19 Preferences

Note:: Usually, almost all preferences for program functions and behavior of the HELIOS products can be set via HELIOS Admin. That means that it is not required to modify preferences manually. Nevertheless, in the following the single preferences and their function are described.

The server preferences are stored in a binary file. In the following, the preferences are listed by name, type, and default value. The default value is used by the HELIOS services unless another value is specified. Not all of the following preferences are set by default, meaning they are not listed in the “prefdump” output, so the HELIOS services will use the given default values. When a different value is set by means of “prefvalue”, this will take precedence. To revert back to the default value delete the preference entry.

Exporting, setting/deleting and restoring preferences on the HELIOS host is done via the programs “prefdump”, “prefvalue”, and “prefrestore”. For a detailed description of these programs see 8 “HELIOS utility programs”.

Important:: Make sure that preference keys DO NOT start or end with a slash (“/”) character, and note that they are case-sensitive! Also, if any preference key or preference value includes spaces, that key or value must be enclosed in quotes.

19.1 Server preference keys

: Key: Programs/esadmin/<preference>

startProgram

str

bin/sh

Defines the program that is started in a terminal after a user login. The setting reflects that of the Starting Program field in the “General” tab of the HELIOS Admin “Server Settings” configuration window.

homeDir

str

(see text)

Defines the server path for the user home directory. The setting reflects that of the User Home Directory field in the “General” tab of the HELIOS Admin “Server Settings” configuration window.

The preset value for this preference is determined during installation; on OS X it is /Users, on other UNIX platforms /usr, and if it has been deleted it is /home. On Windows it is not applicable at all.

primaryGroup

str

demouser

Defines the primary group of each user if no other group is assigned. The setting reflects that of the Primary Group field in the “General” tab of the HELIOS Admin “Server Settings” configuration window.

spoolDir

str

/var/spool/

Defines the default spool path for print jobs. The setting reflects that of the Spool Directory field in the “General” tab of the HELIOS Admin “Server Settings” configuration window.

minUID

int

1000

Specifies the minimum user ID. The setting reflects that of the Minimum User ID field in the “General” tab of the HELIOS Admin “Server Settings” configuration window.

minGID

int

1000

Specifies the minimum group ID. The setting reflects that of the Minimum Group ID field in the “General” tab of the HELIOS Admin “Server Settings” configuration window.

19.2 Volume preference keys

Important:

If the key contains a path, the “/” characters within the path must be “marked” by preceding each with a “\” character, e.g.:

# prefvalue -k 'Volumes/\/data1\/applications/AFPName'

The following keys require the volume to be mounted anew to take effect:

: Key: Volumes/<UNIX directory>/<preference>

AFPName

str

Sets the Mac AFP volume name. The setting reflects that of the AFP Name field in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window.

SMBName

str

Sets the PCShare SMB volume name. The setting reflects that of the SMB Name field in the HELIOS Admin Volume configuration window.

Password

str

Specifies the volume password (currently only supported on Mac). The setting reflects that of the Password field in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window. The password is saved as MD5 digest code. It can be generated by using the “passwd” command of “authutil” (see 10.2 “authutil”).

Note:: As of OS X 10.11 the AFP volume specific password feature is no longer supported. If there are clients in the network running OS X 10.11 or newer this feature should not be used anymore.

Removable

bool

FALSE

Only set this flag to TRUE for removable media attached to the host which are normally changed while the host is running (e.g. MO drives). Do not apply this setting for local volumes. The setting reflects that of the Exchangeable checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window.

Readonly

bool

FALSE

Set this flag to TRUE if the underlying physical media is write protected (e.g. CD-ROM). Then, there is – for all users – only read access to the specific volume. The setting reflects that of the Read Only checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window.

AFPPublish

bool

FALSE

With this flag set to TRUE, the particular volume is published for Mac clients. The setting reflects that of the Mac Visible checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window.

Guest

bool

FALSE

With this flag set to TRUE, guest access is allowed on the particular volume. The setting reflects that of the Guest Access checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window.

Guest Access is not available for SMB clients.

Note:: The AFP server preference enableguest must be active to enable guest access at all (see HELIOS EtherShare manual).

UTF8

bool

TRUE

This preference is listed for historical reasons only. HELIOS volumes are always created in UTF-8 encoding.

This flag makes the host use the Unicode character set encoding on the specific volume. This provides a correct cross-platform file name display (particularly if the names contain special characters, such as “umlauts” between Mac clients, PC clients, and UNIX servers). The setting reflects that of the Unicode/UTF8 checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window.

HideDotFiles

bool

FALSE

This flag makes the HELIOS file services pass files that start with a dot (“.”) in their file name as “hidden” to connected Windows clients. The setting reflects that of the "Hide dot files" checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window.

