<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >/etc/printcap Tips</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+ "><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="The Linux Print2Win mini-HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Client (Linux)" HREF="x32.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="License" HREF="x95.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="section" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >The Linux Print2Win mini-HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x32.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x95.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="section" ><H1 CLASS="section" ><A NAME="AEN75">4. <TT CLASS="filename" >/etc/printcap</TT > Tips</H1 > <P > I have used the entry below in the first example, but this is not a particularly good idea: <TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="screen" >... :lp=/dev/null:\</PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > </P > <P > Because lpr does an <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"exclusive"</SPAN > open on the file you specify as lp=. It does this in order to prevent multiple processes from trying to print to the same printer at the same time. </P > <P > The side effect of this is that in your case, <TT CLASS="literal" >eng</TT > and <TT CLASS="literal" >colour</TT > can't print at the same time, (usually more or less transparent since they probably print quickly and since they queue you probably don't notice) but any other process that tries to write to <TT CLASS="filename" >/dev/null</TT > will break! </P > <P > On a single user system, probably not a big problem. I have a system with over 50 printers. It would be a problem there. </P > <P > The solution is to create a dummy printer for each. Eg: <TT CLASS="userinput" ><B >touch /dev/eng</B ></TT >. </P > <P > <TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="screen" ><TT CLASS="prompt" >[localhost]$</TT > <TT CLASS="userinput" ><B >touch /dev/eng</B ></TT > <TT CLASS="prompt" >[localhost]$</TT > <TT CLASS="userinput" ><B >touch /dev/colour</B ></TT ></PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > </P > </DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x32.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x95.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Client (Linux)</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >License</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >