> causes the <b class=
"APPLICATION">lpr</b> (and other <b class=
"APPLICATION">LPRng</b> programs) to show what debugging
flags are available. The <tt class="COMMAND">lpr -V</tt> flag
causes <b class="APPLICATION">lpr</b> to run in verbose mode
and show its activities. Finally, we use <tt class=
"COMMAND">lpr -D1</tt> to enable the simplest level of
debugging. This will produce a trace of the various
activities that <b class="APPLICATION">lpr</b> carries out.
Try <tt class="COMMAND">lpr -D2</tt>, <tt class="COMMAND">lpr
-D3</tt>, and so forth to see the increasing amount of detail
that you get.</p>
<p>The <span class="emphasis"><i class=
"EMPHASIS">network</i></span> and <span class="emphasis"><i
class="EMPHASIS">database</i></span> debug flags turn on
debugging for the network facilities and the database (<tt
class="FILENAME">lpd.conf</tt>, <tt class=
"FILENAME">printcap</tt>, and <tt class=
"FILENAME">lpd.perms</tt>) lookups. Lets see what <tt class=
"COMMAND">lpr -Dnetwork</tt> shows us:</p>
<div class="INFORMALEXAMPLE">
<a name="AEN3971"></a>
<pre class="SCREEN">
C<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {295} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">lpr -Dnetwork /tmp/hi</kbd>
lp: getconnection: START host localhost, timeout 10, connection_type 1
lp: getconnection: fqdn found localhost.private, h_addr_list count 1
lp: Link_dest_port_num: port 2000 = 2000
lp: getconnection: sock 3, src ip 127.0.0.1, port 65209
lp: getconnection: dest ip 127.0.0.1, port 2000
lp: getconnection: connection to 'localhost' sock 3, errmsg 'No Error'
lp: Link_send: host 'localhost' socket 3, timeout 6000
lp: Link_send: str '^Blp
', count 4, ack 0x80447a0
lp: Link_send: final status NO ERROR
lp: Link_send: host 'localhost' socket 3, timeout 6000
lp: Link_send: str '^B135 cfA276h4.private
', count 22, ack 0x8044370
lp: Link_send: final status NO ERROR
lp: Link_send: host 'localhost' socket 3, timeout 6000
lp: Link_send: str 'Hh4.private
Ppapowell
J/tmp/hi
CA
Lpapowell
Apapowell@h4+276
D2000-06-02-09:44:52.369
Qlp
N/tmp/hi
fdfA276h4.private
UdfA276h4.private
', count 136, ack 0x8044370
lp: Link_send: final status NO ERROR
lp: Link_send: host 'localhost' socket 3, timeout 6000
lp: Link_send: str '^C3 dfA276h4.private
', count 20, ack 0x8044310
lp: Link_send: final status NO ERROR
lp: Link_send: host 'localhost' socket 3, timeout 6000
lp: Link_send: str '', count 1, ack 0x8044310
lp: Link_send: final status NO ERROR
</pre>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<p>As we see, we get a detailed exposition of the network
connection and transfer steps. If you need or want more
detail, try using <tt class="COMMAND">lpr -Dnetwork+2</tt> or
<tt class="COMMAND">lpr -Dnetwork+3</tt>. You may want to try
<tt class="COMMAND">lpr -Ddatabase</tt> and observe the
actions of the <b class="APPLICATION">lpr</b> program as it
extracts information from the <tt class=
"FILENAME">lpd.conf</tt> and <tt class=
"FILENAME">printcap</tt> files. If you need or want more
detail, try using <tt class="COMMAND">lpr -Ddatabase+2</tt>
or <tt class="COMMAND">lpr -Ddatabase+3</tt>.</p>
<p>If you need to trace the activities of the <b class=
"APPLICATION">lpd</b> server, it becomes a little more
complex. The lpd server has a single <span class=
"emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">listening</i></span> process
that forks and creates individual processes to handle
incoming requests. Debug or diagnose the main process actions
by using <tt class="COMMAND">lpd -D...</tt>. You may also
want to use <tt class="COMMAND">lpd -F</tt> to keep the
server in the foreground so you can kill it off easily.
