Interleaf printing out-of-memory problem

[Kerry Gough]

A user submitted a request for help with printing files from Interleaf:
seems he kept getting "out-of-memory" errors at random times for random
users, and wanted to know if anyone could help. I e-mailed a response to
him, deleted the sun-spots issue, and then found out that my host table
didn't have his machine in it. So, here's my response for public
inspection.  Who knows -- someone else might benefit from it (even if
they're not using Interleaf!).

I am system administrator on a small network of Suns used almost
exclusively for document formatting and printing. We don't use Interleaf,
but we have run into essentially the same problem using ArborText software
(TeX and several of its associated products). Have you looked at the
amount of free space in the disk partition containing your spooling
directories? If you are printing out large files, and particularly if they
are in PostScript, you may find that you are maxing out that partition.
I'm sure you know where to look for the info, but just in case you don't:
first, check the entry for the printer(s) in /etc/printcap. Look at the
spool directory entry for the printer (it's right after ":sd=..."), and
figure out what partition that pathname is in. NOTE: THERE IS A CATCH
HERE!!!!!!! If you are using "/usr/spool/xxxx" for your spooling pathname,
the directory is NOT really under the /usr partition!! Instead, there is a
symbolic link from /usr/spool to /private.MC68020/usr/spool. Since most
folks don't have a separate partition for /private, this means that your
spooling directory is actually in your root partition (/)!!! And since
most folks also don't leave a heck of a lot of extra space in that
partition, that could be where you are running out of memory. Check it --
if that's what is happening, the easiest fix is either to change the
printcap entry to use a directory in a larger partition, or create another
symbolic link from /private/usr/spool to somewhere else.  We chose the
first option, and it solved our problem right away.

Hope that helps!!

Kerry M. Gough
NASA-Langley Research Center
Mail Stop 149 
Hampton VA 23665
(804)864-2496
kerry at teb.larc.nasa.gov