Creating print queues from the command line

  1. Before you can create the queue, you must gather the following information: a valid device name, the printer type, the printer language, and the default print queue settings options.

    1. The device name associated with the print queue must exist before you create the queue.

      • You can list the defined virtual devices by running the following command:

        # /usr/ibmprint/bin/lsdevice -l
      • If the device does not exist, you can create one by running the mkdevice command.

        For more information, see Creating virtual devices.

    2. The supported printer types and languages can be found by running the following command:

      # /usr/ibmprint/bin/supported_printers

      Locate the line listed from the supported_printers command that contains the model number of your printer.

      Example: You want to create a queue for an IBM Infoprint Color 1454. You locate the line matching this printer from supported_printers and it looks like this: IBM Infoprint Color 1454 10IC1454 automatic

      The printer type is 10IC1454, and the supported language is automatic.

      Supported language notes:

      • All printer types support “raw” as the language type. This makes the print queue a pass-through queue. This means the print job is sent to the printer without any queue modification.

      • Automatic language type means you can set the language type to be automatic, pcl, or ps. If you select automatic, you can send both PCL emulation/ASCII and PostScript print jobs to the print queue.

      • Automatic Plus language type means you can set the language type to be automatic_plus, pcl, ps, or iq. If you select automatic_plus, you can send PCL emulation/ASCII, PostScript, and ImageQuick (HTML, PDF, TIFF) print jobs to the print queue.

      • Automatic PDF language type means you can set the language type to be automatic_pdf, pcl, ps, or pdf. If you select automatic_pdf, you can send PCL emulation/ASCII, PostScript, and PDF print jobs to the print queue.

      • If the language type is pcl, you can send only ASCII text or PCL emulation jobs through the print queue.

      • If the language type is ps, you can send only PostScript jobs through the print queue.

      • If the language type is ppds, you can only send ASCII text or PPDS emulation jobs through the print queue.

      • You should normally choose automatic, if it is available.

    3. Printer settings options that can be used can be found by running the lsqueue_opts command. Using the Printer Type as determined in step b, run the following command:

      # /usr/ibmprint/bin/lsqueue_opts -f printer_type

      Example: # /usr/ibmprint/bin/lsqueue_opts -f 10IC1454

      Locate the options and values you want to change and pass them the mkqueue with the -o argument.

  2. Enter the following command:

    # /usr/ibmprint/bin/mkqueue -d device_name -q queue_name
    -p printer_type -l printer_language -o printer_options
    Note:Enter mkqueue -h from the command line for more details regarding this command.

    Example: Using information gathered in step 1, create a new print queue (“myqueue”), for a virtual device (“mydevice”). The printer type is 10IC1454 and the language selection is specified as “automatic” for this queue. Specify additional printer options so that paper from the second tray is used and jobs are duplexed against the long edge of the paper.

    # /usr/ibmprint/bin/mkqueue -d mydevice -q myqueue -p 10IC1454 
    -l automatic -o "paper_tray=tray2 duplex=long_edge"