Overview of Printing and the Spooler

This section introduces the Spooler, the Reality process that allows you to direct and control output of all print jobs generated by Reality, whether from applications or from the command line. It comprises the following topics:

• Introducing the Spooler: outlines how the spooler manages the output of print jobs.
• Print Job Assignment (Print Reports): describes how initial assignments for new print jobs are specified.
• Print jobs: describes how job-ids are generated, and how jobs are stored and managed using Reality files.
• Formqueues: describes how the queues in which jobs are held are maintained, the use of public and private formqueues, and of identity banners that can be output before each job on a queue.
• Despoolers: describes the processes that take a print job from the head of a queue and send it to a particular output device, and how these processes are created, maintained, and managed.
• Output devices: describes the types of output device that a despooler can send jobs to, comprising host system printers, private and network printers, Reality ports, tape devices and files.
• Printer interface scripts: describes, for UNIX hosts only, the use of scripts to drive private printers (host printers configured for exclusive Reality use) and network printers.
• Remote spooling: describes direct output of print jobs to a spooler on another Reality database (on the same host or another host), and an alternative procedure for transferring print jobs to a 'remote' database.
• Network printing: describes despooling directly to an output device on another host, and how network printers can be shared between different users.
• Printer control features: describes the feature for writing printer independent programs, and prologue and epilogue features that allow printer command strings to be sent to a printer when required.
• Procedure for Setting Up Printers describes how to configure printers and the Spooler for output.
• Example of Setting Up Multiple Formqueues and Despoolers: outlines how to set up formqueues and despoolers for two laser printers with different alternative paper trays.
• Transaction Handling/Logging: explains how Spooler files interact with these features.