UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

We have a 3rd party print queue installed on HP-UX 11.11 that interfaces with a binary. Basically we use the lp command to send reports to the print queue, which then interfaces with a binary to capture those reports into a reporting warehouse.

The problem lies in the way that HP uses a link to the request path instead of actually using the path. So when the binary gets the filename it gets it as something like

on Solaris it is represented as the real path to the file name.

Is there anything I can do to remedy the filename change? Is there somewhere I can find out more about what variables the print queue sends to the interface in /etc/lp/interfaces?

uname -a:
HP-UX machine B.11.11 U 9000/800 2909917675 unlimited-user license
Thanks.

If you're having difficulty with a third party package, why not complain to the third party? But to find out what parameters are passed, just slip a few lines of code into the interface script to log them and then print something.

Third party doesnt support that method on HP-UX because of that problem, but I figured there's gotta be a way (there's ALWAYS a way).

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see what I can do.

Hmmm...why is this a problem? The link is just a symlink to the real file. Open it and you have your file. Or "ls -l" it to get the real file name. But in a case like "ps -ef | lp", it will be the real file name.

How can that third party supply a binary to an OS that they don't support?

Maybe I should provide a bit more background. The binary generally works on HP-UX. However there is one option that does not work because it relies on filenames, since the filename is not represented correctly (perhaps because of the way they wrote the interface).
They won't do anything about this. They just won't support that specific feature of the binary.
I think that if the interface file is tweaked, then it will work fine. Our company relies heavily on this feature, so I'm willing to play with the interface and see what I can do.

I always use symbolic links to solve these types of problems.

Progress...I was not able to ls -l to get the symlink because this is not a physical printer so HP just copies the file to the request directory.

I figured out a way to get the original filename and location, but then ran into a problem because lp couldnt read the file (ACL). I added lp to the correct ACL group and was able to read the file if I did a su - lp.

However, when using the interface, I was not able to read the file. I had to manually put a newgrp command in the interface script.

So it works now. But any ideas why lp could not get the groups straight within the interface script?