Spooler Utilities Reference Manual

Introduction to the Spooler Subsystem

Spooler Utilities Reference Manual—522295-003

2-2

Spooler and Spooler Plus Comparison

Spooler Plus is an optional product containing Spoolcom and Peruse modules that can

be used to replace the Spoolcom and Peruse modules provided by the D41 or later

releases of the Spooler subsystem. You can use the Spooler Plus Spoolcom and

Peruse utilities to configure and manage expanded configurations of the Spooler

subsystem. You must use these utilities if the maximum jobs has been configured

above 8191.

The Spooler Plus subsystem is described in the Spooler Plus Utilities Reference

Manual and the Spooler Plus Programmer’s Guide.

Spooler Features

Features of the Spooler subsystem include



Continuous operation—the Spooler subsystem keeps working even if a processor

fails.



Flexible routing—you can change the destination of a job even after it enters the

Spooler subsystem.



No programming necessary—you can send output to the Spooler subsystem

simply by specifying a spooler location as your OUT file.



Interactive control—using the Peruse program, you can inspect or alter the status

of your job, examine the data you have sent to the Spooler subsystem, and change

the destination of your output.



Operator control—using the Spoolcom utility, you can initialize and modify all

Spooler subsystem components.

Why Use the Spooler?

The spooler offers a consistent interface to all print devices in your system. The

application programs (such as TAL, TFORM, or COBOL85) can send data to the

spooler as easily as they do to a disk file. The spooler ensures efficient use of the print

devices in the system because it allows many different programs to send data to the

same printer at the same time while protecting the applications from device-dependent

considerations.

There are alternatives to using the Stop spooler, and in some special circumstances

these can be more efficient. For most users, however, using the spooler is the best

way to produce hard-copy output.

Note. Because spooler is an industry-standard term used to describe a printer spooling

system, it used throughout the remainder of this manual to refer to the Spooler subsystem.