SUMMARY: Waiting for lock on /dev/null

From: Robert J. Cronin (rjcronin@uop.com)
Date: Wed Jan 27 1993 - 07:11:07 CST


Hello sun-managers:

Thank you for all fifteen responses, most of which were bull's-eyes.

Briefly, the problem concerns printcap entries for "dummy" printers,
which had lp=/dev/null, resulting in periodic "waiting for lock on
/dev/null" messages. The solution is to create new null devices for
each dummy printer, and change their printcap lp entries to point to
the new devices. Also, don't use /dev/null for any printers, as this
can result in conflicts with other (non-printer related) software.

Warren Stokes had one of the most succinct answers, and his electrons
probably travelled the farthest, so I will extract from his here:

> From was@lewis.isd.gdwb.OZ.AU Tue Jan 26 14:58:18 1993
>
.
.
.
>
> I believe lpd opens the device exclusively (i.e. /dev/null) so all you need
> to do is make a dummy /dev/null device in the spool directory for this
> printer. Try
>
> mknod /usr/spool/B-1S-11-HALL/nulldev c 3 2
>
> and then in your printcap:
>
> :lp=/usr/spool/B-1S-11-HALL/nulldev: etc
>
> This works for me.
>
.
.
.
>
>

Many thanks to:

claude@genethon.genethon.fr
cfoley@arsenic.cray.com
don@mars.dgrc.doc.ca
jpl@allegra.att.com
nagel@post.inf-wiss.ivp.uni-konstanz.de
blymn@mulga.awadi.com.AU
chris@cs.yorku.ca
louis@andataco.com
mcgrew@cs.rutgers.edu
pln@egret1.Stanford.EDU
pingel@oieng.mke.ab.com
valdes@geosun.uchicago.edu
steven@crhc.uiuc.edu
was@lewis.isd.gdwb.OZ.AU
feldt@phyast.nhn.uoknor.edu

Bob Cronin
RJCronin@uop.com



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