Specifications

4-46
Guide to Printers and Printing
Operators for Limits Field in the Printer Colon File
The limits field in the colon file contains two types of information:
• SMIT dialog information
• Validation information The SMIT dialog information is used to build SMIT objects
to represent colon file attributes in the Object Data Manager (ODM) database. Objects are
used in the Print a File, Printer Setup, and Default Job Characteristics dialog screens.
The limits field gives the creator of the colon file control over the type of ODM object
built for a given attribute. All objects built for the limits field are part of the sm_cmd_opt
object class. The limits field allows control over the following fields in a sm_cmd_opt
object class:
• id_seq_num
• entry_type
• cmd_to_list_mode
• required
• op_type
• multi_select
• cmd_to_list_mode
• disp_values
• aix_values
• values_msg_file
• values_msg_get
• help_msg_id
• help_msg_loc
These attributes can be set to be displayed always, never, or only if the attribute is
referenced in the pipeline. For detailed descriptions of these fields, see ”sm_cmd_opt (SMIT
Dialog/Selector Command Option) Object Class” in AIX 5L Version 5.3 General
Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs.
The validation information is used to validate attribute values when the colon file is digested
and when a print job is submitted.
Contents of the limits Field
The limits field is the fourth field in the colon file. Colon file attributes have the following
format:
Message_Catalog:Message_Number:Attr_Name:Limits:Value
Information in the limits field has two components. The first component is a single letter
operator specifying an action. The letter value can be one of the following values: C, D, E, F,
G, H, I, L, M, Q, R, S, T, or V. The second component is the data. If the data is more than
one character, it should be enclosed in square brackets ( [ ]).
For example, if the limits field contained ’E#’, the sm_cmd_opt object class
entry_type field equals the numeric value assigned to #. The entry_type field with a
’E#’ value takes only numeric input.