DECprint Supervisor (DCPS^tm) for OpenVMS

Order Number: AA--PSVEE--TE

This manual describes how system maintainers (system managers, data center operators, and application programmers) with system privileges can create DECprint Supervisor print queues to provide printing services for the users of PostScript printers, customize the DECprint Supervisor printing system, and test the printing system. This manual also describes common problems with PostScript printing and how to solve them.

Revision/Update Information: This guide supersedes AA--PSVED--TE.

Operating System & Versions: OpenVMS Alpha, Version 6.2 or higher
OpenVMS VAX, Version 5.5-2 or higher

Software Version: DECprint Supervisor (DCPS) for OpenVMS, Version 1.8

Compaq Computer Corporation
Houston, Texas

© 2000 Compaq Computer Corporation

COMPAQ and the Compaq logo Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. DECnet and OpenVMS are trademarks of Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P.

All other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Confidential computer software. Valid license from Compaq required for possession, use, or copying. Consistent with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license.

Compaq shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. The information in this document is subject to change without notice.

This document is available on CD-ROM.

This document was prepared using DECdocument V3.3.

Contents

Index

Intended Audience

This manual is for OpenVMS system managers and data center operators. Using this guide, you can create and modify print queues, maintain the print jobs and print queues, and set up printing environments to meet the needs of the printing system users.

This guide is also intended for advanced users and applications programmers who customize the printing system using form definitions, setup modules, and layup definition files. The User's GuideUser's Guide describes how users access the features of the printing system.

Be sure to read the Software Installation GuideSoftware Installation Guide if you have not installed the DECprint Supervisor software.

Associated Documents

For information about additional PostScript printing documentation and how to order documentation, refer to the Ordering Additional Documentation appendix in this manual.

Conventions

The following conventions are used throughout this document:

Convention	Meaning
UPPERCASE	Uppercase characters indicate DCL commands, qualifiers, and parameters.
italics	Italic characters in command examples indicate that you are to substitute a word or value of your choice.
bold	Bold characters are PostScript operators or error message prefix strings. Bold in examples shows the characters that you should enter as part of the procedure.
[]	Brackets indicate that the enclosed item is optional.
Ctrl/ x	This symbol indicates a control key sequence. Press the key labeled Ctrl while you simultaneously press another key, represented by x.
[Return]	This symbol indicates that you should press the Return key.

The DECprint Supervisor software allows people to use and manage networked PostScript printers. For example, it allows users to:

• Print customized documents, print two-sided, and select input trays.
• Modify printed documents without changing the files that are printed, which saves paper and allows the production of custom printed documents.
• Print different types of files on the PostScript printers
• Access printers from the OpenVMS VAX and Alpha operating systems and from personal computers (PCs) and Macintosh systems.

The system manager makes the printing system easier to use by providing:

• Default queue attributes, so users do not have to specify certain parameters, such as duplex printing
• Setup modules, which are stored in device control libraries and are used to modify the printing environment for print jobs
• Form definitions, specifying sets of print attributes and including setup modules to make them all easier for users to access
• Layup definition files, which you can create to customize the way print jobs are printed on the media

You may be required to install one or both of the following optional DECprint Supervisor licenses:

• The DECprint Supervisor-Plus License provides extended printing features, such as automatic data type detection, layup definition, and additional data type translation. Refer to Section 1.2.1. The PAK name is DCPS--Plus.
• The DECprint Supervisor-Open License provides support for third-party printers. Refer to the SPD for the printer models that are supported by this license. The PAK name is DCPS-Open.

Activate any licenses before you use the features of the license. If you specify these features when the license has not been activated, your print job may be terminated without printing and one of the following messages is displayed:

NOLICENSE, DCPS-Plus license required to use feature

NOLICENSE, DCPS-Open license required to use printer-name

To determine whether the appropriate licenses have been activated at your site, issue the following command:

$ SHOW LICENSE DCPS*

If the optional license has been activated, the PAK name is listed in the display.

See your Compaq representative to order the license(s) you need.

