This section is a basic tutorial on using many of the features of
the
ifhp
filter.
If you plan to make use of any of the advanced filter options or
modify the configuration,
you should read and try out several of the
configuration exercises.
These exercises require the use of several configuration files
that have predefined values as well as the
default
/etc/ifhp.conf file.
The test files are normally located in the distribution
testscripts
directory.
It is assumed that these exercises will be done in that
directory.
The
config=path;path;path
option specifies the list of configuration files for
ifhp
to read.
Here is a sample of the configuration file
t1.conf:
# modify the next line to contain
# the name, IP address, or pathname of the printer
dev=CHANGE_THIS
debug=3
stty=38400 -echo -crmod -raw -oddp -evenp ixon pass8 -ixany cbreak crtscts
trace
ps@
pjl@
pcl@
text
The command
ifhp -T/etc/ifhp.conf;t1.conf
/etc/ifhp.conf and then the
t1.conf file to be read and configuration information extracted.
The various options in this file are quite important for debugging
and testing.
The
debug
and
trace
options can also be specifed on the command line,
and cause the debug facilities to be turned on and debug trace output
to be put to
STDERR.
Normally,
trace output is written only to the
statusfile
specified by the command line
-s option or the configuration file
statusfile=path entry.
The
text entry causes the filter to accept text files
and simply pass them through without processing,
and the
ps@
pjl@
pcl@
entries disable related processing.
In normal operation,
ifhp
sends its output to
STDOUT or file desciptor 2.
However,
when testing or using the
ifhp
filter in standalone mode,
it is useful to have the filter open the connection
to a file or device directly.
The following sections
discuss how to modify the configuration file to do this,
as well as how to implement a simple
a
This method is useful when trying to debug a set of configuration
options and you want to capture output to a file.
The
dev=path
option is used to specify the output pathname.
testscripts
directory,
copy the
t1.conf
file to
ifhp.conf
and edit
ifhp.conf
so it has the following lines:
# dev=/tmp/out
# debug=3
stty=38400 -echo -crmod -raw -oddp -evenp ixon pass8 -ixany cbreak crtscts
trace
ps@
pjl@
pcl@
text
##> ifhp -Tconfig=./ifhp.conf < hi.txt
ifhp 12:28:20.603 [6089] Process_job: setting up printer
ifhp 12:28:20.605 [6089] Do_accounting: accounting at start, pagecount 0, pages 0
ifhp 12:28:20.605 [6089] Process_job: sending job file
ifhp 12:28:20.605 [6089] Send_job: starting transfer
Hello World
ifhp 12:28:20.606 [6089] Send_job: finished writing file, cleaning up
ifhp 12:28:20.606 [6089] Process_job: sent job file
ifhp 12:28:20.606 [6089] Process_job: doing cleanup
ifhp 12:28:20.606 [6089] Do_accounting: accounting at end, pagecount 0, pages 0
ifhp 12:28:20.606 [6089] Process_job: done
ifhp.conf file to look like:
dev=/tmp/out
debug=3
trace
ps@
pjl@
pcl@
text
##> ifhp -Tconfig=./ifhp.conf < hi.txt
ifhp 12:33:39.504 [6155] Open_device: device '/tmp/out'
ifhp 12:33:39.505 [6155] Open_device: device '/tmp/out', attempt 1
ifhp 12:33:39.506 [6155] Open_device: success
ifhp 12:33:39.506 [6155] main: fd 1 device 0100000
...
cat /tmp/out
you will see the output has been written correctly.
Try using the following command to redirect trace and error output
to a file for later examination.
CSH SH
ifhp ... <in >&out ifhp ... <in 2>out
In order to simplify operation,
if there is a
ifhp.conf file in the current directory,
then the
ifhp program will read this file first,
followed by
/etc/ifhp.conf
and then rereads the
ifhp.conf
This has the effect of extracting critical option information on the
first pass through
ifhp.conf,
then reading the default information from
/etc/ifhp.conf,
and finally re-reading
ifhp.conf to override any defaults.
echo >/tmp/out
ifhp <hi.txt
ifhp.conf file to contain:
dev=/tmp/out
debug=3
trace
ps@
pjl@
pcl@
text
crlf
ifhp <hi.txt
/tmp/outoutput using the
od or hexdump file dump programs or the
vi text editor,
you will find that the LF
(\n) character has been replaced by
CR LF (\r\n).ifhp
program as a simple CRLF filter by specifying:
ifhp -Tcrlf,language=unknown <hi.txt
The
language=unknown option specifies that the ifhp
program is not to guess at the language type,
and then does CRLF translation.
