Redirecting OpenVMS queue to Windows queue

[Robert Atkinson]

Hakan, there are a number of 'Headaches' I could mention regarding LPD.

You've already mentioned the main one, formatting.

I'd also throw into the pot PRINTCAP, and the amount of effort it takes to create an LPD queue.

As you said, you can use TELNETSYM to LPD relaying to sort some of the problems (and we do) but if it's at all possible, I'd try and stick with TELNETSYM queues in the main.

I'd spotted Mark's comment about "remote windows queue" after I origianlly posted, but my suspicion is that he could probably print directly to the printer and not go through a 2nd queuing mechanism (especially Windows). Mark?

Hope this clarifies the reason for my comment.

Rob.

[Hakan Zanderau ( Anders]

Rob,

I agree that LPR/LPR is not the most userfriendly symbiont, but it's not originally designed for VMS.

All symbionts have two faces....one happy and one not so happy ;-)

You can't stick to one. There is no magic symbiont that fits all needs. You need to pick the most suitable one to do your work.

regards,

Hakan Andersson

Did you see my suggestion how to "skin your cat" ?

[Robert Atkinson]

> Did you see my suggestion how to "skin your cat" ?

Yep - when I get through this weekends emails, I'll have a closer look.

Rob.

[Dale A. Marcy]

It is easy to do this in Multinet. At the VMS:

$ Multinet Configure/Printer
PRINTER-CONFIG> Add vmsqueuename
[Adding new configuration entry for queue "vmsqueuename"]
Remote Host Name or IP address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Protocol Type: [LPD] LPD
Remote Queue Name: [lp] windowsqueuename
PRINTER-CONFIG>exit
[Writing configuration to MULTINET_ROOT:[MULTINET]REMOTE-PRINTER-QUEUES.COM]
$ @multinet_root:[multinet]remote-printer-queues.com

The above steps are from a multinet V4.4-A installation, but I believe they are the same for your version.

[Verne Britton]

Haven't played with this for awhile, but be aware of the many LPR flags for "data type" ... the basic two are TEXT and BINARY ("f" for text and "l" or "v" for binary) and I can't remember if Windows treats them differently or not. Multinet can be forced to transmit the print job with either flag ... we have some Oracle add-ons that generate PCL on the fly and have to transmit that as Binary ...

Also had recent problems with LF to CR-LF translation ... sometimes this can be fixed with the HP sequence &k2G (in case ITRC messes this up, I wrote ESC ampersand "k2G") to force the printer itself to do the translation (although VMS and Multinet usually get it right).

Also if you want to enhance your Win2003 box, I have had very good luck using a 3rd party commerical LPD server for Windows ... WinLPR.

I am just a happy customer and not associated with that company. WinLPR is a replacement for the Microsoft LPD routines and will accept incoming LPR jobs ... I send jobs to it from VMS and Unix/Linux just fine.

This probably is overkill for your situation, as the generic Win2003 Windows component "Other Network File and Print Services" mentioned by Hakan above may be enough ...

WinLPR allows you to make any number of virtual queues for incoming jobs to target, each pointing to the same or different physical Windows print queues (local or networked) and each virtual queue can have a different header prefix (for Linux output, just like a setup module in VMS).

See www.alixoft.com for more info.

Naturally, perhaps like you, I prefer using VMS setup modules to handle printer control via ESC sequences.


Verne