fedora-list Digest, Vol 30, Issue 258

[R. G. Newbury]

> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 18:50:45 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Matthew Saltzman <mjs at ces.clemson.edu>
> Subject: Re: Port Redirection in Fedora
> To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list at redhat.com>
> Message-ID: <Pine.SOC.4.61.0608291847120.15513 at access.ces.clemson.edu>
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
> 
> On Tue, 29 Aug 2006, R. G. Newbury wrote:
> 
>> I ran OS/2 for many years, although I had some DOS programs which I continued 
>> to use inside a VDM (Virtual Display Monitor).
>> A DOS VDM could not actually access the hardware.
>>
>> I would set up a print under OS/2 to 'talk' to LPT1. Then I could set up a 
>> virtual printer, the same as real one, aimed at LPT2, and then re-direct the 
>> LPT2 output to LPT1.
>>
>> The DOS program thought that it was talking to LPT2, as it was actually 
>> dealing with the re-direction code.
>>
>> The same thing can be done under Windows with a program called RedMon, so 
>> that you can 'print' to Ghostscript and get PDF output.
>>
>> My question.
>>
>> How do you re-direct output from a virtual port to a real printer spool, 
>> under Fedora?
> 
> Are you thinking of something like this?
> 
> ---------------
> $ rpm -qi cups-pdf
> Name        : cups-pdf                     Relocations: (not relocatable)
> Version     : 2.4.0                             Vendor: (none)
> Release     : 1                             Build Date: Sat 03 Jun 2006 
> 05:42:32 PM EDT
> Install Date: Sat 03 Jun 2006 05:43:43 PM EDT      Build Host: 
> vincent52.localdomain
> Group       : Applications/Publishing       Source RPM: 
> cups-pdf-2.4.0-1.src.rpmSize        : 75164 
> License: GPL
> Signature   : (none)
> URL         : http://cip.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/~vrbehr/cups-pdf/
> Summary     : Extension for creating pdf-Files with CUPS
> Description :
> "cups-pdf" is a backend script for use with CUPS - the "Common UNIX 
> Printing System" (see more for CUPS under http://www.cups.org/). 
> "cups-pdf" uses the ghostscript pdfwrite device to produce PDF Files.
> 
> This version has been modified to store the PDF files on the Desktop of 
> the user. This behavior can be changed by editing the configuration file.
> ---------------
> 
> Note this RPM is not part of FC or FE or Livna.  I got it here: 
> http://remi.collet.free.fr/rpms/fc5.i386/.


Well that's part of the idea. I have a DOS program (accounting) which 
can only write out to LPT1, LPT2 or to a file. The latter is a pain. I 
used to use redirection to divert the output which the program thought 
it was sending to LPT2, to a networked printer.
I'm looking for something to do the same thing under Fedora 5. The link 
you point to, does the first portion (redirection) but appears to be 
tied to piping the input into ghostscript's pdfwriter.
What I am looking for is the Linux equivalent of the Windows program 
REDMON (which does the first bit.)

Geoff