cups 'lp' command does no validation on input options
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cups-filters (Ubuntu) |
New
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
Previously reported here: https:/
The issue is that the 'lp' command does not check input syntax. Commands such as:
lp -o blah foo.pdf
lp -o page-range=5-6 foo.pdf
lp -o page-ranges=8- foo.pdf
will print the whole "foo.pdf" without alerting the user that he made an error with the LP command line syntax.
This omission is likely due to the complex nature of Cups - many command line clients for many operating systems, passing directives to a server which also has web interfaces and maybe GUIs, which then passes the job to one of thousands of different printer drivers. However, unlike with other Unix commands, an error on the 'lp' command line can waste a good deal of time and money - with many modern PDF documentation files running into the hundreds or thousands of pages. Cups and the 'lp' command should make sure that it understands exactly what the user is requesting before it proceeds with a print job.
I've been asked to submit this bug here because apparently it is a problem with the cups-filters package. However, it seems possible that there may need to be some kind of collaboration between developers of different components, for example to ensure that the Cups server protocol can adequately report option syntax errors to the various Cups clients.
