LPSYSTEM(1M) RISC/os Reference Manual 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 sys-
tems. 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 con-
nection 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 re-established.) 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 connec-
tion 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 immedi-
ately.''
The comment argument allows you to associate a free form
comment with the system entry. This is visible when
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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 sys-
tem.
NOTES
With respect to /etc/lp/Systems, this information is rela-
tively minimal with repect to controlling network communica-
tions. Network addresses and services are handled by the
Netconfig and Netdir facilities (see the ``Network Ser-
vices'' chapter in the System Administrator's Guide for a
discussion of network addresses and services.) Port moni-
tors handle listening for remote service requests and rout-
ing the connection to the print service (see the ``Service
Access'' chapter in the System Administrator's Guide for a
discussion of port monitors.)
If the Netconfig and Netdir facilities are not set up prop-
erly, 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 ser-
vice for remote systems will not be provided. (See ``Allow-
ing Remote Systems to Access Local Printers" and "Configur-
ing 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'' pro-
cess and the system accepting the connection is the
``slave'' process. This designation serves only to
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LPSYSTEM(1M) RISC/os Reference Manual LPSYSTEM(1M)
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. Further-
more, 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 pos-
sible that the master may still live and retry the connec-
tion 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
to ``listen'' on that address and port, and to route connec-
tions 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)
System Administrator's Guide
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