Re: [Printing-user-general] LPR control file - RFC1179 clarification

Dear Christopher,

Thank you for your thoughts. It seems most other people I have talked to would
agree with you.
I asked because I am troubleshooting an issue printing from program called
thinprint that seems to print properly to the HP LPD but not to the Ricoh one.
Through testing it was determined that the cause of the problem was the control
filename was being sent with the full path.
I do not need to fix the problem. I just need to be able to explain why the
problem is happenning and what product (if any) is at fault.
To be honest, I wasn't really sure if having the full path might be
advantageous in some situations and thats why thinprint was including it. I
can't help but wonder why thinprint has decided to include the full path with
the filename, but it sounds as though that is something that should be taken up
with them.


Thanks again,
Ryan


In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]
(Christopher Story) writes:
> 
> Ryan,
> 
> there are three reasons why i believe the RFC / Industry does not mean the
full
> path...
> 
> 1) The RFC states that the "name" of the control file is sent, not the "path"
> is sent.
> 
> 2) The receiving LPD has absolutly no use for the path, in UNIX to UNIX Lpd
the
> file can be used for formating, but the path is again worthless to it... In
an
> internal Printer LPD the control file is of little use, especially if it is
> sent last.
> 
> 3) What OS currently sends the full path?  I work daily with many systems and
> have NEVER seen one send the whole path as the cfA request...
> 
> Is there a specific reason why you want the path in the name?
> 
> Christopher Story
> Ricoh Corporation
> 
> 
> 
> > RFC1179 says:
> > 
> > 6.2 02 - Receive control file
> > 
> >       +----+-------+----+------+----+
> >       | 02 | Count | SP | Name | LF |
> >       +----+-------+----+------+----+
> >       Command code - 2
> >       Operand 1 - Number of bytes in control file
> >       Operand 2 - Name of control file
> > 
> >    The control file must be an ASCII stream with the ends of lines
> >    indicated by ASCII LF.  The total number of bytes in the stream is
> >    sent as the first operand.  The name of the control file is sent as
> >    the second.  It should start with ASCII "cfA", followed by a three
> >    digit job number, followed by the host name which has constructed the
> >    control file.  Acknowledgement processing must occur as usual after
> >    the command is sent.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Can the full path to the control file (ie. /var/spool/lpd/blah/cfA###XXX)
be
> > included in the "Name" field? Or just the file name (ie. cfA###XXX)?
> > 
> > Personally, I think the RFC doesn't really seem clear on this as it only
says
> > the file name should start with "cfA". Even if the path is included, the
> > argument can be made the the file name begins with "cfA".
> > 
> > It seems some daemons will produce an error if the full path is included
> (Ricoh
> > Aficio 2045), but others will not (HP5550).
> > Any thoughts?