Close

bool

FALSE

This flag specifies how the file server reacts to a file close command from a PCShare client. Close disables the file descriptor caching, so files are closed immediately as soon as the file close command is received. The setting reflects that of the Close Option checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window.

Groups

strlist

Specifies a list of groups that are granted access to this particular volume. Values are specified in a comma-separated stringlist. The setting reflects the entries in the Group field in the HELIOS Admin Volume configuration window.

Users

strlist

Specifies a list of client users that are granted access to this particular volume. Values are specified in a comma-separated stringlist.

Note:: If neither the Users preference nor the Groups preference is specified, then all groups and users are granted access.

IPAccess

str

Specifies the file name of the IP access list that makes the particular volume visible for clients which have one of the IP addresses on the IP access list.

AFPCharset

str

MacRoman

If the UTF8 flag is set the charset flag is used to translate and encode file names to the e.g. “MacRoman” character set for old clients without Unicode support. The setting reflects that of the AFP Charset pull-down menu in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window.

SMBCharset

str

PC850

If the UTF8 flag is set the charset flag is used to translate and encode file names to the e.g. “PC850” character set for old clients without Unicode support. The setting reflects that of the SMB Charset pull-down menu in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window.

SMBPublish

bool

FALSE

With this flag set to TRUE, the particular volume is published for Windows clients. The setting reflects that of the Windows Visible checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window.

closedirs

bool

FALSE

This flag specifies how the file server reacts to a directory close command from the PCShare client. closedirs disables the directory descriptor caching, so directories are closed immediately as soon as the directory close command is received.

mandatory

bool

TRUE

This flag specifies whether or not the server allows record locking between multiple clients.

compatdeny

bool

TRUE

This preference specifies how the server reacts if a PCShare client opens a file for reading or writing without indicating how (and whether) the file can be simultaneously opened by other programs. Normally, if a file is opened for reading, other users can only open the file for reading (“deny other write”). Furthermore, if a file is opened for reading and writing, other users cannot open the file at all (“deny other all”).

useunixperm

bool

FALSE

By default, the AFP server uses the HELIOS smart permissions for files and directories on the server. This means that files saved to the server will inherit the permissions of the parent folder. If this preference is set to TRUE, HELIOS smart permissions are turned off and standard UNIX permissions are used when saving files and folders. Likewise on Windows, if this preference is turned on, standard Windows permissions are used. The setting reflects that of the AFP UNIX Permissions checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Volume” configuration window (not available in Windows installations).

Note:: On Windows installations, the AFP server uses Windows ACLs to implement HELIOS smart permissions. With useunixperm turned on the AFP server will neither set nor modify ACLs.

UseSQL

bool

TRUE

By default, the SQLite desktop database format is used for HELIOS volumes. The new format can be disabled by setting this preference to FALSE, if read-only volumes with an old desktop format are still required.

TMBackup

bool

FALSE

Enable Time Machine backups on the specified volume. The setting reflects that of the Time Machine Backup checkbox in the HELIOS Admin Volume configuration window.

19.3 Global preference keys

: Key: Global/Programs/<preference>

SMTPHost

str

mailhost

Specifies an SMTP host to which the mail client can hand over the message. The setting reflects that of the SMTP Host field in the “SMTP” tab of the HELIOS Admin “Server Settings” configuration window. SMTPHost may also contain apart from the actual address of the SMTP server the name and password for authentication:

name:password@Serveraddress

SMTPSender

str

root

Specifies a default mail sender address. The setting reflects that of the SMTP Sender field in the “SMTP” tab of the HELIOS Admin “Server Settings” configuration window.

SMTPDomain

str

Specifies the mail domain for print job e-mail notification. Emails are sent to <username>@<SMTPDomain>. If this preference is not specified, the e-mail is sent to <username>. The setting reflects that of the SMTP Domain field in the “SMTP” tab of the HELIOS Admin “Server Settings” configuration window.

SMTPOptions

str

A comma-separated list of <key>=<value> pairs, specifying additional options for the connection with the SMTP server:

`Security=None`	Do not encrypt the SMTP connection.
`Security=STARTTLS`	Start an unencrypted connection and change to
	SSL/TLS if supported by the server. This is the default
	if the connection does not use port 465.
`Security=SSL`	Create an SSL/TLS connection to the server. This is
	the default if the connection uses port 465.
`SSLCert=<path>`	Path to an SSL certificate file to be used for the
	SSL connection. The file must be in the PEM format
	and contain both the certificate and the corresponding
	private key. By default, no client certificate is used.

Examples:

prefvalue -k 'Global/Programs/SMTPOptions'
-t str "Security=SSL,SSLCert=/etc/certs/MyCertificate.pem"

prefvalue -k 'Global/Programs/SMTPOptions'
-t str "Security=None"

LabelNames

strlist

(see description)

Specifies the names for file and folder color labels. Corresponds to the Label Name values assigned in the HELIOS Admin “Color Labels” configuration window. Values are specified in a comma-separated stringlist, e.g.:

"Gray","Green","Purple","Blue","Yellow","Red","Orange"

The default values are the color names used in OS X.

