ACCESS LOG FILE FORMAT¶

The access_log file lists each HTTP resource that is accessed by a web browser or client. Each line is in an extended version of the so-called "Common Log Format" used by many web servers and web reporting tools:

    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 - -

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

The group field always contains "-".

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 is in the format "[DD/MON/YYYY:HH:MM:SS +ZZZZ]".

The method field is the HTTP method used: "GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS", "POST", or "PUT". "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 prior to 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".

The status field contains the HTTP result status of the request, as follows:

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:

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 each page or group of pages that are sent to a printer. By default, each line contains the following information:

    printer user job-id date-time page-number num-copies job-billing


      job-originating-host-name job-name media sides


    printer user job-id date-time total num-impressions job-billing


      job-originating-host-name job-name media sides

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

    DeskJet root 1 [20/May/1999:19:21:05 +0000] 1 1 acme-123


      localhost myjob na_letter_8.5x11in one-sided


    DeskJet root 1 [20/May/1999:19:21:05 +0000] 2 1 acme-123


      localhost myjob na_letter_8.5x11in one-sided


    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.

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 page-number and num-copies fields contain the page number and number of copies being printed of that page. For printers that cannot produce copies on their own, the num-copies field will always be 1.

Lines containing the keyword "total" have a num-impressions field instead which provides the total number of impressions (sides) 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.