Overview of Printing and the Spooler
- 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.