Specifications
4-142
Guide to Printers and Printing
How piobe Uses Printer Colon Files
The piobe command is a spooler backend program called by the qdaemon program to
process a print job. It has the ability to generate diagnostic output. A specific example of this
diagnostic output is used in the following discussion to examine these points:
• How piobe uses printer colon files.
• How printer colon file escape sequences are evaluated to resolve path names.
• How printer colon file escape sequences are evaluated to resolve page length.
• How printer colon file escape sequences are evaluated to resolve page width.
This discussion is intended for readers who need to understand printer colon file escape
sequences at a low level, perhaps because they want to write their own colon file for a
unique and unsupported printer. Before reading this discussion, you should be familiar with
these topics:
• Printer Colon File Escape Sequences on page 4-14
• Viewing, Formatting, or Modifying Virtual Printer Definitions on page 4-136
The following command uses the –a1 flag/argument to request diagnostic data from the
piobe backend. The remainder of the command specifies that the job be processed by the
queue named asc, that three copies of the file named /etc/motd be printed in a 12–point
Courier font rotated 90 degrees, that the job be pre–processed by the pr filter, and that any
messages generated by the job should be mailed to the user that submitted the job.
qprt –a1 –Pasc –fp –z1 –p12 –scourier –C –N3 /etc/motd
Issuing this command results in mail similar to the following being sent to the user that
issued the command:
Message from qdaemon:
=====> MESSAGE FROM PRINT JOB 31 (/etc/motd) <=====
0782–034 Below is the preview information requested with the –a1
flag.
No files will be printed.
PRINTER:
[devices.cat,71,66;IBM 4029 LaserPrinter] (ASCII)
FLAG VALUES:
a=1, b=0, d=a, e=!, f=p, g=1, h=, i=0, j=1, l=48, p=12, q=, s=cou
rier, t=0,
u=1, v=6, w=128, x=2, y=!, z=1, A=1, B=nn, C=+, E=!, G=!, H=, I=,
J=+, L=+,
N=3, O=3, P=ascx:lxx, Q=1, W=!, X=ISO8859–1, Z=+
PIPELINE OF FILTERS:
/usr/bin/pr
–l48
–w128 /etc/motd |
/usr/lib/lpd/pio/etc/pioformat
–@/var/spool/lpd/pio/@local/ddi/ibm4029.asc.lp1.asc:lp1
–!/usr/lib/lpd/pio/fmtrs/piof5202
–l48
–w128
–p12
–scourier
–z1