LabelColors

strlist

(see description)

Specifies the six-hexadecimal digit color codes that correspond to the Label Names preference (above), and to the Color values assigned in the HELIOS Admin “Color Labels” configuration window. Values are specified in a comma-separated stringlist, e.g.:

"9E9E9E","9BE233","ED5FB1","369EDE","F3E734","FF3F4B","FFB634"

The default values are the color values used in OS X.

19.4 Printer preference keys

Key: Printers/<printer queue>/<preference>

All generic preferences (e.g. fontdir) in this section may also be set globally:

Key: Global/Printers/<preference>

19.4.1 Spooler/Input settings

afpsessionsonly

bool

FALSE

This preference is used for enhanced user authentication on PAP and TCP queues. If set to TRUE, only users that have an open AFP volume (and are therefore authenticated to the AFP server) can print to this queue. But this authentication only works if the queue and the AFP connection use the same address space. Newer Mac OS versions (Mac OS 9 or newer) use AFP via TCP/IP, so these connections can only be used by TCP queues. Holding down the hsymOptionKey key while you log on to the AFP server under Mac OS 9, you connect to AFP via AppleTalk. This can be used to authenticate for PAP queues.

CheckFonts

bool

TRUE

If set to TRUE, this preference will induce the OPI server to stop the print job and issue an error message if the current print job contains any font references for unavailable fonts. The setting reflects that of the Check Fonts checkbox in the HELIOS Admin printer configuration “OPI” tab.

Groups

strlist

Specifies a list of groups, separated by a comma. If a TCP/IP or PAP printer queue is set to afpsessionsonly (TRUE) only users which are authenticated by the AFP server and are members of these groups, can use this printer. If the queue is an SMB printer queue it will only be visible to members of the specified groups.

fontdir

str

var/spool/psfonts

Specifies the path of the host directory which contains the server font list “FontDirectory”. The fonts are contained in subdirectories of the “psfonts” directory, and are alphabetically arranged.

dictdir

str

var/spool/dicts

Specifies the path containing PostScript dictionaries and printer “prep” files. You can specify an alternative path here if one of your printers requires additional dictionaries and/or “prep” files. Normally, all PostScript printers share the same files.

holdq

str

None

Specifies a Hold Queue out of the already installed printer queues. It corresponds to the Hold Queue pull-down menu in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.

hidefonts

bool

FALSE

Causes the print server to “pretend” to have no font installed, which would induce the client application to include all needed fonts in the print job. The setting reflects that of the Hide Server Fonts checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.

errorq

str

None

Specifies an error queue out of the already installed printer queues. It corresponds to Error Queue in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.

SMBExportName

str

Specifies the PCShare export name of the particular printer. It corresponds to the SMB Name field in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.

SMBExportSpec

str

Specifies the path of the UNIX command which is used to forward print jobs received from SMB clients.

WinDriver

str

Specifies the Windows printer driver name. This preference corresponds to the Driver Name field in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.

tcpport

int

(see description)

Specifies the address of a specific TCP port for this printer in order to allow easy access for remote printing through a Firewall. If this preference is missing the printer can only be reached via the master TCP port. There is no default value for this preference.

tcpname

str

Specifies the name under which the TCP printer is registered via mDNS (“Bonjour”), and under which this printer can be reached via the master TCP port. It corresponds to the TCP Name field in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.

SMBPublish

bool

FALSE

Specifies whether the particular printer is published for SMB clients, i.e. for Windows clients. The setting reflects that of the Windows - SMB checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.

TCPPublish

bool

FALSE

Specifies whether the particular printer is published for TCP clients. The setting reflects that of the TCP Printer checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.

LPRPublish

bool

FALSE

Specifies whether the particular printer is published as an LPR printer via Bonjour. The setting reflects that of the LPR Bonjour Registration checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.

lpr

str

Specifies the path (including the file name) of an alternative “lpr” program to the one normally used by “papsrv”. You should use this preference if you have developed your own custom “lpr” program. You can also use this option to specify a shell script.

filter

str

Specifies the path (including file name) of a custom filter program, used by “papsrv”, which is called in a pipe with the “standard input” connected to the print job and the “standard output” connected to “lpr”. The job will already be resolved if the resolve preference is set to TRUE.

