Telnet Printing

From: Jon Earle <jearle_at_dmcs.dnd.ca>
Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 16:30:05 -0400

<EXT:PLAINTEXT_OK>

Hello,

I am trying to set up the followig situation:

Win95 client connected via PPP to an NT server, and running a telnet
session to the DU 4.0a box. The terminal emulator I'm using on the Win95
box is Netterm. Netterm is capable of performing "transparent printing",
which looks to be a very handy feature.

The helpfile for Netterm contains the following shell script, which works
quite well to print text files from the DU box, to a printer, either
attached or mapped to on the Win95 box.

#! /bin/sh
echo 'ESC[5i'
cat $1
echo 'ESC[4i'

The first ESC sequence turns on transparent printing, and the second one
cancels it. What I want to do is to define a printcap entry, making use of
this script, or a similar mechanism, to send the printjob (just text, no
PS, or other funny stuff) to the remote terminal session to be printed. I
tried the following printcap entry to no avail:

ss2p2-tst|DGMEPM 5th Floor Printer:\
        :lf=/usr/adm/lp_logs/ss2p2:\
        :lp=/dev/null:\
        :mx#0:\
        :sd=/usr/spool/lpd/ss2p2:
        :of=/usr/local/bin/netprint:

where /netprint is the script file above (I changed '$1' to '-' in the
script for the purpose of using it as a filter).

I've tried setting "lp=" instead of "lp=/dev/null", changing netprint to be
the input filter vs the output filter, and - nothing. My reading of "man
printcap" tells me this should work, but it does not. As I said, running
the above script (ie: root:/>netprint /etc/fstab) works as it should, so at
least that much is sorted out. I'm open to all manner of suggestions.

This could likely be made easier with an LPD daemon for Windows 95, but I
have yet to find one.

Cheers!
Jon

---
Jonathan Earle
Technical Architect
HUB Computer Consulting Inc.
Pager: (613)751-4948
Email: jearle_at_*DELETETHIS*hubcc.ca
       "You can never burn out as long as you're doing what you enjoy. 
When it stops being fun, then you burn out.  And I'm still having fun."
                       -- J. Michael Straczynski, creator Babylon 5
Received on Thu May 28 1998 - 22:54:55 NZST

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