form feed on hp/ux

[Tom Carswell]

We developed firmware for a printer that needs a form feed command (0x0C)to activate the program in the printer. We tested this on IBM RS6000 with no challenges. When we attach the printer to HPUX it does nothing when we send a print job. We are assuming that HPUX is not sending a FF command. Does anyone know how to set up the system so that we know we will get a FF command at the end of a print job?

[Sanjay_6]

Hi,

Try this,

echo "\014\c"

Put this at the end of the print command.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Tom:

This is not unique to HP-UX but really applies to all UNIX lp implementations. The key to your problem is the 'interface' file. Go to /var/spool/lp/interface. There you will find an interface script with the same name as your print queue. You can modify it. Typically all you need to do is add an echo "\f\c" to the section that actually prints the file.

[Bill Hassell]

I'd be curious as to why the page eject character (formfeed) is required to get the printer going. It certainly is non-standard as the vast majority of printers will eject a blank piece of paper in front of each job.

Yes, the correct methid to handle this is to customize the interface script. But this will work ONLY if the printer is locally connected. If the printer is really attached to another computer then you'll have to add the formfeed in front of each job. Remote printing takes the responsibility away from the originating node and places it on the remote print server.

[harry d brown jr]

Tom,

How is this printer connected to the HP (network printer, parallel port printer, serial port, mux strip, or magic (just kidding)) ?

This is NOT an OS issue, it's HOW you are talking to the printer issue and how you are sending data to that printer.

live free or die
harry

[harry d brown jr]

I forgot to add, that HPux does NOT have a different ASCII character set than Solaris, AIX, or Linux. Meaning that a CR is a CR, a NL is a NL, and a FF is a FF.

live free or die
harry