Skip to content

03 - Configuration: Telling SINTRAN Which Printers Exist

This document answers "how do you configure for printing" and "how do you choose what printers you have." There are three layers: system generation (is a spooling program built in at all), the peripheral file / device binding (what the printer is called and which device number it uses), and the spooling-file versions (how much concurrency and buffering the printer has).

Sources: ../../Reference-Manuals/ND-60.050.06 SINTRAN III Users Guide.md section 3.8; ../../Reference-Manuals/SINTRAN-COMMANDS-REFERENCE.md (SET-PERIPHERAL-FILE, SET-SPOOLING-DEVICE-NUMBER, SINTRAN-SERVICE-PROGRAM).

1. Layer 1: system generation - is spooling available?

Output spooling for a given peripheral only works "if the actual SINTRAN III system is generated with an optional spooling program for the peripheral in question" (Users Guide 3.8).

That is: whether a printer can be spooled at all is decided when the SINTRAN system is built (generated). If no spooling program was generated for that device class, @START-SPOOLING will simply report that no spooling program exists for the peripheral (Reference Manual, START-SPOOLING rules). This is a build-time choice, not something you toggle at runtime.

Generation also fixes, via SINTRAN Configuration (SINGEN) menus (System Supervisor manual):

  • Number of printers with spooling - how many spooling programs (SPRT1, SPRT2, ...) exist.
  • Spooling queue size in pages (a "VARIOUS" parameter; e.g. 4 pages).
  • Define printer type - for each line printer, the interface type: 0 = do not use, 1 = DMA (Fujitsu), 2 = Parallel (CDC/DP), 3 = Serial. This is only for line printers with a special interface; printers on a terminal line do not use it (see 09-PRINTING-VIA-TERMINAL-AND-RETROTERM.md). The byte-level effect of this choice is documented in ../Devices/LINE-PRINTER-CONFIG-INSPECTION.md.

Takeaway: "what printers you have" starts at system generation, which determines which spooling programs exist and each line printer's interface type.

2. Layer 2: the peripheral file and its device number

A printer is a peripheral file bound to a logical device number (see 01-OVERVIEW-AND-CONCEPTS.md section 1).

2.1 @SET-PERIPHERAL-FILE - bind a name to a device

@SET-PERIPHERAL-FILE <file name>,<device name>
  • Permitted only for user SYSTEM.
  • Associates a file-system name with a peripheral device (logical device number). The device must be properly configured and the file must exist / be accessible.

Example (Commands Reference):

@SET-PERIPHERAL-FILE "LINE-PRINTER",5

creates the file LINE-PRINTER and associates it with logical device number 5. After this, opening and writing LINE-PRINTER reaches that device.

The standard names to use (LINE-PRINTER, PRINTER, VERSATEC-n, ...) and the hardware device numbers behind them are in 02-HARDWARE-DEVICES.md.

2.2 The quote-the-whole-spec rule

When you name a new file in these commands, the quotes must wrap the entire file specification (including any (USER) prefix), for example "(SYSTEM)LINE-PRINTER". This is a general SINTRAN new-file rule, not specific to printing, but it bites here because you are creating peripheral-file objects.

3. Layer 3: spooling-file versions - concurrency and buffering

Once the real peripheral file exists, you decide how much spooling capacity the printer has by creating extra versions of the same file. Recall the rule (Users Guide 3.8):

  • The version connected to a device number = the peripheral file (hardware).
  • Every version not connected to a device number = a spooling file (disk buffer).

The Users Guide example creates ten versions of LINE-PRINTER: version 1 is the device (device number 5), the other nine are spooling files. More spooling files means:

  • more users can "open the printer" simultaneously (each gets a free spooling file version), and
  • more jobs can be buffered on disk ahead of the printer.

ASSUMPTION: the extra versions are created with the normal file-creation mechanism (@CREATE-FILE with additional versions) as for any versioned SINTRAN file. The Users Guide states the versions exist and their meaning; it does not, in the excerpt reviewed, spell out the exact create command, so the create step is flagged as interpretation.

4. Binding a spooling index to a device (service program)

There is a lower-level configuration command that connects an internal spooling index to a logical device number:

*SET-SPOOLING-DEVICE-NUMBER <spooling index>,<logical device number> (<memory?>) (<image?>) (<save-area?>)

Notes (System Supervisor manual; the Commands Reference shows a shorter memory/save-area form of the same command):

  • The leading * means this is entered inside the SINTRAN Service Program, not at the normal @ command prompt. You enter that program with @SINTRAN-SERVICE-PROGRAM (and leave it when done).
  • <spooling index> is the octal index of the spooling device in the system; its range is fixed at system generation time. Special-interface line printers (the DMA/parallel/serial types) must take the lowest indexes, sorted ascending; printers on a terminal line follow after in any order (System Supervisor note).
  • <logical device number> is the octal logical device number of the printer to use for spooling.
  • <memory?>, <image?>, <save-area?> (Y/N) choose whether the change is written to running memory, the disk image, and/or the save-area, so the binding can be made permanent across restarts. Answer all three Y to make it stick.

This is the command that ties the generated spooling machinery (identified by index) to a concrete printer device number. Using it on a terminal-line printer also spares you the separate *REMOVE-FROM-BACKGROUND-TABLE step (see 09-PRINTING-VIA-TERMINAL-AND-RETROTERM.md).

PARTIALLY VERIFIED: the System Supervisor manual confirms the spooling index binds a spooler to a logical device and that special-interface printers take the lowest indexes. The precise internal data structure the index addresses (and how it relates to the peripheral-file "versions" in section 3) is being resolved by the carving pass - see 07a-CARVED-INTERNALS-FINDINGS.md.

5. The @ prompt vs the * prompt

You will see two prompts in printing/spooling work:

  • @... - normal SINTRAN III command mode (day-to-day operator and user commands: START-SPOOLING, APPEND-SPOOLING-FILE, etc.).
  • *... - the SINTRAN Service Program, a maintenance/configuration monitor entered with @SINTRAN-SERVICE-PROGRAM. Configuration commands like SET-SPOOLING-DEVICE-NUMBER and INSERT-IN-IOX-TABLE live here.

Getting the prompt wrong is a common cause of "command not found."

6. Configuration checklist

To make a working spooled printer, in order:

  1. Ensure SINTRAN was generated with a spooling program for that device class (build-time; section 1).
  2. As user SYSTEM, create/bind the peripheral file to the printer's device number with @SET-PERIPHERAL-FILE (section 2).
  3. Create the desired number of extra versions so there are spooling files for buffering/concurrency (section 3).
  4. If needed, bind the spooling index to the logical device number with *SET-SPOOLING-DEVICE-NUMBER in the Service Program, saving to memory and/or save area (section 4).
  5. Start the spooler with @START-SPOOLING <peripheral file name> (see 04-OPERATOR-COMMANDS.md).

Now users can print to it (see 05-USER-COMMANDS.md).