Terminal Error: Unable to read "/private/etc/cups/cups-files.conf" due to errors.

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The permissions and ownership on /private/etc/cups/cups-files.conf should be:

/bin/ls -leO@ /private/etc/cups/cups-files.conf

-rw-r--r-- 1 root _lp compressed 3297 Mar 8 2014 /private/etc/cups/cups-files.conf

See "man cups-files" for the format of the cups-files.conf file

The contents of the /private/etc/cups/cups-files.conf file should look like:

#

# "$Id: cups-files.conf.in 11203 2013-07-26 21:32:33Z msweet $"

#

# Sample file/directory/user/group configuration file for the CUPS scheduler.

# See "man cups-files.conf" for a complete description of this file.

#

# List of events that are considered fatal errors for the scheduler...

#FatalErrors config

# Do we call fsync() after writing configuration or status files?

#SyncOnClose No

# Default user and group for filters/backends/helper programs; this cannot be

# any user or group that resolves to ID 0 for security reasons...

#User _lp

#Group _lp

# Administrator user group, used to match @SYSTEM in cupsd.conf policy rules...

SystemGroup admin

SystemGroupAuthKey system.print.admin

# User that is substituted for unauthenticated (remote) root accesses...

#RemoteRoot remroot

# Do we allow file: device URIs other than to /dev/null?

#FileDevice No

# Permissions for configuration and log files...

#ConfigFilePerm 0644

#LogFilePerm 0644

# Location of the file logging all access to the scheduler; may be the name

# "syslog". If not an absolute path, the value of ServerRoot is used as the

# root directory. Also see the "AccessLogLevel" directive in cupsd.conf.

AccessLog /private/var/log/cups/access_log

# Location of cache files used by the scheduler...

#CacheDir /private/var/spool/cups/cache

# Location of data files used by the scheduler...

#DataDir /usr/share/cups

# Location of the static web content served by the scheduler...

#DocumentRoot /usr/share/doc/cups

# Location of the file logging all messages produced by the scheduler and any

# helper programs; may be the name "syslog". If not an absolute path, the value

# of ServerRoot is used as the root directory. Also see the "LogLevel"

# directive in cupsd.conf.

ErrorLog /private/var/log/cups/error_log

# Location of fonts used by older print filters...

#FontPath /usr/share/cups/fonts

# Location of LPD configuration

#LPDConfigFile launchd:///System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cups.cups-lpd.plist

# Location of the file logging all pages printed by the scheduler and any

# helper programs; may be the name "syslog". If not an absolute path, the value

# of ServerRoot is used as the root directory. Also see the "PageLogFormat"

# directive in cupsd.conf.

PageLog /private/var/log/cups/page_log

# Location of the file listing all of the local printers...

#Printcap /Library/Preferences/org.cups.printers.plist

# Format of the Printcap file...

#PrintcapFormat bsd

#PrintcapFormat plist

#PrintcapFormat solaris

# Location of all spool files...

#RequestRoot /private/var/spool/cups

# Location of helper programs...

#ServerBin /usr/libexec/cups

# SSL/TLS certificate for the scheduler...

#ServerCertificate /Library/Keychains/System.keychain

# SSL/TLS private key for the scheduler...

#ServerKey

# Location of other configuration files...

#ServerRoot /private/etc/cups

# Location of Samba configuration file...

#SMBConfigFile

# Location of scheduler state files...

#StateDir /private/etc/cups

# Location of scheduler/helper temporary files. This directory is emptied on

# scheduler startup and cannot be one of the standard (public) temporary

# directory locations for security reasons...

#TempDir /private/var/spool/cups/tmp

#

# End of "$Id: cups-files.conf.in 11203 2013-07-26 21:32:33Z msweet $".

#

I had the same problem. After updating to Yosemite, I could not print to my Dell 2130 cn anymore and tried to fix it with various suggestions found online, when I hit this error message (I added "Relax Sandboxing" as suggested, but introduced a typo). Luckily, I found in this very directory a "cups-files.con.pre-update" and copied that back to the original (using sudo). and the error was gone.

In order to get my printer working again I used the steps suggested here and the Yosemite fix here. Thanks for your help, Chris and UoL Computing Servies!

Best wishes

Tom