In CUPS 1.2+ (shipped with RHEL/CentOS 5 and later), the default ErrorPolicy changed from retry-job to stop-printer. This means when printers encounter errors like:

• USB disconnection
• Network timeouts
• Paper jams
• Out of toner/ink

The printer automatically gets disabled instead of retrying the job. This creates administrative overhead in multiuser environments where printers need to be manually re-enabled with cupsenable.

For existing printers, you can modify the error policy either through:

# Command line method
lpadmin -p printer_name -o printer-error-policy=retry-job

# Direct config edit (requires cups restart)
sed -i 's/ErrorPolicy stop-printer/ErrorPolicy retry-job/' /etc/cups/printers.conf
service cups restart

To make retry-job the global default for all newly added printers:

# Edit cupsd.conf
vi /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

# Add this directive (create if doesn't exist)
DefaultErrorPolicy retry-job

# Restart CUPS
service cups restart

For older CUPS versions (pre-1.4), you might need to modify the printer templates:

# RHEL/CentOS 5 location
vi /etc/cups/ppd-standard.tmpl

# Find and replace
s/DefaultErrorPolicy stop-printer/DefaultErrorPolicy retry-job/

After making changes, verify with:

# Check default policy
lpoptions -l | grep ErrorPolicy

# Test printer status
lpstat -p -d

# Force an error (replace with your printer URI)
usb_printer_uri="$(lpstat -v | awk '{print $3}' | sed 's/://')"
cupsdisable "$usb_printer_uri" && sleep 30 && cupsenable "$usb_printer_uri"

For managing multiple servers, create a deployment script:

#!/bin/bash
# Set default error policy for all CUPS servers

CONF_FILE="/etc/cups/cupsd.conf"
TEMP_FILE="/tmp/cupsd.tmp"

# Backup original config
cp "$CONF_FILE" "${CONF_FILE}.bak-$(date +%F)"

# Process config file
awk '
/DefaultErrorPolicy/ { 
    sub(/stop-printer/, "retry-job")
    found=1
}
{ print }
END {
    if (!found) print "DefaultErrorPolicy retry-job"
}' "$CONF_FILE" > "$TEMP_FILE"

# Replace config
mv "$TEMP_FILE" "$CONF_FILE"

# Apply to existing printers
for printer in $(lpstat -v | awk '{print $3}' | sed 's/://'); do
    lpadmin -p "$printer" -o printer-error-policy=retry-job
done

# Restart CUPS
service cups restart

Since RHEL/CentOS 5, CUPS has defaulted to using stop-printer as its error policy when printers encounter issues like:

• USB disconnections
• Network timeouts
• Paper jams
• Out-of-toner situations

This means any temporary failure automatically disables the printer until someone manually runs cupsenable. In multi-user environments, this creates unnecessary administrative overhead.

The default behavior is defined in each printer's configuration in /etc/cups/printers.conf:

<Printer example>
...
ErrorPolicy stop-printer
</Printer>

While we can override this during printer creation:

lpadmin -p printer_name -v device_uri -o printer-error-policy=retry-job -E

or by manually editing the config file, these are temporary solutions that don't address the root issue.

To make retry-job the system-wide default, modify CUPS' main configuration:

# Edit the cupsd.conf file
sudo vim /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

# Add this line in the main section:
DefaultErrorPolicy retry-job

# Restart CUPS
sudo service cups restart

After making this change, verify it works:

# Create a test printer
sudo lpadmin -p testprinter -v file:/dev/null -E

# Check its error policy
lpoptions -p testprinter | grep ErrorPolicy

# Expected output:
printer-error-policy=retry-job

For printers already configured, use this bash script to update them all:

#!/bin/bash
for printer in $(lpstat -v | awk '{print $3}' | tr -d ':')
do
  sudo lpadmin -p $printer -o printer-error-policy=retry-job
  echo "Updated $printer to retry-job policy"
done

For large deployments, consider implementing this through configuration management:

Ansible playbook example:

- name: Configure CUPS error policy
  hosts: printservers
  tasks:
    - name: Set default error policy
      lineinfile:
        path: /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
        line: "DefaultErrorPolicy retry-job"
        state: present
      notify: restart cups

    - name: Update existing printers
      command: lpadmin -p {{ item }} -o printer-error-policy=retry-job
      loop: "{{ ansible_facts.cups_printers }}"
  
  handlers:
    - name: restart cups
      service:
        name: cups
        state: restarted

class cups_config {
  file_line { 'cups_error_policy':
    path  => '/etc/cups/cupsd.conf',
    line  => 'DefaultErrorPolicy retry-job',
    match => '^DefaultErrorPolicy',
  }

  exec { 'update_printers':
    command     => 'lpstat -v | awk \'{print $3}\' | tr -d \':\' | xargs -I {} lpadmin -p {} -o printer-error-policy=retry-job',
    path        => ['/usr/bin', '/usr/sbin'],
    refreshonly => true,
    subscribe   => File_line['cups_error_policy'],
  }
}