Printers in AS400

Printer: Hardware device that prints the spool file

Writer: A writer is an IBM program that reads a spool file from an output queue and sends it to a printer

Each printer must have a printer device description. The printer device description contains a configuration description of the printer. Printers can be attached by a variety of attachment methods.

AS/400 supports 2 types of printer objects
1. Print Devices
2. Remote outqs

Print Devices are used to define local printers that are directly attached to or are controlled from AS/400. A print device contains an associated outq for printing spool files

Remote Outqs are spooling writers that send OS/400 spooled file output to a printer that is located on and controlled by remote system (AIX, Linux, Windows box). A remote outq is not associated with any AS400 device. A remote outq is an outq object that contains configuration parameters for sending spooled files to another system for processing. 

Printer files describe how the system operates on the data as it passes between your application program and a printer.

Printing Process Overview
  1. The printing process starts when an application program runs. The application program creates output data. The output data is based on the application program and information contained in the printer file. 
  2. If print spooling is selected, the output data is placed in a spooled file and the spooled file is placed in an output queue. If direct printing is selected, the output data is sent directly to the printer.
WRKWTR *ALL – Display all writers 
  • Printer writers (PRT)
  • Remote printer writer (RMT)
  • 2=Change   3=Hold   4=End   5=Work with   6=Release   7=Display messages   8=Work with output queue 
WRKWTR – Display printer writers only
STRPRTWTR – Start printer writer
STRRMTPRT – Start remote writer