Multi-spoolers

[Mark H. Colburn]

In article <161 at ndmath.UUCP> milo at ndmath.UUCP (Greg Corson) writes:
>Does anyone out there happen to have any (hopefully free) software that
>allows a single print queue to drive more than one printer at a time?
>
>In other words...I have one print queue and several printers.  Whenever
>a printer becomes free I want the next job in the queue to start printing
>on that printer.  There might be as many as 3 identical printers on the
>system at one time and I don't want to leave the load-leveling job to
>the users.
>
>Greg Corson
>seismo!iuvax!kangaro!milo

You neglected to say what version of system you are using, but it is possible
to do this kind of spooling using the System V lp spooler.  By correctly
specifying printers and classes a user can send to a specific printer, or a
specific class of printers.

A class is a group of printers that share a similar characteristic.  For
example, we have three NLQ dot matrix printers here at the office.  If a
user wants the file to be printed  out as fast as possible, they may issue
the command 'lp -dlq <filename>' where '-d' specifies the destination, and
'lq' is a class of printers which contains the three NLQ printers.  The
file would get printed on the first available printer in that class.

If a user wanted the file printed on a specific printer, (i.e. the one nearest
his or her office, they would use the command 'lp -dprinter1 <filename>' where
'printer1' is the name of the printer nearest them.

There are a lot more features, but I will refrain from reciting them all here.
If you have System V and LP, then it might be the answer that you are looking
for to solve your problem.



-- 
Mark H. Colburn             UUCP: ihnp4!meccts!ems!mark
EMS/McGraw-Hill              ATT: (612) 829-8200
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