Re: Print Server Daemon

On Sun, 25 May 2003, phil wrote:

Well let me clarify.   I am not well versed in 5250.  I have read RFC
2877 and do not follow most of it.  By experimention I have determined
that env.DEVNAME in xt5250 will identify the "session" correctly and
env.DEVNAME with lp5250d will give the AS400 a correct virtual printer
name to refer too. Good so far.

Hmmm... hopefully you don't need to understand the underlying protocol in
order to use our emulator. :)

We have a few man pages that might help you:

  man tn5250
  man tn5250rc
  man lp5250d

Also, it isn't finished yet, but James Rich is working on a HOWTO document
which you might find helpful:
  ftp://ftp.chowhouse.com/pub/tn5250/tn5250-HOWTO.pdf

I am anticipating that there are a bunch of 5250e variables to do with host
transform/translation which I do not understand yet and I am hoping that
can all be setup via lp5250d either as command line variables or in a config
file similar to tn5250rc.

All of the variables that you can set from the command line can also be
put into tn5250rc.   Here's a configuration that I use for my own printer,
which is an HP LaserJet 4L.   I have this in a file called
/usr/local/etc/tn5250rc:

PI {
   env.DEVNAME = pi
   host = as400.example.com
   env.IBMMFRTYPMDL = *HP4
   outputcommand = scs2ascii|lpr -Ppi
   env.IBMMSGQNAME=DSP01
   env.IBMMSGQLIB=*LIBL
}

Then, I start lp5250d by typing:

lp5250d PI

Note that case is significant here..   if I specify "lp5250d pi"  it won't
work.  It must be PI because that's what I have in the tn5250rc file.

Using tn5250rc with xt5250 I was unsuccessful in either printing or
getting the AS400 to see a virtual printer.  But that may have be because I
didn't know what I was doing.
But using lp5250d was easy.  I am just wondering if it restrictive.

xt5250 should be just as easy.   I just add this to the end of my
/usr/local/etc/tn5250rc file:

DSP01 {
  env.DEVNAME= DSP01
  -underscores
  host = ssl:as400.example.com
}

then I do:

xt5250 DSP01

In this case, I'm using SSL encryption with tn5250. If you don't have that
set up, just omit the "ssl:" from the host line.

The most common problem with using xt5250 is the terminal type not being
available.  If you're installing from the FreeBSD ports tree, it almost
certainly won't be available.

If that's the case, go to the freebsd/ (or linux/ if you're installing on
that platform) directory of the TN5250 source distribution, and check out
the README file there.   Should be full information on installing the
appropriate termcap/terminfo files.

Alternately, edit the /usr/local/bin/xt5250 script.  Near the bottom
of the script, you'll see something that says "-tn xterm-5250"
If you remove that, a few keys (I think, mainly, the back-tab key) won't
work, but it'll eliminate the requirement for having the terminal-type
installed in your termcap.

By the way, lp5250d worked great also when my display session was
tn5280j.jar, which was cool.

Now, tn5250j does NOT work nicely on my system.  The fonts are always
messed up for me...  They're always very small, and the underlines always
end up in the middle of the text (looks like an overstrike).   I think
it may be that FreeBSD's JDK doesn't come with fonts that tn5250j is
expecting will always be there.

HTH

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I was not aware that .tn5250rc supported both xt5250
and lp5250d.  I'm moving ahead now.
One thing that is very cool, My As400 is at the office
over VPN, My Linux box lpr's to a WIN2K Print server
and still printing starts in under 4 seconds.