Spooler Programmer's Guide

Introduction to the Spooler Subsystem
Spooler Programmer’s Guide—522287-002
1-8
Spooler States
The meanings of the spooler states are as follows:
COLD The first step in creating the spooler is to run the spooler supervisor.
The spooler is in the COLD state as soon as you start the supervisor.
At this time, use Spoolcom to declare and initialize the collectors and
print processes.
ACTIVE After declaring and initializing the collectors and print processes,
issue the Spoolcom command SPOOLER START, which puts the
spooler into the ACTIVE state. In this state, the spooler is fully
operational and ready to accept output from application processes.
You can then use Spoolcom to add, delete, or modify collectors and
print processes.
DRAIN It is sometimes necessary to halt the spooler. You should never
issue a TACL STOP command for any spooler process, because the
spooler recovery from STOP can be time-consuming. Instead, bring
the spooler to an orderly halt by issuing the Spoolcom command
SPOOLER DRAIN. This command puts the spooler into the DRAIN
state. When the spooler is in this state, the following events take
place:

Each collector stops accepting new jobs, rejects new opens with
file-system error 66 (device downed by operator), finishes
accepting and storing any jobs that are currently open, and stops.

Each print process finishes the jobs currently printing and stops.

The supervisor updates its control files and stops.

Any attempt to print to a stopped spooler is rejected with file-
system error 14 (device does not exist).
DORMANT Once drained, a spooler is in the DORMANT state. In this state, it
consists solely of a set of disk files, including: program files
containing object code, data files containing spooled jobs, and control
files containing the names and attributes of the components and jobs
known to the spooler.
You cannot use Spoolcom to obtain information regarding a
DORMANT spooler, because in the DORMANT state there is no
supervisor for Spoolcom to communicate with.
WARM When you start another supervisor (from TACL using the RUN
command), the spooler enters the WARM state. This state is the
same as the COLD state in that the supervisor is the only process
running and that collectors and print processes can be added,
deleted, or modified. The only difference is that the WARM state
indicates the restarting of a spooler that was formerly ACTIVE, while
the COLD state indicates the starting of a new spooler.
To bring the spooler from the WARM state to the ACTIVE state, enter
the command SPOOLER START.