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Adding Printers in UNIX/Linux
AXIS 540+/AXIS 560 75
PROS A protocol developed at Axis. Comes in two versions;
named pipe (PROS A) and filter (PROS B).
PROS A
Advantages
The AXIS 540+/AXIS 560 appears as a device to the system. This makes all filter
and model options available. It provides accounting and status logging.
Supports bi-directional printing. The printer information read back can be
viewed in a log file.
PROS A
Limitations
A ‘C’ compiler is required to build the PROS A drivers.
Note:
PROS B
Advantages
It provides accounting and status logging. Supports bi-directional printing. The
printer information read back can be viewed in a log file.
PROS B
Limitations
A ‘C’ compiler is required to build the PROS B drivers and in the case of BSD, it
may conflict with other input or output filters. It does not allow both input and
output filters. Interface programs can not be used in System V.
Reverse Telnet Often used for printing via a terminal server printer port. Only recommended if
you already have a Reverse Telnet driver installed.
Advantages: Easy to set up with previously installed Reverse Telnet drivers.
Limitations: No status logging. Drivers are not supplied with the print server. Existing drivers
may be slow.
Other UNIX/Linux
Systems
Most UNIX/Linux systems resemble either BSD or System V and so with some
ingenuity, a solution can also be devised for other variants.
If the system has BSD socket type networking support, then
prosbsd (in the
bsd directory of the AXIS 540+/AXIS 560) can be used as a starting point. It
receives print data from
stdin, and writes a log file to stderr. Nothing is
written to
stdout.
Alternatively, FTP may be used. It is a good idea to use
bsd/ftp_bsd or
sysv/ftp_sysv as a starting point.
IBM MVS Systems A sample JCL script,
jclex, is available in the mvs directory of the print server.
It gives an example of how to print a file from an MVS mainframe to an AXIS
540+/AXIS 560 using FTP.
You can download a ‘C’ compiler from http://www.gnu.org/