If a printer has HP Jetdirect compatibility, then the printers TCP/IP port 9100 will accept jobs for printing and provide printer status.
Other manufacturers make similar products, and may support equivalent functionality on different ports. If you are using a Network Printer Box with multiple printer ports, then each printer port is accessible using a specific TCP/IP port. For example, parallel ports P1, P2, and P3 and on a JetDirect box are usually accessed using TCP/IP ports 9100, 9101, and 9102 respectively.
If you are using a Network Printer Box and are connecting to a parallel port printer, then you may not get status or error messages back from the printer unless both the printer and the Network Printer Box use bi-directional communication.
In the following discussions,
we will assume that you have assigned an IP address to the printer,
and that it is nwpr,
and that status and error information is returned over the network
connection.
ping.
It is amazing how many problems are caused by erroneous
network addresses.
astart: % ping nwpr
PING nwpr.astart.com (10.0.0.10): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.0.0.10: icmp_seq=0 ttl=60 time=4.286 ms
telnet
to check that you can connect to port 9100.
astart: % telnet nwpr 9100
Trying 206.71.174.206...
Connected to nwpr.astart.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
...
executive
>># telnet nwpr
Connected to nwpr.astart.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
executive
PostScript(r) Version 2013.111
(c) Copyright 1984-1993 Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Typefaces (c) Copyright 1981 Linotype-Hell AG and/or its subsidiaries.
All Rights Reserved.
PS>
netcat
program by Mudge.
See
http://www.l0pht.com/~weld/netcat/index.html
for general information.hi.txt
file contains
Hello World
^L
^L is the form feed character
You can send this file to the printer using:
nc printer 9100 <hi.txt
The printer should start up and print a single page of output.
You may need to use
CTRL-C to
terminate the
nc
program.
ellipse.ps
file can be sent using:
nc printer 9100 </tmp/hi1.txt
ifhp
functionality.t1.conf
file to
ifhp.conf
and edit is so it has the correct network printer information.
# modify the next line to contain
# the name, IP address, or pathname of the printer
dev=nwpr%9100
debug=3
trace_to_stderr
ps@
pjl@
pcl@
text
astart: % ifhp <hi.txt
t2hp.conf as above.
This file has the contents:
# modify the next line to contain <newline>
# the name, IP address, or pathname of the printer
dev=<it/nwpr/%9100 <newline>
#debug=3 <newline>
trace_to_stderr <newline>
text <newline>
pjl <newline>
sync=pjl <newline>
pagecount=pjl <newline>
ifhp '-Tconfig=t2hp.conf;/etc/ifhp.conf;t2hp.conf' < hi1.txt
ifhp 16:44:16.541 [3199] Process_job: setting up printer
ifhp 16:44:16.545 [3199] Do_sync: starting sync using 'pjl'
ifhp 16:44:17.935 [3199] Check_device_status: device = 'Toner Low'
ifhp 16:44:18.116 [3199] Do_sync: sync done
ifhp 16:44:18.117 [3199] Do_pagecount: getting pagecount using 'pjl'
ifhp 16:44:20.011 [3199] Do_pagecount: final pagecount 63304
ifhp 16:44:20.013 [3199] Do_accounting: accounting at start, pagecount 63304, pages 0
ifhp 16:44:20.013 [3199] Process_job: sending job file
ifhp 16:44:20.014 [3199] Send_job: starting transfer
ifhp 16:44:20.115 [3199] Use_file_util: file identified as 'ascii text ', assigned type 'text'
ifhp 16:44:20.119 [3199] Send_job: finished writing file, cleaning up
ifhp 16:44:20.119 [3199] Process_job: sent job file
ifhp 16:44:20.119 [3199] Process_job: doing cleanup
ifhp 16:44:20.120 [3199] Do_sync: starting sync using 'pjl'
ifhp 16:44:22.175 [3199] Do_sync: sync done
ifhp 16:44:22.176 [3199] Do_waitend: getting end using 'pjl'
ifhp 16:44:22.529 [3199] Check_device_status: device = 'Warming Up'
ifhp 16:45:04.669 [3199] Check_device_status: device = 'Toner Low'
ifhp 16:45:21.361 [3199] Do_pagecount: getting pagecount using 'pjl'
ifhp 16:45:23.241 [3199] Do_pagecount: final pagecount 63305
ifhp 16:45:23.243 [3199] Do_accounting: accounting at end, pagecount 63305, pages 1
ifhp 16:45:23.243 [3199] Process_job: done
If your printer is attached using a serial port,
then you must make sure that the communication channel is
configured correctly.
