I tried commenting out the output specification in /etc/cups/cups- pdf.conf:
### Default: /var/spool/cups-pdf/${USER} # Out ${HOME}/PDF The log file now shows: Mon Feb 6 17:13:12 2017 [DEBUG] output filename created (/var/spool/cups-pdf/skelem/Purchase_History.pdf) Mon Feb 6 17:13:12 2017 [DEBUG] ghostscript commandline built (/usr/bin/ps2pdf -q -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile="/var/spool/cups-pdf/skelem/Purchase_History.pdf" -dAutoRotatePages=/PageByPage -dAutoFilterColorImages=false -dColorImageFilter=/FlateEncode -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress -c .setpdfwrite -f /var/spool/cups-pdf/SPOOL/cups2pdf-5563) Mon Feb 6 17:13:12 2017 [DEBUG] output file unlinked (/var/spool/cups-pdf/skelem/Purchase_History.pdf) <snip> Mon Feb 6 17:13:12 2017 [DEBUG] spoolfile unlinked (/var/spool/cups-pdf/SPOOL/cups2pdf-5563) cups-pdf 2.6.1-21 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/879172 Title: cups-pdf not creating any output if changing output directory To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cups-pdf/+bug/879172/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs