printer spools

[Norman_21]

Hi guys,

I run an application that sends the output to particular printers. One of those printers has stop working and print jobs for that particular printer is pending.Could anyone please advise how can I forward those printer jobs to another printer name.
when I issue the lpstat -o or just lpstat I see the print jobs but I need someone to advise the steps to fwd them to another printer.
Thanks and appreciate your support.

[Stefan Farrelly · Accepted solution]

use lpalt (see man lpalt)

eg. lpalt -d

[RAC_1]

You can do from your application.
From Unix side you can use
lpalt command.(can move a request at a time)

lpmove to move all requests.

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi

lpmove

You must shut down the spooler before (lpshut) and restart (lpsched).

Look at man lpmove.

[Norman_21]

Thanks guys for the quick reply, it is worked fine. However, I wonder if I can write a script to prompt the user for the source printer and destination printer. Could anyone advise.

Thanks again.

[RAC_1]

Is the printer you are talking about locally connected or connected through print server? If it is connected to print server or if it is network printer then you can put script as follows

ping to printer ip, if fails redirect the print to other printer.

Regards,

[Norman_21]

thanks ANIL,

The printer is networked. however, what I want to do is something like that.

Example:

echo "please enter the printer ID you want to transfer?\c"
read ANSW
lpalt $ANSW -dprn085

Now, is it possible to set a variable for the target printer so that the user can enter other printer number as desired?
appreciate your feed back.

[Pete Randall]

Hi,

I mangled a printer selection script that I had toyed with a couple years ago to approximate what you're looking for. I didn't get to test it but I think you can make something out of it:




function moveit
{
lpalt $printer -dprn085


echo "**** please enter the printer ID you want to transfer? ****"
echo "****

PS3="Enter your printer selection"
select printer in "CRQMS1" "CRQMS2" "CRQMS3" "crlzr1" "CLASS_HPIII" "DHS_HP4SIMX
" "SP_HP4SIMX" "Exit"
do
case $printer in
"CRQMS1" )
printit
"CRQMS2" )
printit
"CRQMS3" )
printit
"crlzr1" )
printit
"CLASS_HPIII" )
printit
"DHS_HP4SIMX" )
printit
"SP_HP4SIMX" )
printit
"Exit" )
echo exiting...
exit 0;;
* )
echo "The printer you selected is not valid"
echo "Please try again"
esac




Hope this helps,
Pete

[Pete Randall]

Actually, to do what you asked, you'll need another case statement for the output printer, then your "moveit" function would become "lpmove $printer $outprinter".

And the function should have a trailing } after it - got lost in the translation, I guess.

Pete

[Pete Randall]

Hmmmm, now that I look at it - the whole script is nothing but bugs. Until I can post a cleaned up version (or someone else posts a better one), consider it pseudo-code.

Sorry,
Pete

[Pete Randall]

OK, let's try this again:

function moveit
{
lpalt $printer -d$outprinter

}
echo "**** please enter the printer ID you want to transfer?
****"
echo "****

PS3="Enter your printer selection"
select printer in "CRQMS1" "CRQMS2" "CRQMS3" "crlzr1"
"CLASS_HPIII" "DHS_HP4SIMX
" "SP_HP4SIMX" "Exit"
do
case $printer in
"CRQMS1" )
moveit ;;
"CRQMS2" )
moveit''
"CRQMS3" )
moveit ;;
"crlzr1" )
moveit ;;
"CLASS_HPIII" )
moveit ;;
"DHS_HP4SIMX" )
moveit ;;
"SP_HP4SIMX" )
moveit;;
"Exit" )
echo exiting...
exit 0;;
* )
echo "The printer you selected is not valid"
echo "Please try again"
esac



As before, you need to add the second case statement to determine the $outprinter, but that should be closer to functional.

(Nothing like debugging your lousy coding in public to build your ego, is there?)

Pete

[Pete Randall]

Arrgghh! Just looked at it again - the lpalt command should have been lpmove.

Pete

[Norman_21]

Thanks Pete for the script!!!