The
dev=/dev/ttyxxx
and
stty=...
configuration options will open the serial port
and configure the line in an appropriate manner.
For details on the exact form of the
stty options,
please consult the
LPRng-HOWTO documentation.
t1.conf
file to
ifhp.conf and edit it
so it has the following lines:
# modify the next line to contain
# the name, IP address, or pathname of the printer
dev=/dev/serialport
#debug=3
stty=38400 -echo -crmod -raw -oddp -evenp ixon
pass8 -ixany cbreak crtscts
trace_to_stderr
text
Now run the
ifhp
program as shown below.
You should see output similar to:
astart: % ifhp <h11.txt
ifhp 15:57:23.734 [3096] Process_job: setting up printer
ifhp 15:57:23.736 [3096] Do_accounting: accounting at start, pagecount 0, pages 0
ifhp 15:57:23.736 [3096] Process_job: sending job file
ifhp 15:57:23.736 [3096] Send_job: starting transfer
ifhp 15:57:23.737 [3096] Send_job: finished writing file, cleaning up
ifhp 15:57:23.737 [3096] Process_job: sent job file
ifhp 15:57:23.738 [3096] Process_job: doing cleanup
ifhp 15:57:23.738 [3096] Do_accounting: accounting at end, pagecount 0, pages 0
ifhp 15:57:23.738 [3096] Process_job: done
Check the DTR (Data Terminal Ready), DCD (Data Carrier Detect), RTS (Request To Send), and CTS (Clear To Send). These should all be ON or active. Some systems will use RTS (Request To Send) and CTS (Clear To Send) for hardware flow control and it is possible that these signals will become stuck. It is strongly recommended that flow control on the host be turned off, and let the printer do flow control using RTS and CTS.
The parallel port configuration is the easiest to implement, but the most limited in abilities.
t1.conf
file to
ifhp.conf and edit it
so it has the following lines, with the
dev value replaced by the correct pathname.
# modify the next line to contain
# the name, IP address, or pathname of the printer
dev=/dev/lp
debug=3
stty=38400 -echo -crmod -raw -oddp -evenp ixon pass8 -ixany cbreak crtscts
trace
ps@
pjl@
pcl@
text
ifhp
program:
ifhp <hi.txt
astart: % ifhp -Tconfig=.../testscripts/t1.conf <h11.txt
ifhp 15:57:23.734 [3096] Process_job: setting up printer
ifhp 15:57:23.736 [3096] Do_accounting: accounting at start, pagecount 0, pages 0
ifhp 15:57:23.736 [3096] Process_job: sending job file
ifhp 15:57:23.736 [3096] Send_job: starting transfer
ifhp 15:57:23.737 [3096] Send_job: finished writing file, cleaning up
ifhp 15:57:23.737 [3096] Process_job: sent job file
ifhp 15:57:23.738 [3096] Process_job: doing cleanup
ifhp 15:57:23.738 [3096] Do_accounting: accounting at end, pagecount 0, pages 0
ifhp 15:57:23.738 [3096] Process_job: done
If you happen to have an operating system that support bi-directional parallel ports, you can add to the ifhp
read_write
If you have followed the above directions,
you should now be able to use the IFHP filter with
very little additional configuration.
You can now set up your printcap to use the
ifhp filter.
The following discussion assumes that you are using LPRng.
While the above set of exercises are useful for debugging and testing, you should always let the LPRng spooler open the printing device or make the network connection.
Examine the
/etc/ifhp.conf
file.
The default configuration is for a HP family printer
which supports pagecounting using PJL,
synchronization using PJL,
and other standard items.
If the default configuration does not meet your needs,
and you do not want to use the printcap
:ifhp
entry
or pass options using the
-T
command line entries,
you can create your own entry in a
/... spooldir .../ifhp.conf
file.
