topic dot matrix printer formfeed in Operating System - HP-UX

dot matrix printer formfeed

Cheng Ngan — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 20:01:23 GMT

Hi,

I've set up our dot matrix printer with HP Jetadmin using a 'dumbplot printer with CR' and everything prints out fine. The problem we have is that we need to send a form feed to the printer once the job has been completed.

I've contacted HP support and they've pointed me in the right direction. They said to modify the /var/spool/lp/interface/model.orig/printername file.

I've attached the printer file. Any help with modifying this file to add the formfeed to the end of the print job would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Cheng Ngan

Re: dot matrix printer formfeed

Julio Yamawaki — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 20:30:24 GMT

Cheng,

try this:

while [ $i -le $copies ]
do
for file in $files
do
cat "$file" | sed 's/$/\
/' 2>&1
done
i=`expr $i + 1`
done
echo "\014"

Re: dot matrix printer formfeed

Cheng Ngan — Fri, 19 Mar 2004 12:57:11 GMT

Thanks Julio.

I tried this but it only sent an extra line feed at the end of the job and not a form feed.
Any ideas on what code I should add to send a form feed (or a Control-L)?

Cheng

Re: dot matrix printer formfeed

Julio Yamawaki — Fri, 19 Mar 2004 13:03:32 GMT

Cheng,

try changing \014 by \014\c.
If this won't work, try changing to \n

Re: dot matrix printer formfeed

A. Clay Stephenson — Fri, 19 Mar 2004 13:15:08 GMT

The echo "\014" sends a FF plus a LF (implicit); add a \c to not echo the LF.
echo "\014\c" but even better is:
echo "\f\c"; man echo for details.

This is what I would do:

TDIR=${TMPDIR:-/var/tmp}
T2=${TDIR}/P${$}_2.cmd
echo "\f\c" > ${T2}

...
...

for file in ${files}
do
cat "${file}" ${T2} 2>&1
done

....
....
rm -f ${T2}

Note that you could also create a "T1" file to do printer initialization and then
cat ${T1} "${file}" ${T2} 2>&1

to send both an initialization sequence and a termination sequence to the printer.

Re: dot matrix printer formfeed

Leif Halvarsson_2 — Fri, 19 Mar 2004 13:29:32 GMT

Hi,
The dumbplot script is intended for pen-plotters. Try the dumb model script instead, it sends by default a formfed after each file.

Re: dot matrix printer formfeed

Cheng Ngan — Fri, 19 Mar 2004 17:01:04 GMT

Got it working with the \014\c. option.
Thanks everyone.