Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

We are migrating from a VMS system to AIX. During User acceptance testing we have come across an issue with printing. The problem is when printing from AIX the first print line will start one line lower than on the VMS system. After some research it appears that when printing from AIX when a form feed is encountered that a CRLF is also executed resulting in the printing beginning one line lower. I was hoping this may ring a bell with someone. I would be glad to provide more details if needed. I do know that we are not using the System V spooler. Thank you for any help you can provide.
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Originally posted by: tony.evans

What kind of printer is it, what do the queue and device configurations look like?
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Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

Here is the information on the printer set-up.
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Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

Thanks for the response. I am not at work at the moment but will give you what I remember now and then update with more information later. The printer is a Printronix P5205B high speed dot matrix. I am accessing the queue configuration settings by typing smitty chpq. The top and bottom margins and Indent are set to 0. The lpp is set to 66. The print file type is set to "a" for ascii. Another option is set to LF->CRLF, VT->CRVT.
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Originally posted by: alethad

Sorry hit the post a little too soon.

Have you tried the "Add LINE FEED or CARRIAGE RETURN" setting to >> CR-)CR LF-)LF VT-)VT (no conversion) which should print the form as it is in the file without adding any CR/LF. It prints as is.

Otherwise if this is a spooled printer there are virtual settings that can be modified also.

Hope that helps
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Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

Hi, the printer is set-up as a "spooled" printer. I tried your suggestion, setting to >> CR-)CR LF-)LF VT-)VT (no conversion). When setting it up this way it did the following.
Test Line 1
Test Line 2
...
In another test -
I tried adding a CR to each line of my test file and then set the option (Print file TYPE) to "p" for Pass Thru. I still ended up with an extra blank line after the form feed.

If pass thru is used what actually "touches" the print file before the data is passed to the printer? I thought pass thru would sent it straight to the printer untouched so to speak.
How do I modify the virtual settings?

Thank you for your help.
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Originally posted by: alethad

The p for pass-thru should have worked also. As you said it should just pass thru.
Check the virtual settings with lsvirprt and change them with chvirprt. You want to particularly check for the _Z that it is set to ! (no form feed). And possibly the _x option.

It's been a long time since I've seen this issue you're having. I'll look thru my notes to see if I can find. There should be a way to fix this thru the printer vritual settings or configs.
Check the printer configs also to be sure there isn't anything there adding CR's, lines or form feeds.

Just 2 cents worth.
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Originally posted by: alethad

Did you say this isn't set up as a spooled printer? So is this a direct connected printer? It does make a difference on how you set it up.
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Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

I think we have identified the problem. On AIX when the form feed is executed it sets up on the first line of the form ready to print. So our first print statement actually prints on line 2 and the line counter in our programs are off by one causing a blank page between pages, and on pre-printed forms the lines to be off by one. On our VMS system the form feed does not move to the first print line of the form so the first print statement prints on the first line of the form. So I guess we have two options. One is to modify all our programs that generate reports or two is to create a filter to strip the crlf from each form feed. We are looking at the second option. I am not familiar with the different scripting languages but we have someone that is. If someone has already done something similar and would be willing to pass on the code for us to use as a template that would be appreciated. Thanks to all that responded and if anyone can provide more input that would be great.
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