Summary: LPD keeps crashing

From: Aharon Schkolnik <aharon_at_health.gov.il>
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 10:33:48 +0200

Well, I'm a little embarassed, but here goes:



My original post, with annotations:

>> One of my LPD daemons seems to be crashing whenever I start it.
>>
>> lpc shows:
>>
    lpc> status
>> ps: printer is on remote host
>> laser-duplex.comps.matat.yehuda.health.gov.il with name pr1
>> queuing is enabled printing is enabled 4 entries in spool area
>> Mon Jan 5 13:48:13 1998: sending to
>> laser-duplex.comps.matat.yehuda.health.gov.il lp2: printer is
>> on remote host BRINET.HEALTH.GOV.IL with name POSTSCRIPT_1$PS
>> queuing is enabled printing is enabled no entries no daemon
>> present
    lpc>
>> (note - no daemont present)

This is normal. The daemon is only present when needed.


>> The log file shows:
>>
>>
>> #cat /usr/var/adm/syslog.dated/05-Jan-09:45/lpr.log
>>
>> Jan 5 13:44:24 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30580 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:48:12 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30669 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:48:12 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30356 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:49:52 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30692 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:50:35 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30671 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:57:12 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30856 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:59:12 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30857 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:59:40 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30855 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 14:02:42 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30909 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 14:06:59 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30931 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 14:08:59 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30954 (sig=-1,err=0)
>>

This is normal lpd forks child processes.

>>
>> And, here's my /etc/printcap file:
>>
>>
>>
>> # laser printer in computer room - via BRINET
>> ps|lp|lp1|1|duplex|laser-duplex-pr| Network printer on Print
>> server laser-duplex.comps.matat.yehuda.health.gov.il:\ :lp=:\
>> :sd=/var/spool/lpd/laser-duplex-pr:\
>> :lf=/var/spool/lpd/laser-duplex-pr/log:\
>> :rm=laser-duplex.comps.matat.yehuda.health.gov.il:\ :rp=pr1:
>> lp2|2|old-laser|old:\ :lf=/usr/adm/lp2err:\ :lp=:\
>> :rm=BRINET.HEALTH.GOV.IL:\ :rp=POSTSCRIPT_1$PS:\
>> :sd=/usr/spool/lpd2:
>>


Nothing wrong here, either.


        ========================================

As it turns out, the whole situation was caused by the following
situation:

1. the printer ps (laser-duplex) is the printer I normally use. It
was temporarily out of commision due to a paper jam.

2. This caused a queue of jobs to form, and the lack of the no daemon
present line for that printer.

3. The other printer - lp2 - was working fine, thus no dameon present.

4. I tried to print to lp2, but nothing came out. Here's the
embarassing part - I think I typed lpr -p instead of lpr -P. Anyway,
it's working fine now.

 
        ==========================================


Answers:

>>>>> "Peter" == Peter Stern <peter_at_wiscpa.weizmann.ac.il> writes:

    Peter> This looks perfectly normal to me. On the printer on which
    Peter> you are printing, i.e. ps, there is no message "no daemon
    Peter> present." Why do you think that your lpd daemon keeps
    Peter> "crashing." Did you try: ps aux | grep lpd ? Don't you
    Peter> have a process /usr/lbin/lpd since the time of your last
    Peter> boot? This daemon listens for print requests and forks a
    Peter> child process to handle any requests so that it can
    Peter> continue to process more requests. The process forked dies
    Peter> with the print job being completed.

>> 13:49:52 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30692 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:50:35 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30671 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:57:12 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30856 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:59:12 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30857 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:59:40 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30855 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:59:12 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30857 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 13:59:40 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30855 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 14:02:42 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30909 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 14:06:59 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30931 (sig=-1,err=0) Jan 5
>> 14:08:59 healdb lpd[532]: pid=30954 (sig=-1,err=0)

    Peter> Nothing wrong here. 532 is the pid of your /usr/lbin/lpd
    Peter> process. 30580,...,30954 are the pids of the child
    Peter> processes it forked.

>>>>> "Martin" == Martin Lally <mel1003_at_phy.cam.ac.uk> writes:

    Martin> Try restarting lpd after you have remove any spooled jobs.

    lpc> clean all restart all

    Martin> You can also try aborting:

    lpc> abort pr1 start pr1

    Martin> Then resubmit the print jobs.

    Martin> The 'no daemon present' message is normal.

    Martin> Martin.

>>>>> "Wesley" == Wesley Darlington <w.darlington_at_am.qub.ac.uk> writes:

    Wesley> Hi Aharon,

    Wesley> When I do an lpc status, I get `no daemon present' for
    Wesley> every printer! And I can still print to all the printers.

    Wesley> For Example:

    Wesley> # lpc
    lpc> status
    Wesley> rm4028: printer is on remote host nutmeg with name lp
    Wesley> queuing is enabled printing is enabled no entries no
    Wesley> daemon present line1: printer is on remote host nutmeg
    Wesley> with name line1 queuing is enabled printing is enabled no
    Wesley> entries no daemon present

    Wesley> But I can print OK. Can you print to your printers?

>>>>> "Knut" == Knut Hellebų <Knut.Hellebo_at_nho.hydro.com> writes:

    Knut> What OS version ? Patches installed ? --

>>>>> "Alex" == Alex Nord <Alex_Nord_at_Jabil.com> writes:

    Alex> LPD does not fork off a daemon for an individual printer
    Alex> until a print job is sent to that printer. There is one
    Alex> 'master' lpd daemon (ps -efa | grep lpd should have parent
    Alex> process of '1') that waits for print requests, and then
    Alex> forks off a separate daemon (no more than one per printer)
    Alex> to handle the print request. The kind of operation you
    Alex> describe here is normal.

-- 
  The day is short, and the work is great,     |   Aharon Schkolnik
  and the laborers are lazy, and the reward    |   Aharon_at_Health.Gov.IL
  is great, and the Master of the house is     |
  impatient. - Ethics Of The Fathers Ch. 2     |
Received on Tue Jan 06 1998 - 09:31:24 NZDT

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