filtercmd

str

Specifies the path (including file name) of a custom filter program, used by “papsrv”, which is called as follows:

path -Pprintername spoolfile

The “filtercmd” program can then process the file (which is not resolved) as required. The output file should appear under the same name (“spoolfile”) given in the argument – “papsrv” will wait until the custom filter program has finished before processing the job further. Compared to the filter preference, filtercmd can be used for example to add a header (e.g. a PostScript init) or a trailer to the file without having to process the whole file. Use filter instead if you need to parse the entire file, e.g. for font names or job information.

resolve

bool

FALSE

The resolve switch causes “papsrv” to “resolve” all print jobs for the specified printer queue before they are sent to “lpr”, i.e. “papsrv” incorporates all required font, dictionary groups and OPI image information into the jobs in advance, and resolves “%%Include…” references. This is needed whenever you want to use printers that cannot be driven directly by the printer interface programs supplied with EtherShare. But be aware that if you use the resolve switch you will need substantially more spooling space on the local server.

Usually, print job resolving is done on-the-fly, by the specified interface program, such as “papif”, and jobs queued in the printer’s spool directory are not yet resolved. This design approach saves spooling storage, particularly if you are using ImageServer.

The resolve switch causes the “papsrv” to call the pseudo-interface program “HELIOSDIR/bin/psresolve”, which compares the fonts needed by the document with the printer’s resident font list (the “FONTS” file in the printer’s spool directory), and with the list of available server fonts in the “FontDirectory”. Thus, this is more intelligent than choosing PostScript Job from the application’s print dialog – the latter always includes all document fonts, regardless if needed or not.

You should use the resolve switch to prepare print job files for printing offline or with a printer or typesetter whose hardware interface is not supported by HELIOS, but you must not use resolve in conjunction with the standard printer interface programs, because all references will be included twice and the job will fail.

Be aware that if the job then gets printed on a different host and/or printer, it will not contain all required fonts if it has been resolved with an inappropriate “FONTS” file.

foreground

bool

TRUE

The “papsrv” induces Apple’s LaserWriter printer driver on Mac OS 9 to spool the jobs directly to the selected EtherShare queue by default.

pstitlescript

str

In order to decode the PostScript job title and owner correctly, you may need to adjust this preference. The value is the name of a scripting table, e.g. SJIS. (Use uniconv -l to list available tables.) This implies auto detection of PC or Mac originated PostScript jobs.

The following preferences are AppleTalk related, and are therefore legacy:

papname: str
""; This preference sets the AppleTalk name of the PAP (server) queues. This is the name with which it is known to the network. It corresponds to the PAP Name field in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.
authenticate: bool
FALSE; This switch determines whether printing to an AppleTalk printer queue is protected by a password. In case the flag is set to TRUE, user name and password have to be entered before printing. The setting reflects that of the Require Authentication checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.
PAPPublish: bool
FALSE; Specifies whether the particular printer is published for PAP clients, i.e. for Mac clients. The setting reflects that of the Mac - PAP checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.
type: str
LaserWriter; This preference is the AppleTalk type of the print server queue with which it is known to the network. This preference should normally be set to “LaserWriter” because only then it will be recognized by the standard Apple Chooser extensions on the workstations. If the workstations are provided with a later version of the LaserWriter program, which also allows other printer types, a different type can be specified here if necessary.
zone: str
""; Specifies the name of the AppleTalk zone(s) to which the printer queue should be allocated. Thus, it determines the zone in which the print server can be seen in the Apple Chooser. The chosen zone must be one of the local zones that the server is connected to. We strongly recommend to test this using the UNIX zones -l command.

19.4.2 Output driver settings

IfType

str

Specifies the printer connection type for a particular printer, e.g. TCP, Create PDF, Windows Printer. The setting reflects that of the Connection pop-up menu in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.

mail

bool

TRUE

Determines whether printer errors are reported back to the originator of the print job via email. Even if you specify FALSE, printer errors are still recorded in the printer log file, and many types of errors are also written to the system messages file, allowing you to view them later with the HELIOS Admin or an editor program.

Note:: The global preferences SMTPHost, SMTPSender, and SMTPDomain (see above) must be set up correctly for e-mail notification to work.

watchtime

int

Specifies the time interval in seconds with which the printer interface program interrogates the printer’s status channel. As a diagnostic aid, you can use the UNIX “lpq” program to check the status of each printer queue. “lpq” returns the status messages that you normally see in the dialog box of the LaserWriter driver for locally connected AppleTalk printers.

