Managing AS/400 printing forms

Q: How can I manage jobs with different forms? Using RPM Remote Print Manager® (“RPM”), the AS/400 doesn’t send any warning about the change of form.

A: The LPR/LPD protocol has no concept of forms. Its control file carries a fixed set of fields — user, job name, copy count, banner text and similar — with no provision for form information. So there is nothing for the AS/400 to send and nothing for RPM to receive: all RPM knows is what data arrives. This is a well documented weakness of the protocol rather than a limitation of RPM or of the AS/400.

The same cause explains why an AS/400 page range is not honored — the ‘400 knows what you asked for, but the protocol gives it no way to say so.