NAME

lpsystem − register remote systems with the print service

SYNOPSIS

lpsystem [−t type] [−T timeout] [−R retry] [−y "comment"] system-name.br
   [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) 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. 

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.  Port monitors handle listening for remote service requests and routing the connection to the print service. 

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. 

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 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.  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. 

With respect to lpsystem −r: If the scheduler is waiting for a reply from a system, you cannot remove that system.  If the system never replies, you can use lpshut to shut down the scheduler and then remove the system. 

FILES

/var/spool/lp/∗ /etc/lp/∗

SEE ALSO

netconfig(4)

  —  Line Printer Spooling Utilities