This preference has been provided because the PostScript processors of some printers time out in certain unusual situations if you check the printer’s status channel for extended periods of time.

chargebanner

bool

TRUE

This switch causes the printer’s page count to include the number of banner pages in the total amount of pages.

bannerlast

bool

FALSE

This preference determines that the banner page is output after the print job has been terminated on the printer.

bannerfirst

bool

TRUE

Causes the printer to output a banner page before the print job (compare bannerlast above).

magic

bool

FALSE

PostScript printers normally cannot accept print jobs consisting of “flat” ASCII data. They require the print job to be in PostScript format. ASCII print data can be manually converted to PostScript with the “pstext” utility. If this preference is set to TRUE, the interface programs of the print server are also able to automatically detect whether a particular job is in PostScript or ASCII format, by scanning the start of the job for the “signature” string “%!PS-Adobe”. If this string is missing, the job is assumed to be non-PostScript, and is converted to PostScript automatically before printing.

ctrld

bool

FALSE

This flag determines whether the “Ctrl-D” character should be used to indicate “end-of-printjob”. This is necessary if the printer is connected to TCP/IP through a terminal server and a serial interface.The setting reflects that of the Ctrl-D for Job End checkbox in the HELIOS Admin “Printer” configuration window.

clientmessages

bool

TRUE

This flag determines whether printer status messages are reported to the AFP-client (or PCShare client, respectively). These messages pop up as display messages and report e.g. paper jams, misfed paper, and other printer-related errors.

spoolspool

bool

FALSE

This flag determines whether a spooled print job is “marked” with the information that it has already been spooled. If set to TRUE, a spooled print job is not recognized as already spooled, thus setting this preference to TRUE is only meaningful for the first spooler in line of a chained HELIOS printer queue.

ignoreresolveopts

bool

FALSE

This preference makes, when set to TRUE, a second spooler ignore all remarks on resolved references from a prior spooling process. If you merely want a spooler to ignore single references, e.g. references regarding included fonts, you may set one or more of the following flags:

ignoreprocsetresolveopt

bool

FALSE

With the ignoreprocsetresolveopt flag set, the next (second) spooler ignores information about included procsets only.

ignorefontresolveopt

bool

FALSE

With the ignorefontresolveopt flag set, the next (second) spooler ignores information about included fonts only.

IgnoreIncludeResolveOpt

bool

FALSE

With the IgnoreIncludeResolveOpt flag set, the next (second) spooler ignores information about included EPSF files only.

IgnoreOpiResolveOpt

bool

FALSE

With the IgnoreOpiResolveOpt flag set, the next (second) spooler ignores information about included OPI references only.

rsslimit

int

The preference rsslimit (resident set size limit) is determined by the maximum number of kB a printer interface program can utilize as memory. If this preference is not set, the memory administration is up to your system settings.

nice

int

The priority of a printer interface program – compared to other executable programs on the print server – can be altered. The preference nice lets you increase/reduce the priority, and therefore the speed of a program. The higher the priority of a program, the less “nice” its behavior towards other applications. Possible values in a range from -20 … 20 are:

`nice` > 0	slower / “nicer” towards other applications
`nice` < 0	faster / less “nice” towards other applications

extendedinfo

bool

TRUE

The printer log files contain information about printing time/date, document name, user, fonts, and more. With this flag set to TRUE, the range of information for each print job is increased by e.g. an OPI image replacement list and the total number of bytes printed.

facility

str

facility is a string that ought to be set by the system administrator only, since its use requires advanced knowledge on UNIX programming. For further reference see the UNIX manual pages “syslogd”.

19.4.3 “tcpif” preference keys

host

str

(HELIOS Admin option Host Name)

Specifies the internet address of the printer in the TCP/IP network (or of the printer’s terminal server, if any).

service

str

(HELIOS Admin option Port)

This preference specifies the service port number (also called the service code), which specifies the process within host which is responsible for the printer. The port number is between 1 and 65535.

rprinter

str

Specifies the name of the remote printer on the remote host, as stated in the “HELIOSDIR/var/conf/printcap” file.

tcpresolve

bool

TRUE

(HELIOS Admin option PostScript Printer)

When a print job is processed, and the flag is set to FALSE, the print job remains “untouched” and is passed on without any changes.

statusport

bool

TRUE

Specifies whether a separate communications channel for status messages with the address <service+1> is provided.

19.4.4 “diskif” preference keys

diskresolve

bool

TRUE

(HELIOS Admin option PostScript Printer)

Specifies if any resolving is done within a PostScript job. When a print job is processed to a “Print To Disk” queue, and the switch is set to FALSE, the print job remains “untouched” and is passed on without any changes.

pssuffix

bool

TRUE

This flag determines whether the suffix “.ps” is appended to the processed print job file. In case the switch is set to FALSE the file name extension “.ps” is omitted.

prefix

str

(HELIOS Admin option Name Prefix)

Specifies whether files which come from a specific printer queue are “marked” with a prefix before their original file name. This may be quite reasonable when several “Print To Disk” queues print to the same destination.

dir

str

(HELIOS Admin option Directory)

Specifies the (absolute) UNIX path of the directory, where the processed print job is stored. The file name results from the print job title with the typically appended suffix “.ps”.

If dir points to a UNIX FIFO (“named pipe”) rather than pointing to a directory, the processed print data is written to that “pipe” directly.

