Starting a Print Job (qprt Command)

Guide to Printers and Printing

Starting a Print Job (qprt Command)

Use the qprt, or smit commands to request a print job and specify the following:

Name of the file to print
Print queue name
Number of copies to print
Whether to make a copy of the file on the remote host
Whether to erase the file after printing
Whether to send notification of the job status
Whether to send notification of the job status by the system mail
Burst status
User name for "Delivery To" label
Console acknowledgment message for remote print
File acknowledgment message for remote print
Priority level

Prerequisites

For local print jobs, the printer must be physically attached to your system or, in the case of a network printer, attached and configured on the network.
For remote print jobs, your system must be configured to communicate with the remote print server.

qprt Command

The qprt command creates and queues a print job to print the file you specify. If you specify more than one file, all the files together make up one print job. These files are printed in the order specified on the command line.

Before you can print a file, you must have read access to it. To remove a file after it has printed, you must have write access to the directory that contains the file.

The basic format of the qprt command is:

qprt -PQueueName FileName

Some useful qprt command flags are:

-b Number

Specifies the bottom margin. The bottom margin is the number of blank lines to be left at the bottom of each page.

-B Value

Specifies whether burst pages (continuous-form pages separated at perforations) should be printed. The Value variable consists of a two-character string. The first character applies to header pages. The second character applies to trailer pages. Each of the two characters can be one of the following:

Always prints the (header or trailer) page for each file in each print job.

Never prints the (header or trailer) page.

Prints the (header or trailer) page once for each print job (group of files).

For example, the -B ga flag specifies that a header page be printed at the beginning of each print job and that a trailer page be printed after each file in each print job.

Note: In a remote print environment, the default is determined by the remote queue on the server.

-e Option

Specifies whether emphasized print is wanted.

+	Indicates emphasized print is wanted.
!	Indicates emphasized print is not wanted.

-E Option

Specifies whether double-high print is wanted.

+	Indicates double-high print is wanted.
!	Indicates double-high print is not wanted.

-f FilterType

A one-character identifier that specifies a filter through which your print file or files are to be passed before being sent to the printer. The available filter identifiers are p, which invokes the pr filter, and n, which processes output from the troff command.

-i Number

Causes each line to be indented the specified number of spaces. The Number variable must be included in the page width specified by the -w flag.

-K Option

Specifies whether condensed print is wanted.

+	Indicates condensed print is wanted.
!	Indicates condensed print is not wanted.

-l Number

Sets the page length to the specified number of lines. If the Number variable is 0, page length is ignored, and the output is considered to be one continuous page. The page length includes the top and bottom margins and indicates the printable length of the paper.

-L Option

Specifies whether lines wider than the page width should be wrapped to the next line or truncated at the right margin.

+	Indicates that long lines should wrap to the next line.
!	Indicates that long lines should not wrap but instead should be truncated at the right margin.

-N Number

Specifies the number of copies to be printed. If this flag is not specified, one copy is printed.

-p Number

Sets the pitch to Number characters per inch. Typical values for Number are 10 and 12. The actual pitch of the characters printed is also affected by the values for the -K (condensed) flag and the -W (double-wide) flag.

-P Queue[:QueueDevice]

Specifies the print queue name and the optional queue device name. If this flag is not specified, the default printer is assumed.

-Q Value

Specifies paper size for the print job. The Value for paper size is printer-dependent. Typical values are: 1 for letter-size paper, 2 for legal, and so on. Consult your printer manual for the values assigned to specific paper sizes.

-t Number

Specifies the top margin. The top margin is the number of blank lines to be left at the top of each page.

-w Number

Sets the page width to the number of characters specified by the Number variable. The page width must include the number of indention spaces specified with the -i flag.

-W Option

Specifies whether double-wide print is wanted.

+	Indicates double-wide print is wanted.
!	Indicates double-wide print is not wanted.

-z Value

Rotates page printer output the number of quarter-turns clockwise as specified by the Value variable. The length (-l) and width (-w) values are automatically adjusted accordingly.

0	Portrait
1	Landscape right
2	Portrait upside-down
3	Landscape left.

-# Value

Specifies a special function.

j	Displays the job number for the specified print job
h	Queues the print job, but puts it in the HELD state until it is released again.
v	Validates the specified printer backend flag values. This validation is useful in checking for illegal flag values at the time of submitting a print job. If the validation is not specified, an incorrect flag value will stop the print job later when the job is actually being processed.

For example, to request the myfile file to be printed on the first available printer configured for the default print queue using default values, type:

qprt myfile

For example, to request the file somefile to be printed on a specific queue using specific flag values and to validate the flag values at the time of print job submission, type:

qprt -f p -e + -Pfastest -# v somefile

This passes the somefile file through the pr filter command (the -f p flag) and prints it using emphasized mode (the -e + flag) on the first available printer configured for the queue named fastest (the -Pfastest flag).

For example, to print myfile on legal-size paper, type:

qprt -Q2 myfile

For example, to print three copies of each of the files new.index.c, print.index.c, and more.c at the print queue Msp1, type:

qprt -PMsp1 -N 3 new.index.c print.index.c more.c

For example, to print three copies of the concatenation of three files new.index.c, print.index.c, and more.c, type:

cat new.index.c print.index.c more.c | qprt -PMsp1 -N 3

Note: The AIX operating system also supports the BSD UNIX print command (lpr) and the System V UNIX print command (lp). See the lpr and lp commands in the AIX Version 4.3 Commands Reference for the exact syntax.

See the qprt command in the AIX Version 4.3 Commands Reference for the exact syntax.

smit Command

To start a job using SMIT, type:

smit qprt