Checking the Status of Printers with the LISTPTR Command

Use the LISTPTR command to get information about printers. For each printer the report lists:

Printer type
Form queues assigned
Number of blank pages ejected between print jobs
The process number of the line to which the printer is attached
The current status of the printer: ACTIVE, INACTIVE, or STOPPED

The LISTPTR command produces a report such as the following:

PRINTER ASSIGNMENTS				16:41:16
PRINTER	OUTPUT QUEUES		PAGE	DEV OR	STATUS
TYPE	NUMBER		SKIP	PROCESS #
SERIAL	0	0	0	6	INACTIVE

This report lists the currently defined printer on the system. Serial printer 1 has form queue 0 assigned to it and is running on process 6. It is currently inactive. The printer does not skip any pages between print jobs.

The LISTPTR command also places information in the secondary input buffer for access by a Proc. Proc control of the Spooler is covered later on in this section. Another topic in this section discusses the LISTPEQS command, which describes the status of the printer entry queues. There are also two other commands typically used by the system administrator: SP-STATUS, to monitor the activity of the Spooler, and LISTABS, to check on the printer assignments for all users.

Perform this step to check the status of printers:

Type this command line at TCL:

LISTPTR [n [-m]] [options]

Parameter(s)

n	Number of the printer.
n-m	Specifies a range of printer numbers.
options	Parentheses are not required:
	B	Lists information about all printer control blocks, whether allocated or not.
	N	Suppresses automatic paging.
	P	Sends the output to the printer.