HP 3000 Manuals

Introduction to MPE XL for MPE V System Administrators

Printing Without Spooling 

It is sometimes necessary for a print program to write directly to a
printer (rather than writing a spoolfile which will later be written to
the printer by the spooler).  When a user process opens a printer and
writes to it directly it is said to be printing hot.

Before release A.40.00 users could issue the following command:

     STOPSPOOL ldev 

and print hot to the printer while spoolfiles were being created for the
device classes associated with that LDEV. This is no longer possible
because device classes are collections of logical devices.

If the device that you want to operate unspooled is part of a class that
contains at least one other device that can remain spooled, there is no
problem.  If this is not the case, and you want to print hot the
following two examples show how.

   *   Configure at least two devices in a particular device class.
       Suppose that LDEV 6 and nonexistent LDEV 19 are configured for
       device class LP. Make sure that the queue for LDEV 19 is open.
       One way to do this is to enter an OPENQ 19 command in your
       SYSSTART file.  If LDEV 6 is usually spooled, you can also enter
       the STARTSPOOL 6 command or SPOOLER 6;START command in your
       SYSSTART file.

       Make sure that your applications generating spooled output direct
       that output to class LP. Enter:

            STOPSPOOL 6 

       or

            SPOOLER 6;STOP 

       Start the application which requires unspooled access to the
       printer.  When it is finished, enter:

            STARTSPOOL 6 

       or

            SPOOLER 6;START 

       to print the accumulated spoolfiles.

       Output directed to class LP creates spoolfiles even while LDEV 6
       is unspooled because the queue is open for at least one device
       (LDEV 19) in the class.
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   *   This workaround requires no dummy device.  Enter:

            STOPSPOOL 6 

       or

            SPOOLER 6;STOP 

       Start the application requiring unspooled access to the printer.
       Then enter:

            OPENQ 6 

In the second method, there is a period of time during which any process
- even one that directs its output to class LP - can acquire the printer
unspooled.  If it is a process other than the intended one, you must
either wait for that process to close the printer, or you must abort it.

This situation does not arise with the first method however, because
there is always at least one device in class LP with its queues open.
For this reason, the first method may be preferable.[REV END]
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MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation