lp alternative

[A. Daniel King_1]

Is there a GNU or other alternative for HP that will allow lp'ing/printing of files over 2GB?

[Rick Garland]

There is enscript available from the software porting archive - gatekeep.cs.utah.edu. Available in depot format as well as source.

Not aware that lp has a size restriction unless you are constrained by the lp spool directory where the request files are stored until the print job is completed.

Over 2 GB may be an issue of the lp spool directory not being setup for large files. You may also want to look at increasing the size of the lp spool directory.

Hope you have a high speed line printer as well.

[Peter Godron]

Hi,
are you sure it's a problem with lp not with the filesystem used for the temp storage?
Are you getting any error messages?

As a quick fix can you split the file?

Regards

[A. Daniel King_1]

The error follows. BIGFILE is 3GB, and I'm running as root.

[09:28:09] adk@myhost [/tmpdir]
# lp -dxMYPRINTER /tmpdir/BIGFILE
lp: can't access file "/tmpdir/BIGFILE"
lp: request not accepted

The spooler area is largefile enabled.

[Rick Garland]

Are you sure BIGFILE is in the /tmpdir/BIGFILE location as you specified? This error is saying that the file is not found, doesn't exist, for the lp system to act on it.

[A. Daniel King_1]

[10:00:51] adk@myhost [/tmpdir]
# /usr/bin/ll -d /tmpdir /tmpdir/BIGFILE
drwxrwxrwx 24 adk sys 12288 Feb 10 08:42 /sybkup
-rw-rw-r-- 1 adk sys 3506168400 Feb 10 08:41 /sybkup/BIGFILE

[A. Daniel King_1]

Sorry, /sybkup should read /tmpdir!!!

[Rick Garland]

So are you issuing the command 'lp -dMYPRINTER /sybkup/BIGFILE'?

[A. Daniel King_1]

I am printing from multiple locations, and got my output munged trying to make it generic for public consumption.

There are no path issues. The printer exists and accepts small files from the same locations. The file exists and is readable by the current shell.

enscript is close, but it does not look like a spooler subsystem. Does anyone have experience with LPRng?

[Rick Garland]

How about CUPS?

[Peter Godron]

Hi,
could you check the status of the lp system with: lpstat -s
Anything unusual?
Regards

[A. Daniel King_1]

Nothing unusual about lpstat -s. As I've stated, small files print just fine ...

[A. Daniel King_1]

CUPS, okay. This looks like what I was seeking. Do we know if it takes large files?

[Rick Garland]

An lp spooler will just stream the file to wherever the spooler tmpdir is. If the spooler tmpdir is able to handle large files then there is not a problem.

CUPS will handle whatever print job you throw at it. Make sure you have enough trees and enough time and a fast lineprinter.

[Pete Randall]

To expand on what Rick is saying:

Your file is going to be copied to the /var/spool/lp directory for printing. Do you have 2GB of free space in /var?


Pete

[Rick Garland]

And is the /var/spool/lp enables for large files? (What ever that LV is)

[A. Daniel King_1]

We have about 20GB available in the spool area.

Other programs, such as GNU tar, GNU zip, etc. have trouble with large files, unless they are compiled a certain way, enabling large-file support. I'll take a look myself, but I was hoping that someone had specific experience with LARGE print using CUPS (or LPRng, etc.)

It seems the HP has an enhancement request in for "lp" to be able to handle large files, but the fix is not yet available.

BTW: We have several fast printers and a forest of paper just waiting for these large files!!!

[A. Daniel King_1]

Largefiles are enabled on both the source filesystem and the spool filesystems. fsadm says so:

# fsadm /spool
fsadm: /etc/default/fs is used for determining the file system type
largefiles

(/var/spool is a link to this file system.)

[Thierry Poels_1]

hi,

did you try : "cat BIGFILE | lp -d printer"
In this way lp does not have to open the large inputfile itself.

regards,
Thierry.

[Cheryl Griffin]

Rick & Pete -
FYI: There SR to add largefile support to lp is SR 8606291139. The two error messages "lp: can't access file" and "lp: request not accepted" are the typical symptoms of this issue.

The advised workaround is to split the print job into smaller than 2Gig jobs.

[Pete Randall]

Cheryl,

What's an "SR"? I assume, since you mention a workaround, that it must be an acknowledged problem that HP intends to do something about?


Pete

[Peter Godron]

Cheryl,
many thanks for this. Just proves, you never stop learning.

So my inital quick fix was right!!

Regards

[Robert-Jan Goossens_1]

Pete,

SR is a Service Request.

Regards,
Robert-Jan

[Cheryl Griffin]

SR is a problem report. This might be considered an ER (enhancement report) since the spooler is behaving the way it was designed. Adding largefiles support could be considered an enhancement.

And Peter You were right on the money with your original answer.

[A. Daniel King_1]

Splitting the file is the right answer for now.