Re: [9fans] printer setup & printing?

["Russ Cox" <rsc@plan9.bell-labs.com>]

>  - what spool files do I need with what permissions?
>    using lp's error messages as directives I now have an 'other'
>    file system on the fs, with the following contents:
>     lp/
>      tmp/
>      log/

If fileserver=kfs, lp is supposed to use /lp
on your kfs.  Look there on a freshly-installed
system:

g% ls -ld lp
d-rwxrwxr-x M 3547 rsc sys 0 May 13  2000 lp
g% ls -l lp
d-rwxrwxrwx M 3547 rsc sys 0 May 13  2000 lp/log
d-rwxrwxrwx M 3547 rsc sys 0 May 13  2000 lp/prob
d-rwxrwxrwx M 3547 rsc sys 0 May 13  2000 lp/queue
d-rwxrwxrwx M 3547 rsc sys 0 May 13  2000 lp/tmp
g% ls -l lp/*
g%

>    with tmp and log permissions:
>
>    d-rwxrwxrwx M 374 axel sys  0 ..........    tmp
>    d-rwxrwxr-x M 374 axel sys  0 ..........    log
>
>    Should log directory also be writable for all?

Yes.

>    with in log the files that lp made, with following permissions:
>
>    a-rw-rw-rw- M 374 axel sys   0 Apr  8 19:51 log/lw17
>    --rw-rw-rw- M 374 axel sys 201 Apr 12 13:40 log/lw17.st
>    a-rw-rw-rw- M 374 axel sys   0 Apr  8 18:54 log/lw17_d
>    --rw-rw-rw- M 374 axel sys 201 Apr 12 15:32 log/lw17_d.st
>    a-rw-rw-rw- M 374 axel sys   0 Apr 12 13:06 log/stdout
>
>    I noticed that the *.st files need to be writable by all,
>    to make things work -- or should they be group-writable
>    and belong to a special group, of which everyone is member?

Since your log directory wasn't world writable,
these weren't either.  I think that was your problem.

>    Should the *.st files have the locking bit set?

Ours don't.  Those are status files not lock files.
Perhaps it would be useful if they did, but no idea.

>  - I noticed that the log files named after the printer (lw17, lw17_d)
>    remain empty. DO I need to enable logging specifically?
>    Or are they only used for 'local' printers?

The latter.

>  - when I print plain (utf) text that contains funny characters
>    (like the euro sign), they show up not as expected.
>    Is there a better way to do this conversion?

What does not as expected mean?  It could be just the font
problem addressed in the final question below.

>  - in acme a plain (utf) page looks nicely formatted using a
>    proportional font; on the printer I get fixed-width and thus
>    changed colums. Can I use proportional font names?
>    (rephrased: what arguments can I use for the lp(1) -f flag?)

I think you can give it any troff font name
from /sys/lib/troff/font/devutf.
You could try LucidaSans.10, perhaps.

>  - our (network, postscript) printers use A4 paper.
>    Do I have to configure that somewhere?

No idea, sorry.

>  - when I use 'man -t man |lp' the (horizontal) interword spacing
>    is wrong (like 'negative': I get words printed over each other,
>    in the list of options the flags and their description are nicely
>    lined up in columns, but in the descriptions the spacing wrong)
>    When I look at 'man -t man |page -w' it looks fine.
>    Some other set-up that I have missed?

Yes, you are not downloading the appropriate fonts
into the printer.

Look in /sys/lib/lp/spooler/lpdspool, and change

@{bind -b $LPLIB/process /bin; $LPPROC} < $j | /$cputype/bin/aux/lpdsend ...

to be

@{bind -b $LPLIB/process /bin; $LPPROC} < $j |
	aux/download -f -H/sys/lib/postscript/font -mfontmap -plw+ |
	/$cputype/bin/aux/lpdsend ...

That should work better.  I wonder why that wasn't
already like that.

Russ