6.7 Line Printer Devices

6.7.1 Function

The line printer device statement defines a printer to the Hercules configuration. The argument specifies
the name of a file to which the printer output will be written. The output is written in the form of variable
length lines of ASCII characters, delimited by line feeds or carriage return line feed sequences. Trailing
blanks are removed from each line. Carriage control characters are translated to blank lines or ASCII
form feed characters. If the file exists it will be overwritten.

If the filename begins with the vertical bar '|' pipe character, then it is removed and the remainder of the
filename is interpreted as a command line (the name of a program or batch file followed by any necessary
arguments) to which to "pipe" the printer output to. This is known as the "print-to-pipe" feature. All printer
output is then sent to the piped programs stdin input, and all of the piped programs stdout and stderr out-
put is piped back to Hercules for displaying on the hardware console.

SOCKDEV indicates that the line printer is a socket device wherein the filename is actually a socket spe-
cification in the form host:port instead of a device filename. The device then accepts remote connections
on the given TCP/IP port and writes data to the socket instead to a device file. A Windows software that
supports a socket printer is Fish's "HercPrt" (Hercules Remote Printer Spooler). It spools the print output
from a Hercules socket printer and creates either PDF, RTF or just plain text files. A control file enables
HercPrt to split the printouts on job separator page boundaries and name the file according the actual job
accounting field values.

6.7.2 Syntax

Descriptive

filename [RAWCC] [

[ lpi idx lpp

[1

or

[]port

Diagram

Êʬ¬¬ ¬¬¬ ¬¬¬ filename ¬¬¬§¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬§¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬Ê

ʬ¬¬§¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬§¬¬¬§¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬§¬¬¬¦¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¦¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬Ê

RAWCC

~¬¬¬ ¬¬¬¬®
~¬¬¬¬
¬¬¬¬¬¬®

ʬ¬¬¦¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¦¬¬¬¦¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¦¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬Ê

¬¬¬¬
lpi ¬¬¬¬

~¬¬¬ ¬¬¬¬¬®

~¬¬¬¬ ¬¬¬¬¬®

ʬ¬¬¦¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¦¬¬¬¦¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¦¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬Ê

idx
¬¬¬¬ lpp ¬¬¬¬

~ ¬¬¬¬®

ʬ¬¬¦¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¦¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ÊÍ

or

Êʬ¬¬ ddr ¬¬¬ ¬¬¬§¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬§¬¬¬ port ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ÊÍ

6.7.3 Parameter

devaddr

This is the device address.

devtype

This is the device type. Valid printer types are 1403 and 3211.

filename

The name (and optionally the path) of the printer file or the “print-to-pipe” command
line. If the filename begins with the vertical bar '|' pipe character, then it is removed
and the remainder of the filename is interpreted as a command line (the name of a
program or batch file followed by any necessary arguments) to which to "pipe" the
printer output to.

This is known as the "print-to-pipe" feature. All printer output is then sent to the
piped programs stdin input, and all of the piped programs stdout and stderr output
is piped back to Hercules for displaying on the hardware console.

If the "print-to-pipe" command line contains arguments, then quotes must be placed
around the entire filename string including the vertical bar. If the "print-to-pipe" com-
mand line itself contains quotes, then the command line must be enclosed in apo-
strophes instead of quotes.

CRLF

This optional parameter specifies that carriage return line feed sequences are writ-
ten at the end of each line. If the CRLF argument is not specified then line feeds
only are written at the end of each line.

NOCLEAR

This argument specifies that the output file will not be cleared to zero bytes when it
is opened. If NOCLEAR is not specified, then any previous content of the file is de-
stroyed when the file is opened for output.

RAWCC

RAWCC specifies that printer output CCWs are not to be interpreted, but simply
dumped in hex to the printer output file. This is useful for debugging. Default is to
interpret printer CCWs normally.