Port Redirection in Fedora

[R. G. Newbury]

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?

Geoff

[Mikkel]

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?
>  
>  Geoff
>   
I think you would be better off explaining what you are trying to
do, because there may be another method that will do what you want
under Linux. It is possible to set up more then one printer
configuration under Linux that use the same physical printer. It is
unusual for applications to talk directly to printers. They normally
talk to something like lpr or CUPS that take care of talking to the
printer.

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

[Matthew Saltzman]

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/.

>  Geoff
>
>
>  
-- 
 		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs