NOVELL TECHNICAL INFORMATION DOCUMENT

TITLE:              Expedite Print Jobs at the Server
DOCUMENT ID:        TID000303
DOCUMENT REVISION:  A
DATE:               01JUL93
ALERT STATUS:       Yellow
INFORMATION TYPE:   Symptom Solution
README FOR:         PRTIME.EXE

NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION:
NetWare Pre 3.11 and 2.2

ABSTRACT:
This file contains a patch for NetWare v2.1 and above.  The patch allows
you to speed up the printer response time to new print queue jobs for
printers attached to the server.
_________________________________________________________________

DISCLAIMER
THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL. 
NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEANS TO VERIFY THIS INFORMATION. 
HOWEVER, THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR YOUR INFORMATION
ONLY.  NOVELL MAKES NO EXPLICIT OR IMPLIED CLAIMS TO THE VALIDITY OF THIS
INFORMATION.
_________________________________________________________________

Self-Extracting File Name:  PRTIME.EXE

Files Included     Size     Date        Time

  PRTIME.TXT          (This File)
   PATCH.EXE      17475    2-15-89      3:40p


** DISCLAIMER **

This patch is not a NOVELL supported patch.  It was done by the NOVELL API
Consulting Group for use by the public for their convenience.

Use at your own risk.

*****************

This file describes use of the enclosed patch, which allows one to change
the print server task timeout value.  This patch can be used to speedup the
time it takes from placing a print job in the queue to printing it on a
printer attached to the NOVELL file server, or for speeding up printing in
general for NetWare versions 2.1 to 2.15 (and perhaps some later version
that is not major revisions of the operating system software).


After v2.1 of NetWare, a separate program (task) runs in the NETWARE file
server to service print queues and send data from a job in a queue to a
printer.  This print server task typically will startup, service any queue
jobs and put itself to sleep.  It is necessary that it put itself to sleep,
otherwise it can take so much CPU time that it significantly affects server
performance.

NetWare provide no method to configure the timeout count (how long the
print server task wait to wake up and service the queues again) the print
server task will use.  By default, the print server task will put itself to
sleep for approximately 20 seconds.  Fast printers that can take data at a
faster rate or for networks where it is important that the print server
respond immediately to a new job in a queue, 20 seconds may be too long.

The patch provided here allows one to change the hardcoded timeout value
for the print server task in the NetWare Operating System. The patch is
done on a NetWare OS .obj file before the operating system is gen'd.

The .obj file to be modified depends on what version of NetWare you have.
The file will be of the form *_1.obj.  For v2.12 SFT the file is SFT_1.OBJ
in the SFTOBJ subdirectory.  If you are gen'ing from floppy disk, you will
have to find this subdirectory in the distribution disks.  For v2.12 TTS
the file is TTS_1.obj in subdirectory TTSOBJ.  The patch should work on any
version of 2.1 or after, but we have only tried it on 2.12 and 2.15.

To run the patch on the SFT_!.OBJ file you should first make a backup copy
of your original .OBJ file.  Then you can execute a DOS command line of the
form:

patch sft_1.obj prtime.txt

If the patch.exe file finds the byte pattern and finishes successfully, it
will print a message saying so.  If you would like more information on what
the patch.exe file does, you can run patch.exe with no parameters and it
will print out a small help screen.

The patch.exe is a generic search and alter program. The main patch logic
is in prtime.txt.  The third line of prtime.txt is the new timeout value to
be used.  It is in lo-hi format in hexidecimal.  The line "3C 00" is really
0x003C in hexidecimal or 60 in decimal.  Since this program figures
approximately 20 time ticks per second, this patch gives a timeout delay of
approximately 3 seconds.  To set the timeout to some other value, you need
to modify the third line to the correct hexidecimal value.

For example, a timeout of 5 seconds is 5 * 20 = 100 timer ticks and the
third line should be changed to "64 00".  For a timeout of 8 seconds the
third line should read "A0 00".  For a timeout of 10 seconds the third line
should read "C8 00", and for a timeout of 15 seconds the third line should
read "2C 01".

** DISCLAIMER **

This patch is not a NOVELL supported patch.  It was done by the NOVELL API
Consulting Group for use by the public for their convenience.

Use at your own risk.

*****************
ÿ