The reconfigured lp command has three options:

1. Type lpr. The workstation will show you a roster of printers available from your workstation and prompt you for the name or number of the printer and the name of the file. The file must be a text or PostScript file.
2. Use the standard lpr command. For example, type lpr filename to print filename; using the default printer for your workstation (type setenv | grep PRINTER to list the default printer). ALL lpr options are supported. Type "man lpr" for details.
3. Type "lpr help" to read more about lpr.

• Many printers in the Department of Chemistry have a network port. Workstations can send print jobs directly to these printers. The workstation must also inform the printer if the print job is "raw" (for PostScript) or "text" (for text). The workstation sends this job type information to the printer by printing to printername_ps or printername_text. Knowing when to specify the job type ("raw" or "text", by specifying "_ps" or "_text" in the printer name) can sometimes be difficult. The lpr wrapper determines if your print job is PostScript or text.

• Some workstations do not have a network port. To print to these printers, a workstation must send the print job to another workstation, which then sends the print job to the printer via a parallel port cable. Knowing if the printer is accessed via another workstation can sometimes be difficult. The lpr wrapper takes care of this automatically.

• The list of printers available to a workstation is different for each workstation. Also, printers need to be taken out of service for occasional maintenance. Keeping track of which printer is avaialable to the workstation that you are using at a particular moment can be difficult.

• The fold command divides lines that are longer than 80 characters into 2 or more lines that are less than 80 characters. This is a very convenient command to use when printing text files that have lines with greater than 80 characters. Also, it's usually not necessary to print the "banner" or "header" page, which just wastes paper. The lpr wrapper folds text and avoids printing the banner page.

• Finally, printing costs money. Therefore, printing accounting is required. The lpr wrapper logs print jobs and number of pages printed.

• -h turns off printing of the banner or header page.
• -Pprintername prints to printer printername.
• -#num prints num copies.

Note that you can still use the lpr.UNIX program. However, this is strongly discouraged, since it bypasses the wrapper's printer acocunting. The standard UNIX printer accounting is also used, which cannot be bypassed. The standard accounting doesn't log the number of pages printed, so the wrapper's printer accounting is our primary printer accounting log. Since it's easy to automatically compare the standard UNIX printer accounting with the wrapper's printer accounting, users who bypass the wrapper's printer accounting by using lpr.UNIX will be caught.

The lpr script also needs 3 awk scripts in /usr/bsd:

• lpr_8x11.awk
• lpr_11x17.awk
• lpr_clbpmf.awk

You also need a file /var/spool/lpr/lpr.log and /var/spool/lpr.roster. The lpr.log file logs print requests. The lpr.roster file lists the names of the printers available on your system.

The /etc/printcap file lists all printers available to your system, along with the information needed by the spooler to send the job. Contact the MolViz Facility for details. To use the lpr wrapper, a entry in /etc/printcap MUST exist for printername_ps AND printername_text, even if you are printing to a print server.