lpsystem(1M) lpsystem(1M)
NAME
lpsystem - register remote systems with the print service
SYNOPSIS
lpsystem [-t type] [-T timeout] [-R retry] [-y "comment"] system-name
[system-name ...]
lpsystem -l [system-name ...]
lpsystem -r system-name [system-name ...]
lpsystem -A
DESCRIPTION
The lpsystem command is used to define parameters for the LP print
service, with respect to communication (via a high-speed network such
as STARLAN or TCP/IP) with remote systems. Only a privileged user
(that is, the owner of the login root) may execute the lpsystem
command.
Specifically, the lpsystem command is used to define remote systems
with which the local LP print service can exchange print requests.
These remote systems are described to the local LP print service in
terms of several parameters that control communication: type, retry
and timeout. These parameters are defined in /etc/lp/Systems. You
can edit this file with a text editor (such as vi) but editing is not
recommended.
The type parameter defines the remote system as one of two types: s5
(System V Release 4.0) or bsd (SunOS). The default type is s5.
The timeout parameter specifies the length of time (in minutes) that
the print service should allow a network connection to be idle. If
the connection to the remote system is idle (that is, there is no
network traffic) for N minutes, then drop the connection. (When
there is more work the connection will be restablished.) Legal
values are n, 0, and N, where N is an integer greater than 0. The
value n means ``never time out''; 0 means ``as soon as the connection
is idle, drop it.'' The default is n.
The retry parameter specifies the length of time to wait before
trying to re-establish a connection to the remote system, when the
connection was dropped abnormally (that is, a network error). Legal
values are n, 0, and N, where N is an integer greater than 0 and it
means ``wait N minutes before trying to reconnect. (The default is
10 minutes.) The value n means ``do not retry dropped connections
until there is more work''; 0 means ``try to reconnect immediately.''
The comment argument allows you to associate a free form comment with
the system entry. This is visible when lpsystem -l is used.
System-name is the name of the remote system from which you want to
be able to receive jobs, and to which you want to be able to send
jobs.
8/91 Page 1
lpsystem(1M) lpsystem(1M)
The command lpsystem -l [system-name] will print out a description of
the parameters associated with system-name (if a system has been
specified), or with all the systems in its database (if system-name
has not been specified).
The command lpsystem -r system-name will remove the entry associated
with system-name. The print service will no longer accept jobs from
that system or send jobs to it, even if the remote printer is still
defined on the local system.
The command lpsystem -A will print out the TCP/IP address of the
local machine in a format to be used when configuring the local port
monitor to accept requests from a SunOS system.
NOTES:
With respect to /etc/lp/Systems, this information is relatively
minimal with repect to controlling network communications. Network
addresses and services are handled by the Netconfig and Netdir
facilities (see the ``Network Services'' chapter in the System
Administrator's Guide for a discussion of network addresses and
services.) Port monitors handle listening for remote service
requests and routing the connection to the print service (see the
``Service Access'' chapter in the System Administrator's Guide for a
discusion of port monitors.)
If the Netconfig and Netdir facilities are not set up properly,
out-bound remote print service probably will not work. Similarly, if
the local port monitors are not set up to route remote print requests
to the print service, then service for remote systems will not be
provided. (See ``Allowing Remote Systems to Access Local Printers"
and "Configuring a Local Port Monitor" in the ``Print Service"
chapter of the System Administrator's Guide to find out how to do
this.)
With respect to the semantics of the timeout and retry values, the
print service uses one process for each remote system with which it
communicates, and it communicates with a remote system only when
there is work to be done on that system or work being sent from that
system.
The system initiating the connection is the ``master'' process and
the system accepting the connection is the ``slave'' process. This
designation serves only to determine which process dies (the slave)
when a connection is dropped. This helps prevent there from being
more than one process communicating with a remote system.
Furthermore, all connections are bi-directional, regardless of the
master/slave designation. You cannot control a system's master/slave
designation. Now, keeping all this information in mind, if a master
process times out, then both the slave and master will exit. If a
slave times out, then it is possible that the master may still live
and retry the connection after the retry interval. Therefore, one
Page 2 8/91
lpsystem(1M) lpsystem(1M)
system's resource management strategy can effect another system's
strategy.
With respect to lpsystem -A: a SunOS system (described with -t bsd)
can be connected to your system only via TCP/IP, and print requests
from a SunOS system can come in to your machine only via a special
port (515). The address given to you from lpsystem will be the
address of your system and port 515. This address is used by your
TCP/IP port monitor (see sacadm(1M) and nlsadmin(1M)) to ``listen''
on that address and port, and to route connections to the print
service. (This procedure is discussed in the ``Service Access''
chapter of the System Administrator's Guide.) The important point
here is that this is where you get the address refered to in that
procedure.
The command lpsystem -A will not work if your system name and IP
address are not listed in /etc/inet/hosts and the printer service is
not listed in /etc/inet/services.
FILES
/var/spool/lp/* /etc/lp/*
SEE ALSO
netconfig(4)
Programmer's Guide: Networking Interfaces
System Administrator's Guide
8/91 Page 3