SUMMARY: Remote printers munging print jobs

From: Dave Shevett (sparc!shevett@erika.bighouse.unipress.com)
Date: Fri Dec 11 1992 - 07:58:37 CST


OKAY! You can stop msging me now, WE HAVE A WINNER! :)

Apparently, this is a known 'trick' in setting up spooling on
SunOS systems. One I wasn't familiar with, but is very very
easy to fix. First, the original msg:

> I have a network consisting of (among other things) a SparcServer/330
> and a Sun 3/160 (i think). The Sparcserver (cleverly named 'sparc')
> uses the sun/3 (named 'erika') as a print server.
>
> We have 2 printers on erika, named 'slp' and 'flp'. We have set up
> entries on sparc to use slp and flp as remote printers. We can print
> to the printers from sparc via lpr -Pslp and things work peachy. BUT,
> if I run two jobs immediately after one another, they both show up
> on one printer. If I pause the jobs, say for 5 seconds, they go to
> their appropriate printer.
>
> Nother data point: if i run the two jobs immediately after one another
> on erika, they go to the correct printers. Go figure.
>
> (on sparc, /etc/printcap )
>
> flp|Okidata|The Fast Line Printer: \
> :rp=flp:rm=erika:
> slp|Panasonic|The Slow Line Printer: \
> :rp=slp:rm=erika:
> ipr|IMAGEN:\
> :lp=/dev/ttyd:\
> [etc etc etc]
>
> (On erika, /etc/printcap )
>
> slp|slw|lw|lp|Panasonic:\
> :br#1200:lp=/dev/tty0f:tr=\n:lf=/usr/adm/lpd-errs:
> ipr|ip|IMAGEN|Imagen:\
> :rp=ipr:rm=sparc:
> flp|flw|Okidata:\
> :br#2400:lp=/dev/tty0b:tr=\n:lf=/usr/adm/lpd-errs:
>
> sparc: SunOS 4.1.1
> erika: SunOS 4.0.3 ( i believe it's 3 )
>
> We tinkered for about an hour on this, and can't make heads or tails
> of it. Any suggestions?

The best answer can be summed up by Bill Stapleton, who quoth:

--------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Bill Stapleton <wls@csd4.csd.uwm.edu>

You haven't set-up a spool directory or any of the related files. So,
you get the defaults, and eveything goes in one place, so the first
printer called looks in that place and prints everything it finds.
The way I handle it is to make subdirectories under the main spooling
directory, then tell lpd where they are. I don't have a Sun handy,
but this is about what you need to do:

        Find the main spooling directory, I believe it's /usr/spool/lpd,
        or /var/spool/lpd. "cd" there, make a separate directory for each
        printer (mkdir slp flp), make sure the ownership and permissions are
        the same as that on the parent. Then add the entries into your
        /etc/printcap file, so it looks something like:

slp|slw|lw|lp|Panasonic:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/slp:\
        :br#1200:lp=/dev/tty0f:tr=\n:lf=/usr/adm/lpd-errs:
flp|flw|Okidata:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/flp:\
        :br#2400:lp=/dev/tty0b:tr=\n:lf=/usr/adm/lpd-errs:

Ideally, you want to do this for every printer on every machine,
including the remote machines, or you'll sometimes have the same
problems of files getting "mixed up". The directory the files get
put into is the *ONLY* way of tracing which printer the files were
sent to, so if you put the files from more than one printer into
the same directory...

--
Bill Stapleton
     wls@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
     uwmcsd4!wls

----------------------------------------------------------------

Once again, the List has come through, and our three printers are merrily printing concurrently. A few folks did mention that extra spaces in the printcap may cause problems. I left mine in, just to see what would happen, and it hasn't caused any problems yet (this after 3 days of operation). I'll keep the list posted if anything goofy happens.

Thanks to the following folks:

From: mueller@darmstadt.gmd.de (Lothar Mueller) From: Perry_Hitchison.Portland@xerox.com From: DKruse.SD@xerox.com From: david@camscan.co.uk (David Sansom) From: Torsten.Lif@eos.ericsson.se (Torsten Lif) From: dekurgpol@evelop-law.usc.edu (Elmar Kurgpold) From: utfpoag@ecdavis.edu (Tom Poage) From: DHAMPARIAN@idicl1.idi.battelle.org From: chris@rufus.state.com.au (Chris Keane) From: uunet.uu.net!oracodev!phil (P. Suematsu) From: ups!glenn@fourx.aus.sun.com (Glenn Satchell) From: miker@il.us.swissbank.com (Mike Raffety) From: Eckhard.Rueggeberg@ts.go.dlr.de From: dal@gcm.com (Dan Lorenzini) From: vasey@issi.com From: chuck@fsg.com (Chuck Yerkes) From: mgh@bihobl2.bih.harvard.edu(Michael G. Harrington)

---------------------.--------------------.-------------------------------- Dave Shevett | Unipress Software | "The shortest distance between Systems Jockey | Edison, NJ USA | two puns is a straight line..." shevett@unipress.com | (908)287-2100 x921 | - Doc Webster



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:06:54 CDT