Spooler Programmer's Guide

Spooler Programmer’s Guide—522287-002
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Introduction to the Spooler
Subsystem
The Spooler subsystem serves as a buffer between an application writing to a print
device and the device itself, allowing applications to create hard-copy output without
affecting the status of print devices. The Spooler subsystem performs its work by
storing the output from each application on disk and monitoring the status of print
devices. When the appropriate device becomes available, the Spooler subsystem
prints the output.
Topics described in this section include
Topic Page
Spooler and Spooler Plus comparison 1-2
Spooler features 1-2
Spooler components 1-3
Disk files maintained by the spooler 1-6
Multiple spoolers 1-6
Spooler states 1-7
Spooling from an application program 1-9
Collectors 1-10
Print processes 1-13
Devices 1-16
Routing structure 1-22
Jobs 1-23
The spooler and batch jobs 1-26