If dir starts with a pipe character (“|”) the whole string following “|” is recognized as a UNIX command line, and the processed print data is piped into the executed program.

notifyprog

str

(HELIOS Admin option Notify Program)

This preference will only be recognized if also dir is specified. It is called as soon as “diskif” has successfully resolved the print job.

Example:: /usr/local/bin/disknotify

“diskif” exports the following environment variables during the program call:

HELIOSDIR= 
<environment variable for the HELIOS install path>

HELIOS_JOBFOR= 
<user name (if available) of print job creator> 

HELIOS_JOBUSER= 
<user name (if available) as known to “lpd”> 

HELIOS_JOBHOST= 
<name (if available) of server which hosts the printer queue>

HELIOS_JOBTITLE= 
<print job title (if available)>

HELIOS_PRINTERNAME= 
<logical (UNIX) name of the printer queue> 

HELIOS_JOBPAGES= 
<expected number of pages. This value may differ slightly 
from the actual number> 

HELIOS_JOBSIZE= 
<expected print job size (in bytes). The stated value is 
often smaller than the actual size> 

HELIOS_DFFILE= 
<name of created PostScript file>

compression

str

(HELIOS Admin option Compression)

Determines the compression type. You can choose from different types of compressing: Compress and Zip. None means that there is no file compression applied at all.

diskuserdir

bool

FALSE

(HELIOS Admin option Create Folder for Each User)

Specifies if the PostScript files are stored in a folder per user.

SendEvent

bool

FALSE

(HELIOS Admin option Send Notification)

If this preference is set to TRUE, the “Print To Disk” interface reports events to all listening services.

19.4.5 “holdif” preference keys

jobholdtime

int

0 (i.e. ∞)

(HELIOS Admin option Hold Time)

Determines the time in seconds a processed print job remains in a hold/error queue. If jobholdtime is set to 0, the print job perpetually remains in the hold/error queue. This preference is compulsory, i.e. it has to be set with a certain value.

19.4.6 “balanceif” preference keys

printers

strlist

(HELIOS Admin option Printer)

A stringlist which contains, separated by commas and without any spaces, the logical (UNIX) printer names of those devices which form a printer group for balancing print loads.

ForcePrintEnv

bool

TRUE

This preference induces the specified output interfaces to use the balance queue’s PPD, settings, and security settings.

19.4.7 “timeif” preference keys

printtimes

strlist

(HELIOS Admin option Start Time)

With this preference, a list of “time spec” strings for a time queue can be defined. This type of printer queue immediately forwards the jobs to the Hold Queue during the specified date/time. Outside the defined times the jobs remain in the time queue until the next date/time specification is reached.

Syntax:

[!]Duration/StartTime[,StartTime…] 
[/DayOfWeek[,-DayOfWeek…]|DayOfMonth 
[,-DayOfMonth…][/Month[,-Month…]]]

Consider the following for the single specifications:

Duration        Hours:Minutes   required 
StartTime       Hour:Minute     required 
DayOfWeek       Sun-Sat         optional 
DayOfMonth      1...31          optional 
Month           1...12          optional

An “!” character (exclamation mark) before the following specifications negates the entry, i.e. date/time in which the time queue must not forward jobs to the Hold Queue.

The following example shows the minimum requirements, Duration and StartTime; printing will take place for 3 hours every day, beginning at 15:00:

# prefvalue -k "Printers/ljet/printtimes" -t strlist "3:0/15:00"

In this example, print jobs are immediately forwarded to the Hold Queue on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 15:00 for 3 hours (and 0 minutes):

# prefvalue -k "Printers/ljet/printtimes" -t strlist 
  "3:0/15:00/Tue\,Wed\,Sat\,Sun"

The last example sets two different printing times. The first (3:0 /15:00/Tue,Thu) Tuesday and Thursday, beginning at 15:00 for 3 hours; the second (3:0/07:00/Mon,Wed,Fri) Monday, Wednesday and Friday, beginning at 07.00 for 3 hours:

# prefvalue -k "Printers/ljet/printtimes" -t strlist
  "3:0/15:00/Tue\,Thu","3:0/07:00/Mon\,Wed\,Fri"

For “StartTime”, the 24-hour code must be used.
Commas must be escaped with a “\”, however not the comma separating the two strings!

Of course, you can specify a set of several “time spec” strings in order to obtain several modes of operation from the same time queue.

Note:: By means of HELIOS Admin you can define multiple “time spec” strings in the Advanced ... button.

Note:: Entries in this preference specify when a print job is forwarded to the Hold Queue. Therefore, setting printtimes is only meaningful if a Hold Queue is already set.

19.4.8 “cloneif” preference keys

clones

strlist

(HELIOS Admin option Duplicate to Printer)

A stringlist which contains, separated by commas and without any spaces, the logical (UNIX) printer names of those devices to which jobs are cloned (duplicated) from the original queue.

