Cleaning up NetWare print job description files

After a user submits a SCO Gateway for NetWare print job, the SCO Gateway for NetWare print system creates a print job description file on the UNIX system.


This temporary file, often referred to as a description file, records particulars of the print job and is deleted by the nwcleand daemon after the print job is complete.

The nwcleand daemon is automatically activated when SCO Gateway for NetWare starts. It runs every five minutes (this is tunable), gets the status of SCO Gateway for NetWare print jobs from NetWare and removes description files of completed print jobs. See ``Tuning the cleanup of print description files''

It completes its task in one of three ways:

• nwcleand uses, if possible, the login of an existing SCO Gateway for NetWare user to obtain the NetWare print status. It removes only description files of completed print jobs.

• If no users are logged into NetWare, the nwcleand daemon cannot obtain the NetWare print status, so it deletes only those print job description files that are older than a maximum age of 48 hours. This maximum age is a tunable parameter.

• A NetWare server can send the status of only the first 250 print jobs. If a SCO Gateway for NetWare user is logged in but the NetWare print queue is bigger than 250 print jobs, nwcleand cannot determine if a print job has been printed or if it is behind the 250 print job. In this case, nwcleand only removes those print description files that are older than a maximum age of 48 hours and are not in the NetWare print queue.

By default, nwcleand runs every 5 minutes and removes print description files that are older than 48 hours. It is possible to tune both the frequency at which this daemon runs and the maximum age of print job description files at deletion. See ``Tuning the cleanup of print description files''.