Skip Navigation Links | |
Exit Print View | |
![]() |
man pages section 7: Device and Network Interfaces Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Information Library |
- generic printer interface
#include <sys/prnio.h>
The prnio generic printer interface defines ioctl commands and data structures for printer device drivers.
prnio defines and provides facilities for five basic phases of the printing process:
Identification — Retrieve device information/attributes
Setup — Set device attributes
Transfer — Transfer data to or from the device
Cleanup — Transfer phase conclusion
Abort — Transfer phase interruption
During the Identification phase, the application retrieves a set of device capabilities and additional information using the PRNIOC_GET_IFCAP, PRNIOC_GET_STATUS, PRNIOC_GET_TIMEOUTS, PRNIOC_GET_IFINFO and PRNIOC_GET_1284_DEVID commands.
During the Setup phase the application sets some interface attributes and probably resets the printer as described in the PRNIOC_SET_IFCAP, PRNIOC_SET_TIMEOUTS and PRNIOC_RESET sections.
During the Transfer phase, data is transferred in a forward (host to peripheral) or reverse direction (peripheral to host). Transfer is accomplished using write(2) and read(2) system calls. For prnio compliant printer drivers, forward transfer support is mandatory, while reverse transfer support is optional. Applications can also use PRNIOC_GET_STATUS and PRNIOC_GET_1284_STATUS commands during the transfer to monitor the device state.
The Cleanup phase is accomplished by closing the device using close(2). Device drivers supporting prnio may set non-zero error code as appropriate. Applications should explicitly close(2) a device before exiting and check errno value.
The Abort phase is accomplished by interrupting the write(2) and read(2) system calls. The application can perform some additional cleanup during the Abort phase as described in PRNIOC_GET_IFCAP section.
Application can retrieve printer interface capabilities using this command. The ioctl(2) argument is a pointer to uint_t, a bit field representing a set of properties and services provided by a printer driver. Set bit means supported capability. The following values are defined:
|
This ioctl can be used to change interface capabilities. The argument is a pointer to uint_t bit field that is described in detail in the PRNIOC_GET_IFCAP section. Capabilities should be set one at a time; otherwise the command will return EINVAL. The following capabilities can be changed by this ioctl:
|
This command can be used to retrieve printer interface info string, which is an arbitrary format string usually describing the bus type. The argument is a pointer to struct prn_interface_info as described below.
struct prn_interface_info { uint_t if_len; /* length of buffer */ uint_t if_rlen; /* actual info length */ char *if_data; /* buffer address */ };
The application allocates a buffer and sets if_data and if_len values to its address and length, respectively. The driver returns the string to this buffer and sets if_len to its length. If if_len is less that if_rlen, the driver must return the first if_len bytes of the string. The application may then repeat the command with a bigger buffer.
Although prnio does not limit the contents of the interface info string, some values are recommended and defined in <sys/prnio.h> by the following macros:
|
Some applications may want to reset the printer state during Setup and/or Cleanup phase using PRNIOC_RESET command. Reset semantics are device-specific, and in general, applications using this command should be aware of the printer type.
Each prnio compliant driver is required to accept this request, although performed actions are completely driver-dependent. More information on the PRNIOC_RESET implementation for the particular driver is available in the corresponding man page and printer manual.
This command can be used to retrieve printer device ID as defined by IEEE 1284-1994.The ioctl(2) argument is a pointer to struct prn_1284_device_id as described below.
struct prn_1284_device_id { uint_t id_len; /* length of buffer */ uint_t id_rlen; /* actual ID length */ char *id_data; /* buffer address */ };
For convenience, the two-byte length field is not considered part of device ID string and is not returned in the user buffer. Instead, id_rlen value shall be set to (length - 2) by the driver, where length is the ID length field value. If buffer length is less than id_rlen, the driver returns the first id_len bytes of the ID.
The printer driver must return the most up-to-date value of the device ID.
This command can be used by applications to retrieve current device status. The argument is a pointer to uint_t, where the status word is returned. Status is a combination of the following bits:
|
Devices that support PRN_1284_STATUS capability accept this ioctl to retrieve the device status lines defined in IEEE 1284 for use in Compatibility mode. The following bits may be set by the driver:
|
This command retrieves current transfer timeout values for the driver. The argument is a pointer to struct prn_timeouts as described below.
struct prn_timeouts { uint_t tmo_forward; /* forward transfer timeout */ uint_t tmo_reverse; /* reverse transfer timeout */ };
tmo_forward and tmo_reverse define forward and reverse transfer timeouts in seconds. This command is only valid for drivers that support PRN_TIMEOUTS capability.
This command sets current transfer timeout values for the driver. The argument is a pointer to struct prn_timeouts. See PRNIOC_GET_TIMEOUTS for description of this structure. This command is only valid for drivers that support PRN_TIMEOUTS capability.
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
|
close(2), ioctl(2), read(2), write(2), attributes(5), ecpp(7D), usbprn(7D)
IEEE Std 1284-1994