19.5 Service Controller preference keys

The following keys require a service restart to take effect:

Key: Services/<my_service>/<preference>

ExecPath

str

Specifies the path to the server executable. ExecPath can be either an absolute path (starting with “/”) or a relative path.

A relative path is interpreted relative to the HELIOS installation directory (e.g.: “/usr/local/helios”).

Enabled

bool

TRUE

Specifies whether the service is to be started by the command “srvutil start all”.

DependsOn

strlist

Specifies a list of services that <my_service> depends on.
If <my_service> depends on <your_service> then <my_service> will always be started after <your_service> is started, and it will be stopped before <your_service> is stopped.

OptDependsOn

strlist

Specifies a list of services that <my_service> optionally depends on. The only difference to DependsOn is that optional dependencies are ignored if the specified service is not installed.

The next three preferences control the automatic restart feature of the HELIOS Service Controller:

RestartDelay: int
10; Specifies the time in seconds that the HELIOS Service Controller waits before it restarts a service.
RestartLimit: int
10; Specifies the maximum number of restarts for a service before it is disabled.
RestartReset: int
60; Specifies the time in seconds during which the HELIOS Service Controller tries to restart a service (according to the value specified in the RestartLimit preference) before resetting the counter to “0”.

19.6 Desktop server preference keys

The following keys require a service restart to take effect:

Key: Programs/desksrv/<preference>

closedelay

int

Specifies the batch close delay in seconds for closing a desktop database after a “dt” command has been issued. When multiple “dt” commands are being used, the benefit is that the desktop server database is still open so that additional commands will be processed faster. See also the “dt” option -X (Desktop close delay).

desktoplocation

str

This preference must be set to change the location of the “.Desktop” file. The location can be either an absolute path or a relative path (below “HELIOSDIR”) pointing to an existing location where a subfolder tree, which contains the “.Desktop” file with the name of the original volume path is automatically created.

Once a volume desktop database file is relocated by a symlink, the command rebuild -f will honor that link, and recreate a new desktop file at the destination of the link as long the “desktoplocation” preference is active.

You may manually set “.Desktop” symlinks for additonal locations that are not specified in this preference. Make sure that the desktop database is not in use at that time you create or remove the link. See also 13.2.3 “Relocate the desktop databases”.

SQLFlushDelay

int

Specifies the time in seconds before the live desktop database is flushed. If the value is set to 0 all changes are written synchronously, which results in bad performance.

FreezeDefault

int

Default desktop server freeze duration if no time value is specified.

FreezeMax

int

Specifies the maximum desktop server freeze duration.

Note:: Do not set the value for FreezeMax unnecessarily high. Otherwise a client RPC timeout error may occur and the clients try to connect anew.

For a description of online backup copies of a live volume see 13.2.1 “Online backup copies of a live volume”.

19.7 Rebuild preference keys

Key: Programs/rebuild/<preference>

cleanorphans: bool
TRUE; This preference causes resource orphans to be deleted each time a desktop rebuild takes place (see Resource orphans in 8.12 “rebuild”). This operation requires a certain amount of processing time.
twopass: bool
TRUE; This preference induces the “rebuild” program to run two passes: in the first session, “rebuild” tries to restore all already-known IDs on the volume and makes records of all conflicts. In the second session, all those files which have caused conflicts are allocated a new ID.

19.8 Synchronization service preference keys

Key: Programs/dt/sync/<sync job name>/<preference>

SourcePath

str

(HELIOS Admin synchronize option Source Path)

Specifies the source directory which contains the originals of the files and folders to be synced.

DestinationPath

str

(HELIOS Admin synchronize option Destination Path)

Specifies the destination directory to which the files and folders should be synced.

Options

strlist

(HELIOS Admin synchronize option Options)

Allows specifying one or more “dt sync” options in a string list. Available options are listed under dt sync in 8.11 ““dt” tools”.

Hours

str

(HELIOS Admin synchronize option Start Time)

Specifies, comma-separated, the hours when a synchronization should be started.

Weekdays

str

(HELIOS Admin synchronize option Mon … Sun)

Specifies, as a three-letter code in a comma-separated list, the day(s) of the week in which a synchronization should be started.

EMail

str

(HELIOS Admin synchronize option E-Mail)

Specifies the e-mail address to which the synchronization status message is sent.

Enabled

bool

TRUE

(HELIOS Admin synchronize option Enable)

Use this preference to enable/disable the Synchronization Service.

Comment

str

(HELIOS Admin synchronize option Comment)

Allows specifying a comment for the selected synchronization service.

