Spooler Programmer's Guide

Introduction to the Spooler Subsystem

Spooler Programmer’s Guide—522287-002

1-15

Independent Print Processes

A print process can be started independently of the supervisor. You do not need to

start the print process before starting the supervisor.

To define an independent print process, do not specify the FILE subcommand in the

Spoolcom PRINT command. The spooler supervisor flags a null print process file

name as an independent print process.

When started, the independent print process receives two startup messages. The first

startup message is the normal message sent by TACL. The second startup message

is sent by the supervisor and contains the process name of the spooler supervisor in

the OUTFILE field. This supervisor message is in the same format as the TACL

message. See the Guardian Procedure Errors and Messages Manual for an

explanation of this format. An independent print process can be started, stopped, and

restarted without the knowledge of the supervisor, as long as no jobs are active for that

print process. If no jobs are active, the second startup message is not sent.

If a job targeted for an independent print process arrives before the print process is

started, the process is placed in the error state with error %5016 (device does not

exist). The device is placed in the PROCERROR state, and an error message is

written to the spooler log file. To clear the error state and begin the print job, issue this

Spoolcom command:

PRINT print-process-name, START

Once an independent print process is started and the startup messages are read, the

independent print process runs in the same manner as a standard print process. The

spooler supervisor does not stop an independent print process. Independent print

processes remain ACTIVE until you remove them from the ACTIVE state.

Stopping an independent print process is a two-step procedure. First, issue this

Spoolcom command:

PRINT print-process-name, DELETE

PROCERROR The supervisor has determined that the print process is not

responding correctly. When the supervisor places a print process

into this state, it writes a message to the error log file. (These

messages are typically sent to the console, although their

destination is set at system startup time and can be changed with

the Spoolcom SPOOLER ERRLOG command. The error log

messages are described in the Operator Messages Manual.) You

should debug the print process to determine the cause of failure.

You can modify print process attributes when the process is in the

PROCERROR state. To remove a print process from the

PROCERROR state, use the PRINT START command.