Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!mailrus!iuvax!hess
From: hess@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Caleb Hess)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: resetting a printer through postscript
Summary: Any other way to reclaim memory?
Keywords: reset.ps?
Message-ID: <11520@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 11 Aug 88 16:12:45 GMT
References: <270@thor.wright.EDU> <1053@granjon.UUCP> <569@sequent.cs.qmc.ac.uk>
Reply-To: hess@iuvax.UUCP (Caleb Hess)
Organization: Indiana University CSCI, Bloomington
Lines: 33

In article <569@sequent.cs.qmc.ac.uk> liam@cs.qmc.ac.uk (William Roberts) writes:
>In article <1053@granjon.UUCP> ggr@granjon.UUCP (Guy Riddle) writes:
>>The following reboots LaserWriters and probably most other PostScript printers:
>>
>>       %!
>>       serverdict begin
>>       0 % or whatever your password is
>>       exitserver
>>       systemdict begin
>>       quit
>
>Please don't do this - it makes life exceptionally difficult
>for any spooler environment if the application arrogantly
>resets the printer. Resetting my Linotronic because it isn't a

I have our system do this once a day, as routine preventive maintenance.
We have observed that application programs may leave garbage behind which
continues to occupy memory.  Doing a reset as described above is the only
way I have found, other than power-up, to ensure that printer's memory has
been completely reclaimed.  Is there any other way to deallocate memory or
do garbage collection in PostScript?  Granted, "properly written" programs
won't cause problems, but when users are allowed to dabble with PostScript
code, I can guarantee that not all the code that reaches the printer will
be properly written.

Note that this operation is password protected, in case you need to protect
your system against malicious rather than just careless users.

	C. Hess
	Indiana Univ. Computer Science Dept.
	Lindley Hall 021
	Bloomington, IN  47405
	hess@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu