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Printers: Setting up and Using

  • Print spooler
  • Adding a new printers
  • Changing the printer settings
  • Printer scripts
  • Sending jobs to different printers

    • Print spooler

    There are times where you want to prepare printout's without actually printing them e.g.

    The 'Print Spooler' option allows reports to be spooled (stored) on the disk and then manipulated/printed at a later date. This option is available from

    Within these options when you are asked 'Display/Print' you will find the option 'S'pool.

    To manipulate the output use: 

    'T'ext Utilities - 'P'rint Spooler
    You will be shown all the current reports (current limit is 500), in date order (newest first) and shown the user who created the report, date/time and a description. Select with the arrow keys the required report. You will then see the report details with the options:

    Delete
    Deletes the current file from the spooler list. Once deleted you CANNOT access the data contained in the report without re-running the original report.

    Print
    Prints the report. By default it will be sent to the originally selected printer. You are given the choice to enter a different printer command. Note: This should be the FULL printer command and not just the name of the printer e.g. lp -dmain. Once printed the file will remain on the spooler list, it is NOT automatically deleted.

    Reduce
    If you want to keep big reports on the list e.g. invoice runs, it is a good idea to shrink (compress) the data to save wasting hard disk space. This option gives you the choice of gzip or compress. Whenever the compressed file is printed or viewed the file will be expanded beforehand.

    Copy
    This allows you to make a copy of the corresponding data file elsewhere on the hard disk. You can also copy this file to a floppy if the filename you enter starts with a: (use a dos formatted floppy).

    View
    Rather than printout on the printer the contents of the file you can use this option to view the file. This option uses the utility 'less' as the viewer you will find the manual page for less in the text utilities manual page options. At a minimum use: 

    h - Help    - Show the available options
q - Quit    - Quit back to the menu
f - Forward - Screen forward
b - Back    - Screen back

    Note: Most of the printed report have a heading made up of graphics characters. These characters don't always display correctly with less and may 'not look nice' - this is purely cosmetic and you should ignore it.

    Mail it
    Send the selected report to a mail address You will be prompted for a subject and address, if either are left blank you will be returned to the menu.

    You have the option to:

    <S>end it
    Blind send - will send the document as is
    <E>dit it
    Your mailer will be run with the documented loaded allowing you to edit it.

    Send it
    Send the report to another command The selected report will be piped to another application or command. You will be prompted for the command.

    Archiving/Deleting Spooler Files

    The print spooler can get a bit congested with various reports and summaries and deleting individual files can get a bit cumbersome. You can delete and archive files.

    To avoid congestion and to store reports you may need in the future you can be means of the 'A'rchive option move the reports to one side. You can switch the print spooler to use the archive option by entering an asterix (*) on the Text Utilities menu. The 'Print Spooler' option will change to 'Print (ARCHIVE)'. To switch back to the normal spooler use another *.

    When the list of spooled files is displayed pressing the 'SPACEBAR' will mark that file. Marked files will be displayed using colour event 218.

    If you want to mark multiple files you can press the slash ('/'), you will be asked for the text to search for. The system will look at all spool entries and if the text is found in the description line it will be marked automatically. If the file is already marked it will be un-marked.

    If the search criteria starts with a < > or = the system will assume you are doing a date search e.g. <12.08.01 will mark all entries prior to 12th Aug 2001, >14.12.00 will mark entries after 14th Dec 2000.

    When you exit the print spooler you will be advised of the marked files and asked what you would like to do with them:

    Delete - File will be removed from the system
    Archive - File will be moved to the archive area making it invisible to the normal print spooler.

    In both cases, the prompt line will contain the option 'All', if All is selected then all marked files from that point onwards will be processed as if you had selected 'Yes' on each one.

    Adding printers or editing settings

    New Printers

    Consult the manuals that arrived with your printer to find exact details on how to set them up for the desired baud rate, stop bits, parity etc. Make sure you can print from the Operating System correctly before trying the vet system.

    Once that is done and the printer works from the Operating System prompt add it to the vet system via the option on the parameters menu.

    Setting up a script file

    Script files are shell programs stored in the vet system directory. The script files are all suffixed with '.ps' and the name should be in lower case. They can be used in two places:

  • When changing printers instead of entering a printer letter you can enter the name of the script file. Note: You should not enter the '.ps'.
  • Enter the name of the script file as the 'Printer Command' and select that printer.

    There are two variables passed to the script, and these are a) the name of the printer and b) the name of the spooled file. These can be accessed by $1 for the printer and $2 as the spool file.

    For example you may wish save a printout and at the same time make a hard copy. The following script will perform this:

    1. First of all create your script e.g. 
      :
# Sample shell script to save a copy of the invoice run
# Aug 95 

# The output file will always be in $1
f=$1

# Get todays date in the format ddmmyyHHMM
d=`date '+%d%m%y%H%M'`

# Make a copy of the file for archive purposes
# As this is for invoices add .inv to the filename
cp $f /u/vetdata/text/$d.inv

# print the file as normal
lpr -c -s -dlaser $f
    2. When you have created the script, save it e.g. /u/vetdata/twm.ps Give it execute permission with chmod a+x /u/vetdata/twm.ps Now you can enter as the printer command: 
      /u/vetdata/twm.ps

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