VMS Flag Pages In LPD Symbiont

[Galen Tackett]

Jerry,
> Maybe you can delete and add the queue with a Yes.......
I did try that but it had no effect.

I also made certain that the symbiont process was gone before I re-created the queue, so it wasn't a matter of the old symbiont still running with the previous settings.

I'm hoping to look at this a little closer again this week after not having the time last week.

I have the option of submitting it to HP against a new system that is under contract for software support. I'll do that if I don't find something pretty quickly.

[Galen Tackett]

Finally I've got a flag page printed, but it was a bit more complicated than I'd expected.

Here's how I got there.

I defined TCPIP$LPD_VMS_FLAGPAGES true as discussed above. Then I set up an outgoing LPD queue on VMS that's directed to the internal LPD queue on an HP LaserJet 4250 printer. The VMS queue is named LJ4250_LPD and is set /DEFAULT=FLAG=ONE.

I'm logged in to (say) arda.ournet.com as user TACKETT and issue the command:

$ PRINT/QUE=LJ4250_LPD -
/note="This is a sample note" -
/job="Galen's Job" -
myfile.txt


It gave me a kind of job trailer page that says this, in 10 or 12 point Courier, at the top of the page:

User: TACKETT
Host: arda.ournet.com
Class: This is a sample note
Job: Galen's Job


...and that's all. Not very much of a flag page, is it?


After browsing around a while in the "TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Management" manual, I came across the description of TELNETSYM relay queues in section 25.4.

So I set up a relay queue as follows:

$ INIT/QUE/START -
/ON="TCPIP$QUEUE:LJ4250_LPD"/FLAG=ONE -
/PROCESSOR=TCPIP$TELNETSYM -
lj4250_relayq


Printing to lj4250_relayq produces a fully formatted print job with the standard VMS flag page(s).

At this point I deassigned TCPIP$LPD_VMS_FLAGPAGES since the LPD flag page wasn't especially useful.

[Robert Atkinson]

Sorry Galen, I thought you were already aware of TELNET relay queues, which is why I didn't point you in that direction earlier.

Like you, I'm having to resort to using a relay queue to get a flag page.

There are 2 problems you may need to know about :-

1) The first form-feed in the file will be removed automatically. I think this can be controlled, but will be a global change, so I can't implement it.

2) I discovered that an extra blank line is being added to my output data, compared with using just LPD. This is not the line difference that occurs after the form-feed, but is mid way down the page.

I need to do a trace to see what's being output exactly, but it doesn't bode well!

Rob.

[Galen Tackett]

Rob,

I may well have been already aware of TELNET relay queues as it all seemed a bit familiar. But if so it was so long ago that I wasn't aware that I was aware.

:-)

Galen

[Robert Atkinson]

I got a response back from HP in the end, which basically said that LPD VMS-style flag pages don't exist.

So, it's back to using the TELNET queues!

Rob.