CODEWITHSUNDEEP
printingghostscriptpostscript
Seeth
Seeth

Reputation: 73

Printing postscript with GSView 5.0

I've been using GSView 5.0 and GhostScript 9.52 to do postscript printing on vellums. However, today GSView started throwing error codes on every .ps file I've attempted to print. I'm using Windows 10 Pro and the printer is an Epson Artisan 1430.

The error is as follows:

GPL Ghostscript 9.52: **** Could not open file 00000e60.
Unrecoverable error: invalidfileaccess in showpage
Operand stack:
   --nostringval-- 1 true
gsapi_execute_cont returns -9
gsapi_exit returns 0

I've tried changing permissions for the files and different printer drivers to no avail. I'm sorry I can't be more descriptive on this issue as it's hard to articulate.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1133

Answers (1)

KenS
KenS

Reputation: 31199

OK... You must have recently updated to a new version of Ghostscript. I can reproduce your problem, and it comes down to a recent (documented) change in behaviour for Ghostscript.

Due to the well-documented public disclosure of security exploits using Ghostscript a couple of years ago, the current version (and any version since 9.50) now defaults to running in SAFER mode.

When running in SAFER, Ghostscript prevents access by the PostScript interpreter to the file system. For those unaware of the problem; PostScript is a full-blown programming language and, by design, permits programs to access the underlying file system. SAFER mode prevents this so that malicious PostScript programs cannot, for example, run arbitrary code on your computer.

It seems that GSView is using Ghostscript in a way which requires it to read the PostScript program to be printed using the PostScript interpreter, instead of the more normal practice of specifying the input file as one of the arguments. For simplicity the input file is granted read availability by the Ghostscript executable. I suspect that GSview is using the DLL directly and not adding that extra information.

Now there are ways to permit access to specific files or folders, so that existing PostScript programs can continue to work, but obviously this requires some changes in the calling application. GSview has not changed in, literally, years so obviously it does not take any such action.

You can, however, get GSview to work as before. Under Options select Advanced Configure. In the resulting dialog look for the 'Ghostscript options' text box. In there add -dNOSAFER, that should get it to work again, though you may have to reboot the computer if the OS print subsystem has stalled.

Yes, this does open you up to the sorts of exploits I alluded to above, you should only do this with PostScript programs that you trust.

Upvotes: 2

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