Comment # 3 on bug 1048331 from John Carrick Smith

I had not updated the the ppds before the problem emerged. The only updates
installed were those installed by PackageKit as part of regular updates. 

To try to resolve the problem I tried force re-installing software from the
standard repositories using Yast / Software Management tool so my system should
have been fully updated. This was before I engaged with the forum or raised
this bug.

I have rolled back the following updates:-
CUPS            openSUSE-2017-723
cups-pk-helper  openSUSE-2017-706
kernel-default  openSUSE-2017-716
kernel-firmware openSUSE-2017-746
glibc           openSUSE-2017-715

The script would not work on:-
hwdata          openSUSE-2017-721

I rebooted the system each time to ensure that no code was left loaded. Still
the problem persists. Also the printer was unplugged and re-plugged, with the
occasional power off and on.

Inspection of the other updates in the list didn't reveal any likelihood of
relating to printing. If I am mistaken and there are some then please indicate
which.

I have also tried 

echo Hello | lp -d Epson

and the same problem occurs.

The command:-
file /tmp/print-job-data.save 
reports that the file is not present.

When I test printing I am using a plain text file either using lp -d Epson
<filename> or printing from Kwrite.