Why multiple spool files?

[Peter Blake]

On Wed, 18 Mar 1998, Gerald W. Carter wrote:

> > Using Samba v1.9.18p3 on a Linux system, I find that that any print jobs 
> > sent to a shared printer results in doubled files.  It's not that 2
> > copies  of the print job are actually *printed*, it's just a matter of
> > dual spool files being created.
> 
> Samba spools the files and the uses the value of 'lpr command' to print
> the file.  For example, if you are using "/usr/ucb/lpr -P %p %s; rm %s"
> as the print command, samba effectively does a "cat $FILE | $LPRCOMMAND"
> 
> The dual spooling is normal.  If you wish to send the job directly to
> the printer, you will have to use some sort of LPR client on the Windows
> box and bypass samba.
> 
> PS : Check the man pages on "lpr command" and others (ie. lprm, lpq,
> etc... ) for more info and use testparm to see what value for the
> commands is currently set.

Hi,

Real BSD printing has an option to use links instead of copying the file.
This may also be the case in the linux port of lpr.


---
Peter Blake
ppb at hft.co.uk
ppb at baloo.tcp.co.uk