generic-CUPS-PDF-printer - Ubuntu 14.04

Question

Printing any document to a PDF works nicely. Unfortunately I want the created PDF file to be saved at a different location.

The current default location is: /home/PDF

The desired one location is: /home/myname/DropBox/PrintWork

I tried to edit the file containing the default directory for this kind of work: /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf

Problem is that (I am the superuser) I don't get a permission to save the new default location. When I look at 'permissions' everything is dimmed. I am a starting Ubuntu 14.04 user since 3 weeks.

I already spent a lot of hours to solve this, can anybody help me getting this right?

How to change cups-pdf default directory

• it does not accept symlinks

• note that this method will change the behaviour for every users

• this is why you may have to use one of these variables:

  • ${HOME} will be expanded to the user's home directory
  • ${USER} will be expanded to the user name

• in this example, the output will go to ~/MyDocs/PDF

• so you have to change the path according to your needs

1. Edit cups-pdf.conf

gksudo gedit /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf

• find and comment out this line (by adding # in front):

  Out ${HOME}/PDF
  

  like this:

  # Out ${HOME}/PDF
  

• then, add this line right below

  Out ${HOME}/MyDocs/PDF
  

2. Edit usr.sbin.cupsd

gksudo gedit /etc/apparmor.d/local/usr.sbin.cupsd

• add at the end of the file, edit the lines beginning with @{HOME} to match your desired location

  @{HOME}/MyDocs/PDF/ rw,
  @{HOME}/MyDocs/PDF/* rw,
  

• reboot to activate the changes

Comments

[Antonios Hadjigeorgalis]

this worked for me on 16.04

[TheWickerman666]

See my answer here to make it work with symlinked folders: askubuntu.com/a/1353522/93798