Before the printserver name is redirected on August 7, all departmental users should test their printers on the new server by logging into one of the public OIT Unix systems and issuing an lpr or lp command to their printer.
The new printserver is running on a Solaris 8 system using the LPRng spooling software. Support for multiple trays is provided by forwarding print requests to the Dazel output management system. All of the functionality of the current printserver has been duplicated on the new server with a few minor exceptions:
1. Print queues that have not been used for more than 18 months have been eliminated. To reestablish a deleted queue go to Request To Establish a New Printserver Print Queue form.
2. Processing of text files has been enhanced. Troff files are automatically run through troff and various program source files are now printed with keyword shown in bold and other special formatting. Long lines are now wrapped rather than being truncated.
3. Printing non-text files (using filters) has been simplified. The server now automatically determines which filter to use by examining the file being printed. If the filter is specified with the -f option, the option will be ignored. For example, to print a DVI file the user would issue one of the following commands:
lpr -P queue-name file.dvi
- or -
lp -d queue-name file.dvi.
Currently text, DVI and troff files are converted to postscript. If there is a demand for conversion of other file types they will be implemented.
June 29, 2001