This document applies to all Levels of AIX.
"The AIX Guide to Printer and Printing" (order number SC23-2783)
"Printing for Fun and Profit" (order number GG24-3570)
lp -d qname -o option1 -o option2 -o option3 filenames OR qprt -P qname option1 option2 option3 filenames OR enq -P qname option1 option2 option3 filenames OR lpr -P qname option1 option2 option3 filenames OR from lpd daemon OR from dtprint (on the CDE desktop)
If the command used to queue the print job was lp, qprt, lpr but not enq, the flags are translated into an equivalent enq flags and the enq command is invoked. For example:
lp -d qname /my/fileThe lp command does nothing more than invoke: enq -P qname -j -- /my/file |
For the lpr command the defaults for:
lpr -P qname /my/fileinclude the -c and -Bgn flags which cause a header page and print spooling as shown here: enq -P asc -c -Bgn /etc/motd |
The qprt flags are passed to enq as -o flags:
qprt -p12 -z+ -P qname /my/filewhich generates the following enq command enq -o -p -o 12 -o -z -o + -P qname /my/file |
The ## is a rank number, the user
is the user who submitted the job, and the queue is the queue to
which the job was sent. Starting at AIX 4.2.1 there is a series of characters
at the end of the file to make the name unique.
The following shows the directory listing of /var/spool/lpd/qdir
with jobs queued at AIX 4.2.1. The naming convention for this file
changed at AIX 4.2.1 to allow a much larger number of files for
a user to a single queue.
-rw-rw---- 1 root printq 3828 Jul 8 15:36 n0jwtesch:pcl$#@!pBib -rw-rw---- 1 root printq 3810 Jul 8 15:38 n0root:asc$#@!rBUc -rw-rw---- 1 root printq 3837 Jul 8 15:40 n0root:asc$#@!rC7c |
The flag information is passed from enq to the qdaemon in the JDF at the end of the file as shown below:
-Pasc -Bgn <-- enq flags STDIN.18024 <-- file name rocky <-- User submitting the job tesch <-- System with job 0 $#@!-p <-- non-enq flags (Other flags $#@!17 $#@!-z $#@!+ /var/spool/qdaemon/tS0rC7a 2 <-- File to print |
Then, enq signals the qdaemon to let qdaemon know that a job has been queued.
qname: device = lpxxx lpxxx: file = /dev/lp0 backend = /some/backend optiona optionb optionc |
and a user queued a print job to this queue:
qprt -P qname option1 option2 option3 /some/fileThe daemon would invoke the backend program, passing it any arguments found in the qconfig file, followed by any command-line arguments that are contained in the job description file. The last command-line argument is always the name of the file to be printed.
No standard input can be piped to the backend program - the backend must accept its input as a filename residing in the last command-line argument.
NOTE: that if a pipe is involved in queueing up the job (eg. lptest|enq -Pqname) or the job is spooled with the -c flag to enq, data is first copied into a temp file in /var/spool/qdaemon and then the name of the temp file is passed to the backend as the last command-line argument. Be sure /var has enough room to accommodate the amount of space needed to store the copy.
So, with the qconfig entry and command shown above, qdaemon would
invoke:
/some/backend optiona optionb optionc option1 option2 option3 /some/file
Since the "file = " is arbitrary, output of a queue could be sent to a file, to a tape drive, or practically anything. A backend program does not even need to be related to printing. For example, if your backend program is /bin/ksh, then Korn shell scripts could be queued to the queue and executed sequentially. Any output would go to the file = file.
A queue can be used for nearly any tasks that should be done one at a time.
Print Backend Exit Codes |
|
---|---|
Exit Code | Description |
0 | successful |
64 | Take the queue down, and keep job queues |
101 | bad flag, bad load, bad file open, etc. |
102 | printer failed |
103 | filter terminated; printer OK |
104 | filter terminated; printer not printing |
105 | job cancelled; printer OK |
106 | job cancelled; printer not printing |
These exit codes are undocumented and therefore subject to change without notice.
This is a highly simplified overview of the process of processing jobs through the AIX spooler. Queues can have multiple devices so jobs sent to a queue go to the first idle device. Special backend programs such as piobe are quite complex and can invoke user-defined filters and formatters to process the queued jobs.
[ Doc Ref: 91805849017168 Publish Date: Feb. 13, 2001 4FAX Ref: 6425 ]