This entry should have the form:
option
...
For example, we might want to configure a printer that supports PCL and PostScript, needs to convert Text to PostScript, and does not have status capability. This is similar to an HP3 with a PostScript cartridge on a parallel port.
status@
pjl@
pcl
ps
text@
text_converter=/usr/local/bin/a2ps -o-
text_converter_output=ps
An alternative to this method is to create a new entry in the
/etc/ifhp.conf
file and reference this.
This method has the benefit of centralizing management of the
printing configuration.
You usually put such an entry at the end of the
/etc/ifhp.conf
file,
and it would have the form:
[ hp3_parallel ]
status@
pjl@
pcl
ps
text@
text_converter=/usr/local/bin/a2ps -o-
text_converter_output=ps
You would modify the printcap so that the model was passed
either in the
:ifhp information or as a command line option:
printer:...<newline>
:if=/.../ifhp -Tmodel=hp3_parallel<newline>
:of=/.../ifhp -Tmodel=hp3_parallel<newline>
# or you can use this
:ifhp=model=hp3_parallel
One problem faced by system administrators
is the need to allow users to configure various options in a job
specific manner.
In order to support this,
the LPRng print spooler passes the
lpr -Z
command line options through to the print spooler,
where they are used by the
ifhp
filter.
The details of how these options are used are explained in detail in the following sections, but here is an overview of how commands can be added.
The
pjl_user_opts=[ ... ],
pcl_user_opts=[ ... ],
and
ps_user_opts=[ ... ]
are options with predefined meanings.
The values of these options specify
-Z
and
-T
command line options that will be processed by the
ifhp
filter when
pjl, pcl, or ps configuration needs to be done.
Here is a sample configuration file section,
and an example.
# we add the upper and lower keywords
# lpr -Zupper or lpr -Zlower will be specified by the user
pjl_user_opts=[ upper lower ]
pjl_upper=@PJL SET INTRAY=TRAY1
pjl_lower=@PJL SET INTRAY=TRAY2
# lpr -Zpagesetup
pcl_user_opts=[ pagesetup ]
pcl_pagesetup=[ lines=12 cols=4 ]
lines=20
pcl_lines=\033*(\%{lines}L
cols=2
pcl_cols=\033*(\%{cols}C
If the user specifies
lpr -Zupper,
if
PJL
is available on the printer
(pjl is set),
then the
-Z
option list is scanned for an option that is also in the
pjl_user_opts.
The
upper
option is found,
and then the value for
pjl_upper
is located and sent to the printer.
By prefixing the context or language that is needed,
we can have multiple language dependent actions for the same option.
The
lpr -Zpagesetup
option is more complex,
mainly due to the range of possibilities the PCL offers.
The
pagesetup
option is found in the
pcl_user_opts list,
but when
pcl_pagesetup
is found,
it turns out to be a list of values.
The list values are expanded in turn,
resulting in
pcl_lines
and
pcl_cols
being expanded in turn.
The pcl_lines=\033*(\%{lines}L
uses the common C/C++/Perl escape sequences,
with the following addition:
\%{name}
is replaced by the value for the option name found by searching
in order a
a stack of values that have been set by the recursive expansion,
the
-Z options,
-T options,
and the configuration file.
In this example,
we would produce the output string
\033*(12L\033*(4C
For examples of how to add these commands,
please examine the default
/etc/ifhp.conf.
One of the more troublesome problems with printing PCL and PostScript
jobs is to initialize the printer when a previous job has failed.
This is commonly done by prefixing a job file with a
end of job
sequence for the particular language.
For PostScript,
this the the Control-D (\004) character,
and for PCL the ESCAPE E (\033E) sequence.
One problem with using this approach is that when you want to prefix a job
with additional PCL or PostScript,
you need to remove the existing end of job sequences,
or the prefixed commands will have no effect.
By default,
the ifhp
filter will do this.
In addition,
it will also
prefix the new commands with
an appropriate end of job sequence.
However,
there are certain models of printers which do not like to have
end of job sequences at the start of jobs.
To suppress the prefixing of PostScript jobs with the PostScript end of job,
set the
no_ps_eoj
flag,
and
to suppress the prefixing of PCL jobs with the PCL end of job,
set the
no_pcl_eoj
flag.