A script to check the printers in AT.

printers.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
import subprocess

good_colour = "\033[0;32m"
bad_colour = "\033[0;31m"
clear_colour = "\033[0m"


class Printer(object):
    """
    This class represents a printer in AT.
    """

    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name
        self.colour = name.endswith('c')

        self._query_output = self._get_info()
        self.job_count = self._count_jobs()

        self.status_colour = self._get_colour()

    def __str__(self):
        """
        The string representation of a printer object.
        """
        return self.status_colour + self.name + " has " + \
            str(self.job_count) + " jobs." + clear_colour

    def _get_colour(self):
        """
        Return the colour based on the number of jobs in the printer.
        """
        if self.job_count < 3:
            colour = good_colour
        else:
            colour = bad_colour

        return colour

    def _count_jobs(self):
        """
        Return the number of jobs the printer has.
        """
        # There are 2 information lines. So we subtract 2.
        return len(self._query_output) - 2

    def _get_info(self):
        """
        Execute the lpq command on each printer to gain information about it.
        """
        output = subprocess.Popen("lpq -P " + self.name,
            shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
        return output.stdout.readlines()

PRINTER_NAMES = ["at3", "at13c", "at14", "at7", "at10c", "at17"]
PRINTERS = [Printer(name) for name in PRINTER_NAMES]

for printer in PRINTERS:
    print printer