1.2.1 Features of DCPS--Plus

The DCPS--Plus product provides the features described in the following list:

• Document Formatting
  The DCPS--Plus license allows users to:
  • Change the size of pages as they are printed to fit the physical size of media, using the following command:

    $ PRINT/PARAMETERS=(PAGE_SIZE=n,SHEET_SIZE=m) file-spec

  • Specify page layup handling as the file is printed, using the following command:

    $ PRINT/PARAMETERS=(LAYUP=option=value)

  • Save paper, using one of the following commands:

    $ PRINT/PARAMETERS=(PAGE_LIMIT="n,m") $ PRINT/PARAMETERS=(NUMBER_UP=n)

  • Print multiple uncollated copies of each sheet via the SHEET_COUNT parameter.
  • Use device control modules for all data types via the /SETUP qualifier. ANSI modules may include control sequences. PCL modules may include binary font data.
• Data Type Translation
  The DCPS-Plus product lets users print additional file data types, including:
  • PCL 4 (Printer Control Language) files generated for printing on Hewlett-Packard LaserJet IID devices
  • Proprinter files generated for printing on IBM Proprinter XL24 devices
  • ReGIS graphics files (monochrome output only)
  • TEKTRONIX files, generated for printing on TEKTRONIX 4010/4014 devices
  • ASCII text files, to be printed with line numbers, page headers, and alternating groups of gray and white bars
  • DIGITAL Document Interchange Format (DDIF) bitonal image files
• Automatic Data Type Detection
  Users do not need to specify the data type of the print file, in most cases. The DCPS--Plus product recognizes files of the supported data types and automatically translates them to PostScript before printing.
  The DCPS-Plus product can print files that contain both text (ANSI, PCL, or Proprinter data) and PostScript data. For example, users can print electronic mail messages that contain PostScript files. The user submits the print job without specifying any data type. The DECprint Supervisor software begins printing the file as text and automatically recognizes the change to PostScript, printing the file properly.
  See Chapter 4 for information about customizing the printing system to recognize and print the files generated by users at your site.

When the DCPS-Open license is active, users can print to the third-party printers that are listed in the DECprint Supervisor SPD, including Hewlett-Packard LaserJet and Apple LaserWriter printers. Users may also be able to print to printers not listed in the SPD, although such printing is not warranted or supported. If the DCPS-Open license has not been activated, users can print only on DIGITAL PostScript printers.

1.3 DECprint Supervisor Software Components

The DECprint Supervisor software includes the following components:

• A print symbiont, which processes print requests from OpenVMS print queues assigned to the printer
• Queue management services, as described in Chapter 5
• Data type translators to translate non-PostScript files for printing on PostScript devices
• A device control library for setup modules that affect the printing of files, as described in Chapter 7

The DECprint Supervisor symbiont is used in place of the OpenVMS print symbiont, PRTSMB. The software is distributed as executable image files, text, and help files.

Figure 1-1 illustrates the process by which print jobs are produced on an OpenVMS system and delivered to the printer.

Figure 1-1 DECprint Supervisor Software Components

The software components of a DECprint Supervisor printing system are described in the following sections.

1.3.1 The Print Symbiont

Users send jobs to the printer using the DCL PRINT command or using an application program that generates the OpenVMS system service call SYS$SNDJBC. The print symbiont manages the print jobs. The DECprint Supervisor software performs the following operations:

• Maintains resources
• Sends control data to the printer
• Sends the data file to the printer
• Monitors printer progress
• Reports printer status
• Handles exceptions

For example, suppose a user issues the following PRINT command:

$ PRINT/QUEUE=POST3/NOTIFY THORNTON.TXT

The PRINT command line is translated to system service calls, which are sent to the job controller. The calls are converted to job controller data structures, which are then passed to the symbiont for processing. The symbiont sends the processed arguments and file data to the printer and notifies the user by displaying messages about the status of the print job.

See the User's GuideUser's Guide for information about the PRINT command and its qualifiers.

1.3.2 Device Control Libraries

A device control library is an OpenVMS text library that contains setup modules. The symbiont uses modules from the device control library to implement the various PRINT parameters. The DECprint Supervisor software extracts the appropriate module, depending on the qualifier that either appears on the PRINT command line or is associated with a print queue, and inserts the module into the data stream.

The device control library also contains modules that the symbiont does not automatically use. Some of these modules contain PostScript procedures, for example, to include an error handler in a print job or to extend the findfont procedure to recognize alternate character encodings. These are described in the User's GuideUser's Guide.

You can create setup modules to be used on your own systems. When you create setup modules, you must store them in a device control library other than the DCPS$DEVCTL library. Create a device control library as described in Chapter 7 and add your library to the device control library search list defined in DCPS$STARTUP.COM.

When you create a site-specific device control library for your custom setup modules, the contents of your library are retained from one version of the DECprint Supervisor software to the next. The standard device control library, DCPS$DEVCTL, is overwritten when you upgrade from one version of the software to the next.

1.3.3 Translators

When a print job submits a print file that is not PostScript (or PCL, if your printer has a native PCL interpreter), the symbiont invokes a translator to translate the user's input file into PostScript. Whether the DECprint Supervisor software provides translation depends on whether the DCPS--Plus license has been activated on the system. (Refer to Chapter 4 for more information about customizing the printing system for certain types of files.)

