QCONFIG(5,F) AIX Technical Reference QCONFIG(5,F)
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qconfig
PURPOSE
Configures a printer queueing system.
DESCRIPTION
The /etc/qconfig file describes the queues and devices available for use by the
print command, which places requests on a queue, and the qdaemon command, which
removes requests from the queue and processes them. The /etc/qconfig file is
an attribute file.
Some stanzas in this file describe queues, and other stanzas describe devices.
Every queue stanza requires that one or more device stanzas immediately follow
it in the file. The first queue stanza describes the default queue. The print
command uses this queue when it receives no queue parameter.
The name of a queue stanza must be one to three characters long. The following
table shows some of the field names along with some of the possible values that
appear in this file:
acctfile Identifies the file used to save print accounting information.
FALSE, the default, indicates suppress accounting. If the named
file does not exist, no accounting is done.
argname Identifies the queue name identifier that is used in the print
command to specify the queue.
device Identifies the symbolic name that refers to the device stanza.
discipline Defines the queue serving algorithm. The default, fcfs, means
first come first served, while sjn means shortest job next.
node Identifies, by name, the TCF (Transparent Computing Facility)
cluster site which serves the queue. The special symbol local is
used to describe a generic queue which runs on all the sites in the
cluster. The /etc/qconfig file looks for the node name in the TCF
cluster sitenam field of the /etc/site file.
friend Indicates whether the backend updates the status file and responds
to terminate signals. TRUE is the default. FALSE indicates it
does not.
up Defines the state of the queue. TRUE, the default, indicates that
it is running. FALSE indicates that it is not running.
If a field is omitted, its default value is assumed. The default values for a
queue stanza are:
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friend = TRUE
discipline = fcfs
up = TRUE
acctfile = FALSE
Also, the default argname value is the name of the stanza preceded by a "-"
(minus). The device and node fields cannot be omitted.
The name of a device stanza is arbitrary. The fields that can appear in a
stanza are:
access Specifies the type of access the backend has to the file specified by
the file field. The value of access is write if the backend has write
access to the file, or both if it has both read and write access.
This field is ignored if the file field has the value FALSE.
align Specifies whether the backend sends a form-feed control before
starting the job if the printer was idle. The default is FALSE.
backend Specifies the full path name of the backend, optionally followed by
flags and parameters to be passed to it.
feed Specifies the number of separator pages to print when the device
becomes idle, or the value never, which indicates that the backend is
not to print separator pages.
file Identifies the special file where the output of backend is to be
redirected. FALSE, the default, indicates no redirection. In this
case, the backend opens the output file.
header Specifies whether a header page prints before each job or group of
jobs. The default, never, indicates no header page at all, while
always specifies a header page before each job, and group specifies a
header before each group of jobs for the same user.
trailer Specifies whether a trailer page prints after each job or group of
jobs. never, the default, means no trailer page at all. always means
a trailer page after each job. group means a trailer page after each
group of jobs for the same user.
The qdaemon places the information contained in the feed, header, trailer, and
align fields into a status file that is sent to the backend. Backends that do
not update the status file do not use the information it contains.
If a field is omitted, its default value is assumed. The backend field cannot
be omitted. The default values in a device stanza are:
file = FALSE
access = write
feed = never
header = never
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trailer = never
align = FALSE
The print command automatically converts the ASCII qconfig file to binary when
the binary version is missing or older than the ASCII version. The binary
version is found in /etc/qconfig.bin.
Unlike the format of the ports file, the qconfig file format does not allow
default stanzas.
EXAMPLES
1. The batch queue supplied with the AIX system might contain these stanzas:
bsh:
argname = bsh
friend = FALSE
discipline = fcfs
device = bshdev
node = local
bshdev:
backend = /bin/sh
To run a shell procedure called myproc using this batch queue, enter:
print bsh myproc
The queuing system runs the files one at a time, in the order submitted.
The qdaemon process redirects standard input, standard output, and standard
error to the /dev/null file.
2. To allow two batch jobs to run at once:
bsh:
argname = save
friend = FALSE
discipline = fcfs
node = local
device = bsh1,bsh2
bsh1:
backend = /bin/sh
bsh2:
backend = /bin/sh
FILES
/etc/qconfig
/etc/qconfig.bin
/usr/lpd/digest
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RELATED INFORMATION
In this book: "attributes."
The print, lp, and qdaemon commands in AIX Operating System Commands Reference.
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