pcnfsd(1M) pcnfsd(1M)
NAME
pcnfsd: rpc.pcnfsd - PC-NFS authentication and print request server
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
is an RPC server that supports ONC clients on PC (DOS, OS/2, Macintosh, and other) systems. This describes version two of the server.
can be started from the startup script by setting the variable to 1 in or from the daemon (see inetd(1M)). It reads the configuration file
if present, and services RPC requests directed to program number 150001. The daemon supports version 1 and version 2 of the PCNFSD proto-
col.
A fixed port can be specified for by adding a line to the file of the form:
The port number can have any value between and must be restarted after adding the line to for this to take effect. To disable this fea-
ture, delete or comment out the line specifying the fixed port from and restart
The requests serviced by fall into three categories: authentication, printing, and other. Only the authentication and printing categories
have administrative significance.
Authentication
When receives a or request, it will "log in" the user by validating the user name and password, returning the corresponding user ID, group
IDs, home directory, and umask. The PCNFSD protocol supports user names up to 32 characters for authentication requests.
will also append a record to the data base (see wtmps(4)). If you do not want PC "logins" recorded in this way, add a line to the file in
the form:
By default, will only allow authentication or print requests for users with user IDs in the range 101 to To override this, add a line to
the file in the form:
where each range is a user ID number in the form
uid
or an inclusive range of user ID numbers in the form
NOTE: will deny authentication if the file is incorrectly setup.
Printing
supports a printing model that uses NFS to transfer print data from the client to the server. The client system issues a or request, and
the server returns the path to a spool directory that is exported by NFS for use by the client. creates a subdirectory for each client.
By default, the parent directory is and the name of each subdirectory is the same as its client's host name. The PCNFSD protocol limits
the length of the absolute path of the client's spool directory to 64 characters. To use a different parent directory, add a line to the
file in the form:
Once a client has mounted the spool directory using NFS, and transferred print data to a file in that directory, it will issue a or
request. handles most print-related requests by constructing a command based on the printing services of the server's operating system,
and executing that command using the identity of the PC user. Because this involves set-user-ID privileges, must be run as The PCNFSD pro-
tocol supports user names up to 64 characters for print requests.
Every print request from a client includes the name of the printer to be used. This name corresponds to a printer that has been configured
into the line printer spooling system using the command. The PCNFSD protocol only supports printer names up to 64 characters. Any printer
configured using the command with a name greater than 64 characters will be ignored by
To process print data in a special way (for example, to print it in landscape mode, or to print it in duplex mode), define a new printer
and arrange for the client to print to that printer. There are two ways to define the new printer:
o You can add a new printer to the line printer spooling system that uses a different printer model script, and arrange for the client to
use the new printer. Do this using the command (see lpadmin(1M)).
o includes a mechanism to define virtual printers known only to clients. Each of these printers is defined by an entry in the file using
the following format:
with the following values:
name The name of the printer, as it will be referred to in print requests from clients.
alias-for The corresponding name for the printer, as it is defined in the line printer spooling system. For example, a request to
display the queue for name will be translated into the corresponding request for the printer alias-for. If you have defined
a printer within that has no corresponding printer defined in the line printer spooling system, use a single hyphen for this
field. For an example, see the definition of the printer in the section below.
command A command that will be executed whenever a file is printed on name. This command is executed by the POSIX shell, using the
option. For complex operations, construct an executable shell program and execute that in command.
Within command the following tokens will be replaced:
Token Substitution
Replaced by the full path name of the print data file.
When the command has been executed, the file will be unlinked.
Replaced by the user name of the user logged in to the client system.
Replaced by the host name of the client system.
Reconfiguration
By checking the modification time (and contents) of the file will detect when printers have been added or deleted, and will rebuild its
list of valid printers. However, does not monitor the file for updates; if you change this file, you must kill and restart for the changes
to take effect.
EXAMPLES
Given the following entries for the file
If a user on a client system prints a job on printer the request will be sent to destination in raw mode.
If the client requests a list of the print queue for printer the daemon will translate this into a request for a listing for printer
Printer is used only for testing. Any file sent to this printer will be copied into the directory Any request to list the queue, check the
status, and so on, of printer will be rejected because alias-for has been specified as a hyphen
FILES
SEE ALSO
lp(1), lpstat(1), inetd(1M), lpadmin(1M), wtmps(4).
pcnfsd(1M)