SUMMARY: Printcap NIS file conversion

From: Larry Chin (larry@cch.com)
Date: Tue Dec 15 1992 - 08:11:00 CST


Original post:

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> System: Sparc 2 running SunOS 4.1.2.
>
> Does anyone know a relatively easy way to turn the /etc/printcap file into
> a NIS map ?
>
> I have RTFM'd and it does not seem like an easy matter. I can run makedbm and
> create the .pag and .dir files but when I go to yppush them I get an error
> indicating that the map does not exist, even though both printcap.pag and
> princap.dir.
>
> If anyone can point me in the direction of further reading or give me a cook
> book approach to this I would appreciate it.
>
> As usual I will summarize.

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The speed of responses from this list never ceases to amaze me. I got three
replies all of which more less said the same thing - You Can't Do It - with
stock Sun 3 or 4 systems.

There is a package called CONSULT-NISLPD available from the SUN consulting
group that modifies all the tools that reference the printcap file. I am not
sure that I can afford to buy that so I guess I will just have to maintain a
printcap file on all the systems around here.

I have included the text of the replies below since there were only 3.

Thanks go to:

stern@sunne.East.Sun.COM (Hal Stern - NE Area Systems Engineer)
cc_gucky@rcvie.co.at (Gerhard Holzer)
ups!upstage!glenn@fourx.Aus.Sun.COM (Glenn Satchell)

------------------------------- Replies -------------------------------------

buy CONSULT-NISLPD.

in order to make the printcap file NIS-based, you need to modify
*all* of the tools that use it or reference it: lpr, lpd, lprm, lpq.
sun's consulting group created the above-named special that does
just that.

the error you're getting has more to do with new map creation than
the actual map itself. when you create a new map, you need to "pull"
it from the NIS slave server before you do a push -- a push only
works if the client already has the map. check out "ypxfr" for
doing a pull.

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As far as I know this is not supported on Sun4* and Sun3*.
It was/is only implemented on Road Runner (Sun386i) !

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There is a Sun Consulting Special "CONSULT-NISLPD" which allows lpr to
access the printcap via nfs. Out of the box SunOS 4.x does not do this
(except for the 386i).

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Thanks to all who replied.

Larry Chin {larry@cch.com} CCH Canadian Ltd.
System Administrator 6 Garamond Court
Research and Development Don Mills, Ontario.
(416) 441-4001 ext. 349 M3C 1Z5



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