Open System Services Management and Operations Guide (G06.30+, H06.08+, J06.03+)

11 Managing OSS Devices
This chapter briefly discusses Open System Services (OSS) devices and describes how to manage
printers in the OSS environment.
The Scope of OSS Device Management
The only devices you can manage in the OSS environment are printers. All other devices are
managed through the Guardian environment.
In the OSS environment, printer and tape-drive definitions are not stored in the /dev directory.
Do not modify the contents of the /dev directory.
Device Access
Tape drives are not supported in the OSS environment as devices and do not appear in the /dev
directory. Thus, users cannot access tape drives directly.
The only OSS shell utility that can communicate directly with a tape drive is the pax utility, which
accesses tape devices through low-level software in the Guardian interface. Guardian tape processes
are visible to OSS shell users through Guardian file-system entries in the /G directory (for example,
/G/TAPE4), but they are not visible to OSS programs.
Printers, like tape drives, do not appear in the /dev directory. Therefore, application programs
cannot access printers directly in the OSS environment, although you can access them indirectly
through the shell.
Only network virtual terminals can gain command-line access to the OSS environment. For
information about configuring such terminals, see “Managing Terminal Access” (page 199), and
the Telserv Manual.
Managing Printers in the OSS Environment
The OSS printing utilities use the spooler product. Make sure that the spooler is running on your
system. For information about the spooler, see the Spooler Utilities Reference Manual.
To configure printers in the OSS environment:
1. Specify a system default printer for use when the OSS environment encounters a print command
that does not specify a particular destination printer. Instructions for doing this are in “Specifying
a Default Printer” (page 247).
2. Optionally assign aliases for other printers. Instructions for doing this are in “Using the
/etc/printcap or printcap File” (page 247).
OSS shell commands that print files require Guardian spooler-location names for access to printers
unless shell aliases have been defined as alternative names.
Printer management in the OSS environment consists of defining aliases for Guardian
spooler-location names. The aliases in the /etc/printcap file provide a system-wide set of
definitions. At least one alias should be provided in that file.
A user can also define aliases in his or her own printcap file. When you add a new user to the
system, consider creating a printcap file in the user’s initial working directory. Providing a
printcap file unique to each user allows you to assign a conveniently located printer to that user.
246 Managing OSS Devices