Migrating to OS/2 Warp Server for e-business

3.18 Document Printer and Queue Definitions

If you have defined printer queues on your server, manually recording all the printer and queue definitions is a tedious task. We used the utility BACKPRN, which backs up printer and job properties to a file. This file can be used later for restoration by RESTPRN (see Section 6.12.2 RESTPRN) or RINSTPRN (the remote printer installation program - see Section 6.12.3 RINSTPRN).

A printer and job properties file consists of printer driver specific data defined for a printer and a queue. The printer part describes hardware-related information, such as which fonts are installed or which options are installed on the printer. The job properties consist of information about what paper to select, what resolution and orientation to use, and so on. So, printer properties belong to the printer, and job properties belong to a queue. These two types of properties are closely related to each other; so, it makes sense to back them up together.

Invoking BACKPRN without any command line parameter will show the syntax of the program as well as the available printers, queues, and the printer drivers used by them.

The syntax for BACKPRN is:

BACKPRN <printer-name>[.<queue-name>] <file-name>

where:

<printer-name>: This is the name of the printer to copy the printer properties from.
<queue-name>: (Optional) This is the name of the queue to copy the job properties from (if no queue is specified, the first defined for the printer is used).
<file-name>: This is the name of the property file.

For example:

BACKPRN PSCRIPT1.PSCRIPT1 pscript.pjp

The property file (extension .pjp) created with BACKPRN contains the printer and job properties as well as information about the driver used.

Figure 17: BACKPRN Output

To continue the example, the command is executed again to save the properties of the IBM 4019 printer with the output illustrated in Figure 18.

Although there is a warning in this particular example, the backup completes successfully. The printer properties that cannot be found are printer driver specific settings, such as forms and tray information, which, in this case, have not been changed. We decided to include it in the example because the help on the utility is not extensive, and we wanted to show that the message was nothing to worry about.

Figure 18: Using BACKPRN to Save Printer Properties

3.19 Document Multimedia Device Configuration