362357 - Print directly to printer should not write to mozilla.ps

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: Printing: Output, defect)

Description

[Arne John Glenstrup]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061118 BonEcho/2.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20061129 Minefield/3.0a1

When printing to a printer, postscript is first sent to the file used for "print
to file" (mozilla.ps, by default), and then sent to the printer.
This causes at least two problems:
* Users do not normally expect that one of their files is overwritten when
  printing directly to printer, and will be surprised to see that a previous
  print to mozilla.ps has been silently replaced.
* Worse, if the last file used for "print to file" was /dev/null, NOTHING is
  sent to the printer!  Setting the file to /dev/null is not unrealistic, as
  this is the only way to change print settings without printing anything.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open print dialog, select "print to file"
2. Click Print
3. Enter /dev/null

Actual Results:  
Nothing is printed.

Expected Results:  
Viewed web page should be printed.

In my opinion, if printing directly to printer requires collecting postscript
in a file first, a new temporary file (e.g., in /tmp) should be created every
time.

Comment 1

[Kenneth Herron]

The fix for bug 382169 should resolve this.

Comment 2

[Kenneth Herron]

The patch for bug 382169 changed how temporary files are created when printing on unix. This issue should be fixed.