Ways to debug CUPS server

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10

Situation

You notice certain error conditions, but the log file and other sources don't show much information.

Resolution

There are several levels for the debugging. This is set with the option LogLevel in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf. When you are searching for an error the best setting should be debug. The level debug2 may show far too much information that you don't need. See more details about the different log levels with the command "man cupsd.conf".

The error_log of CUPS contains several different types of messages. Many of them start with an "I" in the first column which indicates that it is an informational message. Actual errors are indicated with an "E" in the first column. For example you can use the following command to show all error messages:

grep ^E error_log

For the other types please refer to the official CUPS documentation:
http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/ref-error_log.html

Disclaimer

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