Needless to say, you should also redirect the <acronym class=
"ACRONYM">STDERR</acronym> and <acronym class=
"ACRONYM">STDOUT</acronym> so that it goes to a file so that
you can examine the voluminous records at your leisure. The
following shows a typical main <b class="APPLICATION">lpd</b>
process debugging session using the C Shell.</p>
<div class="INFORMALEXAMPLE">
<a name="AEN3992"></a>
<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {296} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">lpd -F -D1 >&/tmp/logfile &</kbd>
[2] 14299
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {297} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">tail -f /tmp/logfile</kbd>
2000-06-02-09:53:39.716 h4 [1200] Waiting Read_server_status: \
select status 1
2000-06-02-09:53:39.716 h4 [1200] Waiting Read_server_status: \
read status 1
2000-06-02-09:53:39.716 h4 [1200] Waiting Dump_line_list: \
Read_server_status - input - 0x8047980, count 0, max 0, list 0x0
2000-06-02-09:53:39.716 h4 [1200] Waiting Read_server_status: \
select status 0
2000-06-02-09:53:39.716 h4 [1200] Waiting lpd: LOOP START
2000-06-02-09:53:39.716 h4 [1200] Waiting Get_max_servers: \
getrlimit returns 64
2000-06-02-09:53:39.716 h4 [1200] Waiting Get_max_servers: \
returning 32
2000-06-02-09:53:39.716 h4 [1200] Waiting lpd: \
max_servers 32, active 0
2000-06-02-09:53:39.716 h4 [1200] Waiting lpd: \
starting select timeout 'yes'
^C
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {298} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">jobs</kbd>
[1] - Running lpd -F -D1 >& /tmp/logfile
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {299} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">kill %1</kbd>
</pre>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<p>We start the debugging session by running the <b class=
"APPLICATION">lpd</b> server in foreground mode. This causes
it to send its output to <acronym class=
"ACRONYM">STDOUT</acronym> and <acronym class=
"ACRONYM">STDERR</acronym>. We redirect both of these to a
file and put the <b class="APPLICATION">lpd</b> server in the
background. Then we use <tt class="COMMAND">tail -f</tt> to
read from the log file. Finally, we kill off the <b class=
"APPLICATION">lpd</b> server.</p>
<p>This method is extremely difficult to use, as all of the
output produced by the server and its subprocesses is sent to
a single output file. If we want to debug the actions
concerning a single queue, then we can use the queue <span
class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">log file</i></span> and
<tt class="COMMAND">lpc debug</tt> command instead. The
following options control debugging of an individual print
queue.</p>
<div class="VARIABLELIST">
<dl>
<dt>lf=log</dt>
<dd>
<p>The log file for the queue. The queue server process
will open this file and place debugging information
into this file.</p>
</dd>
<dt>max_log_file_size=nnn</dt>
<dd>
<p>The maximum size of the log file in K bytes. When
the queue server process first opens this file it will
check to see if the file is larger than the maximum
size. If it is, then it will truncate it. A zero (0)
value suppress truncation.</p>
</dd>
<dt>min_log_file_size=nnn</dt>
<dd>
<p>When the log file is truncated only the the last nnn
K bytes are retained.</p>
</dd>
<dt>db=options</dt>
<dd>
<p>These are debugging options for the spool queue.