When the DCPS-Plus license has not been activated, you can print ANSI (DEC PPL3) files and PostScript files. You can also print PCL files if your printer has a native PCL interpreter. If you do not specify the data type, the DECprint Supervisor software assumes you are printing an ANSI file. Therefore, to print an ANSI file, the user issues the PRINT command without specifying the data type:

$ PRINT MYFILE.MEM/QUEUE=PS40$A14

The user must specify the data type of the file to print a PostScript file. For example:

$ PRINT/PARAMETERS=(DATA_TYPE=POSTSCRIPT) MYFILE.PS/QUEUE=PS40$A14

The system manager can associate a default data type with a generic print queue, allowing users to print files by specifying the generic queue name. See Chapter 3 for more information.

When the DCPS-Plus license has been activated, the DECprint Supervisor software can detect the file data type automatically. You need not specify the data type on the PRINT command line. Translation to PostScript for successful printing is automatic. With this license, it is not necessary to maintain generic print queues for default data types.

If you are installing DECprint Supervisor for the first time, or installing new printers, read this chapter. You may also find this chapter useful if you are changing the setup of an existing printer. The following sections describe how to set up your printers to work with DECprint Supervisor software.

Non-PrintServer printers	Section 2.1
DIGITAL PrintServer printers	Section 2.2

You can connect PostScript printers other than DIGITAL PrintServer printers to your OpenVMS system in a number of ways:

• If your printer contains a network interface card (NIC) that supports the bi-directional raw TCP/IP, LAT, or AppleTalk protocol, you can communicate with your printer via the network.
• If your printer uses a serial connection, you can connect the printer directly to your OpenVMS system, or connect it to a print server or terminal server and communicate with it via the network.
• If your printer uses a bi-directional Centronics parallel connection, you can connect it to a print server or terminal server and communicate with it via the network.

If your printer is connected via the network, multiple systems can access it.

The devices that can be used with DECprint Supervisor software are listed in the Software Product Description (SPD).

For your printer and OpenVMS system to be able to communicate, you must set the baud rate of your printer and system's serial interfaces to the same values. Also, your printer should be set for eight-bit characters with no parity.

Refer to your printer's hardware installation guide for information on configuring its serial interface. After you have made the necessary changes, turn the printer off and back on. Then manually print a test page and verify that the reported settings are as desired.

Set the baud rate of your OpenVMS system's serial interface by specifying a value for P6 when setting up the corresponding DCPS print queue, as described in Section 3.3.6.

2.1.2 Networked Printers

Your printer may contain a network interface card (NIC) or may be accessable to the network via a print server of a terminal server.

Printers can be configured as network printers if:

• The printer is connected to a NIC, print server, or terminal server.
• Every host system using the printer is running DECprint Supervisor software. If any host system accesses the printer by any other means, the printer system may fail.

Network printing has the following implications:

• The printer may be used from multiple systems.
• There is no centralized accounting for the printer. Each system maintains separate accounting information for the printing performed by that system.
• Multiple systems running DECprint Supervisor software contend for the same printer.
• There is no centralized print queue for the printer, which means:
  • The SHOW QUEUE command does not display the queues located on other nodes in the network.
  • The system does not provide print job scheduling or load balancing among printers or nodes in the network.

Raw TCP/IP is a network protocol that utilizes the TCP/IP protocol directly without any additional interpretation of the TCP data stream. It is supported by many printer Network Interface Cards (NICs), print servers, and terminal servers.

There are other printer protocols that layer upon TCP/IP, including CPAP (Common Printer Access Protocol), LPD, and Telnet. DCPS uses CPAP to communicate with DIGITAL PrintServer printers.

To communicate with your printer using raw TCP/IP, the NIC, print server, or terminal server that you use to connect your printer to the network must provide a raw TCP/IP port. Further, this raw TCP/IP port must support bi-directional communication between the printer and your OpenVMS system. DCPS does not work with unidirectional ports, such as those found on the NICs for the DEClaser 3500 and 5100 printers, the RapidPrint 200, and Hewlett-Packard JetDirect cards that interface with the printer via its XIO (versus MIO) slot.

Before you can communicate with your printer via TCP/IP, you must define an IP address for it. You may also assign a name to the address. Refer to the printer documentation for information on setting the printer's IP address. Refer to DIGITAL TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS, Process Software MultiNet for OpenVMS, or Process Software TCPware documentation for information on configuring your OpenVMS system's TCP/IP environment. If your printer is connected through a print server or terminal server, you must configure the IP address of the server. You also need to configure the connection between the printer and the server (for example, you may need to perform actions similar to those described in Section 2.1.2.2.2 for LAT printers). Refer to documentation for your terminal server or printer server for information on configuring its network and printer interfaces.