All-
After years away from this list, "I'm baaaack!" ;-) I'm once again tasked with being the printing guru for our campus, and I've run into a problem with our existing print configuration, most of which was done by others. We have a router queue set up that all our PC and Mac labs submit their jobs to. Based on the hostname of the originating host (from the control file), I have a perl-based router script that decides which lab the machine is in, and what load-balance queue the job should be redirected to. The router printcap entry looks like this: Printer: router@printserv router :cm=NDSU Cluster Routing Queue :destinations=iacc-bw,iacc-color,iacc-150,iacc-150b,iacc-150c,iacc-150d,iacc-128,iacc-132,iacc-114,iacc-116,arch-102,churc-17,ehly-119,eml-377,mus-117,flc-120,library-14a,library-14b,library-14c,morrill-111,morrill-116,stock-142a,sudro-131,weible-163,wdc-3 :lf=/var/spool/lpd/%P/log :router=/usr/libexec/filters/qroute.pl :sd=/var/spool/lpd/%P First, even though the router queue example in the LPRng HOWTO doesn't have entries for lp, rm, or sv, whenever I run checkpc it always complains about the router queue: Warning - router: 'no :rm, :lp, or :sv entry' *Should* a router queue (on the same host that the lpd is on) have any of those entries? Based on my reading, even `destinations=' is mostly optional, though helpful for lpq/lpc/lprm. In any case, as you can imagine the `router' queue is extremely busy. It worked reasonably well last spring in limited testing and over the summer when less printing was happening, but since the start of the fall semester we've been having major problems with the queue not being able to keep up. >From what I see, most of the problem isn't with the router script itself (though I'm sure there's lots of room for improvement there), it's with LPRng. Version 3.7.4 wants to keep database files in each of the spool queue directories, and it looks like we're getting serious lock contention on the db file for the router queue directory. I started looking to see if there was a way to turn this off, but I see that the whole database functionality was completely excised from LPRng at some later version. I can't find anything in the CHANGES about the removal. I looked at the LPRng-HOWTO that came with 3.7.4, and although our lpd.conf file from that version has a `queue_db_file=db.%P' setting, queue_db_file is not documented in the HOWTO, so without spending hours wandering through the source I have little idea what the file is needed for. Can I set it to nothing via queue_db_file= and have LPRng essentially quit keeping the file, and if that's possible what's going to break (or have reduced functionality) because of it? We have 3.8.15 installed on the same system in a different spot and I think I've ported our configuration settings into the new lpd.conf file, but tests done earlier today proved that it's not going to be trivial to upgrade to the new version. If we can get some temporary improvement by disabling the db.<queuename> file in the spool directories it might give us enough time to actually *plan* an upgrade, rather than rush one. Thanks! Tim -- Tim Mooney [EMAIL PROTECTED] Information Technology Services (701) 231-1076 (Voice) Room 242-J6, IACC Building (701) 231-8541 (Fax) North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOU MUST BE A LIST MEMBER IN ORDER TO POST TO THE LPRNG MAILING LIST The address you post from MUST be your subscription address If you need help, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (or lprng-requests or lprng-digest-requests) with the word 'help' in the body. For the impatient, to subscribe to a list with name LIST, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with: | example: subscribe LIST <mailaddr> | subscribe lprng-digest [EMAIL PROTECTED] unsubscribe LIST <mailaddr> | unsubscribe lprng [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you have major problems, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word LPRNGLIST in the SUBJECT line. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
