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 TCP/IP) with remote systems. Only a user with
appropriate privileges 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. By using lpsystem, you can ensure that lpsched
is notified of any changes to the Systems file.
The type parameter defines the remote system as one of three
types: nuc (Netware UNIX Client), 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 reestablished.) Legal values are n, 0, and
N, where N is an integer greater than 0. If a decimal number
is used for N, it will be truncated to the whole number. 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 (in minutes)
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
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minutes before trying to reconnect. If a decimal number is
used for N, it will be truncated to the whole number. (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. Two special entries are provided with the
/etc/lp/Systems file by default. These entries allow all
connections to s5 and bsd systems. The entry that allows
connection to any s5 system uses the plus (+) sign as the
system-name. The entry that allows connection to any bsd
system uses the asterisk (*) as the system-name.
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
scheduler must be running when the removal of a systems file
entry occurs, because the scheduler checks whether the system
entry is currently used by a printer destination. If
currently used, the system entry cannot be removed.
If you use lpsystem -r system-name to remove a system and you
have active printers for that system, you will not be allowed
to remove the system from the system file. lpsystem -r
system-name will only work if no printers for that system
exist.
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
Network addresses and services are handled by the Name-to-
Address Mapping facilities. (See the ``Network Services''
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chapter in the Network Administration for a discussion of
network addresses and services.) Port monitors handle
listening for remote service requests and routing the
connection to the print service.
If the Name-to-Address Mapping 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 is 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. Typically, a client machine has the master child
and the server machine has the slave child. 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 affect 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 to ``listen''
on that address and port, and to route connections to the
print service. [See sacadm(1M) and nlsadmin(1M)]. The
important point here is that this is where you get the address
referred to in that procedure.
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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.
All forms of the lpsystem command accept + or "*" (asterisk
enclosed in double quotes) for system-name.
FILES
/etc/lp/*
/usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/uxlp
language-specific message file [See LANG on environ(5).]
/var/spool/lp/*
REFERENCES
netconfig(4)
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 4