Subject: LWPlusFonts corrupted

From: [email-masked] (Tony Travis)
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 12:09:43 GMT

Hello, netatalk-admins

We are using netatalk-1.2.1 under SunOS 4.1.2 and in general it works
very well, but spooling to remote Unix printers sometimes fails.

In particular, I found that the "papd" process hangs attempting to open
a socket to a remote (Unix) printer for no apparent reason.  I traced
this to a corrupted /var/spool/lpd/LWPlusFonts file that had been
corrupted.  This has happened at least twice recently.

This may be just one of those things, but I suspect a Mac may have
attempted to change the font table and corrupted the file so I've made
it read-only (owner root).  Any one else noticed this?

	Tony.
-- 
Dr. A.J.Travis,                       |  JANET: <[email-masked]>
Rowett Research Institute,            |  other: <[email-masked]>
Greenburn Road, Bucksburn,            |  phone: +44 (0)224 712751
Aberdeen, AB2 9SB. UK.                |    fax: +44 (0)224 715349

---

From: Mark Smith <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 21:59:25 -0400

>From:     [email-masked] (Tony Travis)
> 

papd doesn't open any sockets to remote printers; it does open the
Unix-domain socket used to tell lpd that it has placed something in the
queue (/dev/printer on a Sun).  Regardless, it should be impossible for
papd to corrupt the font file, since it never opens it for writing.  In
what way was the LWPlusFonts file corrupted?

-Mark

---

From: [email-masked] (Tony Travis)
Date: Sat, 18 Sep 1993 19:09:12 GMT

Mark Smith ([email-masked]) wrote:
: >From:     [email-masked] (Tony Travis)
: > 
: > In particular, I found that the "papd" process hangs attempting to open
: > a socket to a remote (Unix) printer for no apparent reason.  I traced
: > this to a corrupted /var/spool/lpd/LWPlusFonts file that had been
: > corrupted.  This has happened at least twice recently.

: papd doesn't open any sockets to remote printers; it does open the
: Unix-domain socket used to tell lpd that it has placed something in the

(blush) er, um ... I used "trace" on the papd process and it appeared
to be sitting there waiting for something to appear on a socket.  It
woke up on an alarm periodically and eventually I killed the process.

I think that the corrupted LWPlusFonts file prevented the Mac's from
initialising a Unix 'LaserWriter'.  I discovered that the users were
just rebooting their Mac's leaving their job in limbo if it failed to
print :-(

: queue (/dev/printer on a Sun).  Regardless, it should be impossible for
: papd to corrupt the font file, since it never opens it for writing.  In
: what way was the LWPlusFonts file corrupted?

I've sent Mark a copy of the file to examine.

	Tony.