Missing file: /private/etc/cups/ppds.dat

That is an index file and it gets rebuilt by CUPS when needed. Try restarting.

Geez Greg - Thanx for your time but that response is
almost insulting - Try restarting? That's like number
one on the newbie hit parade dude, right along
starting up holding down the shift key or running
fsck -y. Thanks for trying.

And your response is supposed to make others want to reply?

Anyone else? Please. I'm starting to think I got
screwed from using this printer when I upgraded my OS.

A quick search indicates that Greg is correct that the file in question is built by cupsd as needed. Surprised? I'm not. You could have restarted your computer several times in the amount of time it took you to post your rant.

If you don't want to restart your computer, then just restart CUPS. If that doesn't work, reset the printing system from the Printer Setup Utility. You can also search and search through the installation disks. You won't find that file, however. CUPS gets installed as part of the Essentials.pkg. The ppds.dat file, however, is not a file that gets installed.

Back to your original post -- I don't see a connection that would lead to a conclusion that the missing ppds.dat file is causing your printer's utility not to open. Even when you restore the ppds.dat file, you may not be able to open the utility for some other reason.

Matt

Mac Mini; B&W G3/300

Thanx, Matt, I truly appreciate your support...
But I admit I was just injecting my limited level of knowledge about CUPS and the use of that file. I really hoped the tidbit about it being an index file would help Los_A figure out what's going on.

Best wishes.

Greg,

I couldn't find any real reference to it either except in the Printer Utility Repair manual. It was one of the files to back up before doing a printing system reset in Tiger. Just using some plain logic, however, it would certainly make sense that it is a generated file. First, it is not installed by any of the packages as part of the system. Secondly, when I looked at it in a text editor, I did not find any of my printers listed in the file. I did however find a direct correlation between the entries in the /etc/cups/ppds.dat file and the default models installed by CUPS at /usr/share/cups/model.

At this point I just don't see a correlation between that file and the OP's problem.

Matt

don't see a correlation
I'm with you 100% on that.

If concerned about the file, Los_A could copy the one from /etc/cups. They are supposed to be in sync except for ownership.

Greg,

Just a tag note on the ppds.dat file. I did find reference to it in the "Changes.txt" file that accompanies the source code for CUPS. A change was made beginning with version 1.1.19 (Tiger uses 1.1.23):

- The scheduler now stores the PPD file size and modification times in the ppds.dat file, so it can now incrementally update the PPD database from the model directory, resulting in significantly faster startup times.

I also did a compile of the source code and no ppds.dat file was produced for installation. I think it is definitely safe to say that this is a file generated by CUPS and it gets in data from the PPDs stored in the /usr/share/cups/model directory. Apple doesn't use that directory for the PPDs, although Printer Setup Utility will include any PPDs found there. The web interface, however, does not search the /Library/Printers… directory for PPDs. Most of the third part drivers have now switched over to using the /Library/Printers/… location, but there are still some older releases that place PPDs in the /usr/share… directory. The linuxprinting.org Samsung package and the StyleWriter package come to mind as a couple that still use the /usr/share… directory.

Matt

Mac Mini; B&W G3/300

I had the same issues as well as a missing classes.conf. there is a nice utility called Printer Setup Repair which allows you to solve printer setup problems as well as some in depth developer commands. I repaired my printing system permissions and found the ppds.dat and classes.conf files were missing. I was able to reinstall the classes.conf file from the install disks using Pacifist, but as previously noted, you cannot get the ppds.dat file that way. In the same window were you repair permissions you can reset the printing system which is exactly what replaced the file and repaired my printing issues.

iMacalicious 20 2.0, PBK G4 12, AX Mac OS X (10.4.3)

we're looking at the possibility that nav autoprotect (10.x) is deleting the file. you can reset your printing ustem in printer setup utility (then reboot). shouldn't have to do this though. need to find out what's removing that file. i set up a script to look for the /private/etc/cups/ppds.dat and write to a file...this way we can go back to see when the file disappeared.

don