Axis Communications Network Print Servers, AXIS 5500, AXIS 5550 manual Limitations

Adding Printers in UNIX/Linux

PROS A protocol developed at Axis. Comes in two versions; named pipe (PROS A) and filter (PROS B).

PROS A Advantages

The AXIS 5500/AXIS 5550 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 A ‘C’ compiler is required to build the PROS A drivers.

Limitations

Note:

You can download a ‘C’ compiler from http://www.gnu.org/.

PROS B It provides accounting and status logging. Supports bi-directional Advantages printing. The printer information read back can be viewed in a log file.

PROS B A ‘C’ compiler is required to build the PROS B drivers and in the case of Limitations 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 Most UNIX/Linux systems resemble either BSD or System V and so with Systems 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 5500/AXIS 5550) 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 5500/AXIS 5550 using FTP.

AXIS 5500 / AXIS 5550 User’s Manual 81