These options are permanent and cannot be changed by
using the <tt class="COMMAND">lpc debug</tt>
facility.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<p>The <tt class="COMMAND">lpc debug</tt> command is used to
set the debugging options in force for the spool queue. This
is done by writing the debug options into the spool queue
control file. Let us see how we can use this facility to
trace the actions of printing a file.</p>
<p>Edit the printcap file so it have the contents indicated
below, create the <tt class="FILENAME">/tmp/lp</tt> and <tt
class="FILENAME">/tmp/lp2</tt> files with <var class=
"LITERAL">0777</var> permissions. Use <tt class=
"COMMAND">checkpc -f</tt> to check the printcap, and then use
<tt class="COMMAND">lpc reread</tt> to restart the <b class=
"APPLICATION">lpd</b> server.</p>
<div class="INFORMALEXAMPLE">
<a name="AEN4039"></a>
<pre class="SCREEN">
# printcap
lp:force_localhost
lp:server
:lp=/dev/null
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/%P
:lf=log
lp2:force_localhost
lp2:server
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/%P
:lp=/tmp/lp2
:lf=log
</pre>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<p>Now execute the following commands:</p>
<div class="INFORMALEXAMPLE">
<a name="AEN4042"></a>
<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {300} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">lpq</kbd>
Printer: lp@h4
Queue: no printable jobs in queue
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {301} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">lpc debug lp 1</kbd>
Printer: lp@h4
debugging override set to '1'
lp@h4.private: updated
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {302} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">lpc status</kbd>
Printer Printing Spooling Jobs Server Subserver Redirect Status/(Debug)
lp@h4 enabled enabled 0 none none (1)
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {303} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">lpr /tmp/hi</kbd>
<samp class="PROMPT">h4: {304} %</samp> <kbd class=
"USERINPUT">more /var/spool/lpd/lp2/log</kbd>
2000-06-02-10:10:50.589 h4 [1201] (Server) lp: \
Update_spool_info: printer 'lp'
2000-06-02-10:10:50.590 h4 [1201] (Server) lp: \
Do_queue_jobs: printable 1, held 0, move 0
2000-06-02-10:10:50.590 h4 [1201] (Server) lp: \
Do_queue_jobs: after Scan_queue next fd 5
2000-06-02-10:10:50.590 h4 [1201] (Server) lp: \
Do_queue_jobs: MAIN LOOP
2000-06-02-10:10:50.590 h4 [1201] (Server) lp: \
Do_queue_jobs: Susr1 before scan 0
2000-06-02-10:10:50.591 h4 [1201] (Server) lp: \
Do_queue_jobs: chooser '<NULL>', chooser_routine 0
</pre>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<p>The <tt class="COMMAND">lpc debug</tt> command sets the
debug level to 1. We can use the <tt class="COMMAND">lpc
status</tt> command to see what debug flags or actions are
currently specified for the spool queue. We then send a job
to the spool queue and examine the log file contents.</p>
<p>Each line in the log file has a timestamp, the name of the
host, the process id that produced it, and a heading that
tells the action or activity that the process is performing,
and the name of the print queue that is being processed and a
trace message. By convention, the trace message lists the
name of the routine that processed it and then the actual
information. Some messages may extend over several lines, but
each line has the standard header at the start of the
line.</p>
<p>The default debug or trace actions were designed to trace
problems with printing, as these are the most common.
However, you can also use the <b class="APPLICATION">lpr</b>,
<b class="APPLICATION">lpc</b>, <b class=
"APPLICATION">lprm</b>, or <b class="APPLICATION">lpq</b>
option to cause the <b class="APPLICATION">lpd</b> server to
trace the actions during the execution of an <b class=
"APPLICATION">lpr</b>, <b class="APPLICATION">lpc</b>, <b
class="APPLICATION">lprm</b>, or <b class=
"APPLICATION">lpq</b> request.</p>
<p>The <span class="emphasis"><i class=
"EMPHASIS">log</i></span> option is used to test various
logging facilities and is usually not used for general
purpose debugging.</p>
</div>
<div class="NAVFOOTER">
<hr align="LEFT" width="100%">
<table summary="Footer navigation table" width="100%" border=
"0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top"><a href=
"x3899.htm" accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href=
"index.htm" accesskey="H">Home</a></td>
<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top"><a href=
"lprngclients.htm" accesskey="N">Next</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="33%" align="left" valign="top">Interfacing to
Non-LPRng Spoolers</td>
<td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href=
"tutorial.htm" accesskey="U">Up</a></td>
<td width="33%" align="right" valign="top"><b class=
"APPLICATION">LPRng</b> Clients - lpr, lprm, lpq, lpc,
lpstat</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</body>
</html>
syntax highlighted by Code2HTML, v. 0.9.1