3 ms·

macOS stores a copy of everything one prints forever [video]

24 points by zeristor 4y ago

metadat 4y ago
Why does macOS behave this way? What is supposed to happen to the /spool folder contents once printing is complete?
- stjohnswarts 4y ago
  if you run linux go check your /var/spool/cups folder also
  - metadat 4y ago
    I haven't printed from Linux since college.. many moons ago. Nowadays I use it mainly for servers >..< A good case can be made for printers being one of the most annoying, finicky, and error prone aspects of computing.
- yrro 4y ago
  > Why does macOS behave this way? I would guess it's because PreserveJobHistory in cupsd.conf defaults to 500.
  - nateb2022 4y ago
    On MacOS Ventura, /etc/cups/cupsd.conf does not specify any values for PreserveJobHistory or PreserveJobFiles.
    - yrro 4y ago
      I would expect the default values documented in cupsd.conf(5) to be the compiled-in defaults. If not then there's a serious bug in Apple's bundled version of cups and they need to update!
jamestnz 4y ago
I'm sure this does happen sometimes, but I print plenty and can't find any such files on my Monterey-running M1. Neither is it true on my Catalina-running Intel Mac. Also, I keep seeing this claim repeated during the last week or so... what gives? I wonder if this is all based solely on a rather breathless (and now deleted) reddit post from 9 days ago? https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/yhftqo/ysk_macos_saves_a_copy_of_everything_you_print/ https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/yhftqo/ysk_m... People in a different subreddit were less convinced: https://www.reddit.com/r/macsysadmin/comments/yho0cf/ysk_macos_saves_a_copy_of_everything_you_print/ https://www.reddit.com/r/macsysadmin/comments/yho0cf/ysk_mac...
lupire 4y ago
Is there any evidence this is true?
- Pinus 4y ago
  I just checked my /var/spool/cups, and it contains PDF:s of prints going back to about February 2022. This computer is about eight years old and has been through I-don't-know-how-many OS updates. This, and the fact that not everyone has these files, makes me suspect that there is supposed to be some mechanism cleaning these files up, but that the details have changed over time, and some OS update got it wrong.
  - Pinus 4y ago
    I noticed that there was an update to Big Sur — the newest OS that this machine can run — which I had missed, so I installed it, and the files went away! I also noticed that there has been issues, like https://github.com/apple/cups/issues/5538 https://github.com/apple/cups/issues/5538, related to spool file clean-up. (The fix to that one leaves some decidedly fishy-looking parentheses, but they were fixed in a later commit.)
  - yrro 4y ago
    These would be metadata about completed print jobs. The PreserveJobHistory* options in cupsd.conf[0] control retention of this information; the default value is 500, so most users who print occasionally will likely have entries going back a couple of years. You can view (some) of it with: 'lpstat -W completed'; add '-l' for more detail. Add '-u USER' to view completed print jobs of another user (there doesn't seem to be any way to see _all_ user info, cups' command line tools always seem to have aggravating shortcomings like this...) [0] https://www.cups.org/doc/man-cupsd.conf.html https://www.cups.org/doc/man-cupsd.conf.html
    - Pinus 4y ago
      To be clear: It was not just metadata, it was actual PDF:s — I tried opening several of them — named d<digits>-<digits>. But, as I said, after an OS update (to 11.7.1) (including a reboot, obviously), they were gone, and only metadata files (named c<digits>) remain.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

24 points by zeristor 4y ago

metadat 4y ago

Why does macOS behave this way? What is supposed to happen to the /spool folder contents once printing is complete?

stjohnswarts 4y ago
if you run linux go check your /var/spool/cups folder also
- metadat 4y ago
  I haven't printed from Linux since college.. many moons ago. Nowadays I use it mainly for servers >..< A good case can be made for printers being one of the most annoying, finicky, and error prone aspects of computing.
yrro 4y ago
> Why does macOS behave this way? I would guess it's because PreserveJobHistory in cupsd.conf defaults to 500.
- nateb2022 4y ago
  On MacOS Ventura, /etc/cups/cupsd.conf does not specify any values for PreserveJobHistory or PreserveJobFiles.
  - yrro 4y ago
    I would expect the default values documented in cupsd.conf(5) to be the compiled-in defaults. If not then there's a serious bug in Apple's bundled version of cups and they need to update!

jamestnz 4y ago

I'm sure this does happen sometimes, but I print plenty and can't find any such files on my Monterey-running M1. Neither is it true on my Catalina-running Intel Mac. Also, I keep seeing this claim repeated during the last week or so... what gives? I wonder if this is all based solely on a rather breathless (and now deleted) reddit post from 9 days ago? https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/yhftqo/ysk_macos_saves_a_copy_of_everything_you_print/ https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/yhftqo/ysk_m... People in a different subreddit were less convinced: https://www.reddit.com/r/macsysadmin/comments/yho0cf/ysk_macos_saves_a_copy_of_everything_you_print/ https://www.reddit.com/r/macsysadmin/comments/yho0cf/ysk_mac...

lupire 4y ago

Is there any evidence this is true?

Pinus 4y ago
I just checked my /var/spool/cups, and it contains PDF:s of prints going back to about February 2022. This computer is about eight years old and has been through I-don't-know-how-many OS updates. This, and the fact that not everyone has these files, makes me suspect that there is supposed to be some mechanism cleaning these files up, but that the details have changed over time, and some OS update got it wrong.
- Pinus 4y ago
  I noticed that there was an update to Big Sur — the newest OS that this machine can run — which I had missed, so I installed it, and the files went away! I also noticed that there has been issues, like https://github.com/apple/cups/issues/5538 https://github.com/apple/cups/issues/5538, related to spool file clean-up. (The fix to that one leaves some decidedly fishy-looking parentheses, but they were fixed in a later commit.)
- yrro 4y ago
  These would be metadata about completed print jobs. The PreserveJobHistory* options in cupsd.conf[0] control retention of this information; the default value is 500, so most users who print occasionally will likely have entries going back a couple of years. You can view (some) of it with: 'lpstat -W completed'; add '-l' for more detail. Add '-u USER' to view completed print jobs of another user (there doesn't seem to be any way to see _all_ user info, cups' command line tools always seem to have aggravating shortcomings like this...) [0] https://www.cups.org/doc/man-cupsd.conf.html https://www.cups.org/doc/man-cupsd.conf.html
  - Pinus 4y ago
    To be clear: It was not just metadata, it was actual PDF:s — I tried opening several of them — named d<digits>-<digits>. But, as I said, after an OS update (to 11.7.1) (including a reboot, obviously), they were gone, and only metadata files (named c<digits>) remain.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]