---
name: "printbilld"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "printbill"
version: "4.1.2-1"
release: "Debian 3.1 (Sarge)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/printbilld"
---

# printbilld(1)

print billing/accounting/quote-generating daemon

## NAME

printbilld - print billing/accounting/quote-generating daemon

## SYNOPSIS

**printbilld \[--stay\]**

## DESCRIPTION

**printbilld** printbilld is the server which does all of the hard work in the [printbill(8)](/printbill/8.md) system. It is designed to be called from the [printbill(1)](/printbill/1.md) print filter, which passes its (checked) command-line options to [printbilld(1)](/printbilld/1.md) via a Unix-domain socket, as a param=value list separated by semicolons and terminated by a newline. When printbilld has completed the processing of a job, it sends its return value (JSUCC or JREMOVE) back to [printbill(1)](/printbill/1.md).

The most important option is the type parameter. If this is set to "bill", [printbilld(1)](/printbilld/1.md) checks if the user has a writable quote file with some non-zero quota, then calculates the bill, if the user can afford to print, the job is spooled to a secondary printer and JSUCC is returned to the printbill script (otherwise JREMOVE is sent and the job is not re-spooled). If it is set to "lazybill", printbilld immediately sends back JSUCC if the user has positive print quota, then bills the job and deducts from the user's remaining quota (if this goes negative the debt must be repayed before any further printing is possible). If the type is set to "account", no billing is done, but stats are calculated and recorded on a per-user and per-printer basis (as for the bill and lazybill). If set to "quote", the price is calculated and e-mailed and/or sent via "winpopup" (using smbclient) to the user. Note that if you want to use the smbclient method, you must edit your smb.conf file as described in [printbillrc(5)](/printbillrc/5.md).

Please refer to [printbill(8)](/printbill/8.md) for a comprehensive discussion of how printbill actually works.

## INSTALLATION

Please see the accompanying README file for installation instructions. Chances are if you're reading this it's correctly installed.

## AUTHORS

**printbill and the accompanying utilities were written by Daniel** Franklin (d.franklin@ieee.org). The web interface was written by Daniel Franklin and Phil Ciufo (phil@snrc.uow.edu.au).

## AVAILABILITY

You can always grab the latest and greatest version from **http://ieee.uow.edu.au/~daniel/software/printbill**

## SEE ALSO

*[printbill(1)](/printbill/1.md),* *[printbill(8)](/printbill/8.md),* *[printbill\_configure(8)](/printbill_configure/8.md),* *[printbill\_grapher(1)](/printbill_grapher/1.md),* *[percentblack(1)](/percentblack/1.md),* *[percentcolour(1)](/percentcolour/1.md),* *[percent\_cmy(1)](/percent_cmy/1.md),* *[pqcheck(1)](/pqcheck/1.md),* *[printquote(1)](/printquote/1.md),* *[printbill\_printer(1)](/printbill_printer/1.md),* *[printbillrc(5)](/printbillrc/5.md),* *[printcap(5)](/printcap/5.md),* *[pqm(8)](/pqm/8.md).*