budd@bu-it.bu.edu (Phil Budne) (07/04/90)
Archive-name: bu-bsd-lpr-mdqs/03-Jul-90 Original-posting-by: budd@bu-it.bu.edu (Phil Budne) Original-subject: Re: MDQS and lpr Archive-site: bu.edu [128.197.2.6] Archive-directory: src/PRINTING/MDQS Reposted-by: emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) In article <2590@randvax.UUCP> urban@rand.org (Mike Urban) writes: >Are there any MDQS shops out there that have successfully and >transparently merged lpr and MDQS? At one point I tried to use MDQS to drive a pair of PostScript printers from one queue (before PLP was around). I wrote to hacks; bsdlpd which listens on the lpd port and queues jobs to MDQS and bsdserver which contains code ripped from the guts of lpd's printjob.c and uses printcap (and associated) filters to print jobs. Whether I did so "successfully and transparently" is another question. I have made the stuff available, but remember YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. The code was never used in production and if my (cloudy) memory serves, has outstanding problems when it comes to UIDs and the tradeoffs of being just like lpd (and the MDQS daemon not being able to signal the bsdserver) and fitting into the MDQS paradigm (and not being able to, for example send jobs to remove lpd's because the bsdserver can't bind a low numbered port). No doubt security problems pervade. AND since the code in bsdserver derrives from 4.3T lpd it will no doubt object to the chicanery pulled by (for example) InterLeaf (which insisists on issuing prints of symlinked files which it subquently fools with!) The files reside on BU.EDU in ~ftp/src/PRINTING/MDQS/Part0[1-3] AGAIN! Caveat Emptor! I did the work before I had come the the inescapable conslusion that no reasonable Un*x spooling system exists. Today I would shrug and say "you can't get there from here". Ahh for youth's enthusiasm!!! -Phil Budne, Boston University