19.9 Authentication server preference keys

The following keys require a service restart to take effect:

Key: Programs/authsrv/<preference>

ypdir

str

/var/yp

Directory containing the NIS password and group files. This preference needs only to be specified on a NIS Master host.

ypmapdir

str

/etc

Specifies, in a NIS configuration without separate “passwd” and “group” files, the directory that is used for the “passwd” and “group” maps.

Note:: Please read 10.3.1 “HELIOS services configuration on a NIS Master” - “NIS verification” before setting up NIS.

sysadmgroup

str

SysAdm

HELIOS Admin allows users with sufficient permissions to configure the HELIOS system from any workstation on the network in a convenient and secure way. For example, it can be used to set up users, groups, volumes, and printers, and re-schedule print jobs. Normally, only the system administrator is allowed to make any changes. Non-privileged users can inspect the configuration and the print job queue, but cannot change anything except delete their own print jobs.

Members of the special “system administrators” group can also use HELIOS Admin to make any changes they like, including printer configuration. However, these group members are not allowed to modify any information on users with an ID less than 100 (Note that the system administrator has a user ID of 0).

prnadmgroup

str

PrnAdm

Members of the special “printer administrators” group can use HELIOS Admin to manipulate print jobs from a workstation, i.e. they are allowed to:

delete a job
move a job to another queue
change a job’s priority
set a queue to spool only/spool & print
restart a printer queue

queadmgroup

str

QueueAdm

Members of the special “queue administrators” group can use HELIOS Admin to manipulate print jobs and queue configurations from a workstation. Thus, they have even more privileges than members of the “printer administrators” group that is described above. Queue administrators are allowed to:

perform any task “PrnAdm” is allowed to do
create/change/remove printer queues
update fonts for queues
download fonts to the HELIOS server
adjust PDF HandShake settings
adjust ImageServer settings
adjust initialization settings
specify PPDs for queues

wsadmgroup

str

WSAdm

Members of the special “WebShare administrators” group can use WebShare to manipulate WebShare user and sharepoint configurations from any workstation on the web.

guest

str

nobody

Specifies the user name which is automatically assigned to guest users. The name is invisible to guest users, it is solely used to assign an entry for guests in the user list. If this preference is specified, the authentication server automatically supports guest access to available volumes. Otherwise, guest access to available volumes is not possible.

Note:: The AFP server preference enableguest must be active to enable guest access at all (see HELIOS EtherShare manual).

NameServices

str

local

(HELIOS Admin option Authentication Services)

Defines the name services which are used.

Possible values are: local, NIS, PDC, LDAP, +LDAP, MACOSX.

To make LDAP the preferred name service, +LDAP must be specified.

Example:: prefvalue -k "Programs/authsrv/NameServices" -t str "local, NIS,MACOSX"

RSABits

int

1024

Determines the cipher strength for the password encoding.

The minimum value is 640. For use with slow network clients (e.g. 1st generation Apple iPhone) specify 640, otherwise a JavaScript timeout error may occur.

The following preferences are only used if AD/PDC is active:

PDCServer

str

(HELIOS Admin option Primary Server)

Specifies which PDC is used for authentication.

domainBackup

str

(HELIOS Admin option Backup Server)

Specifies which PDC backup server is used for authentication.

PDCUser

str

PDCUser

(HELIOS Admin option Local Template User)

Specifies the name of the local user, which is used as a template for home directory and group memberships of dynamically generated user IDs (see AD/PDC template user for details).

PDCAdminName

str

HeliosAdmin

(HELIOS Admin option Login Name)

Specifies the login name which is used for accessing the PDC.

PDCAdminPasswd

str

(HELIOS Admin option Password)

Specifies the password which is used for accessing the PDC. The password is stored encrypted.

19.10 mDNS server preference keys

The following keys require a service restart to take effect:

Key: Programs/mdnssrv/<preference>

interfaces

str

If this preference is set, “mdnssrv” limits the search for suitable networks it will listen on to the networks specified by the IP addresses.

hostname

str

(HELIOS Admin “MDNS” option Server Name)

The default mDNS server name is adapted from the server’s host name. This preference allows specifying a custom host name used for mDNS if a different name is required.

19.11 mDNS proxy server preference keys

The following keys require a service restart to take effect:

Key: Programs/mdnsproxysrv/<preference>

remoteproxy

str

(HELIOS Admin “MDNS” option Remote Proxy)

String that contains the address of a remote proxy server, whose internal services and service registrations should be adopted locally (e.g. ankh.helios.de).

browse/<type>/domain

str

Makes the mDNS proxy server continuously browse for the service <type> in the local domain (“.”), so that the mDNS server has always an up-to-date cache for this service type.

Note:: The HELIOS mDNS server supports only the default mDNS domain “.”.

The preference “browse/_heltoolsrv._tcp/domain” is set to “.” during installation, so that the list of available tool servers is cached and “toolclient” finds all tool servers without delay.

TelnetPort

int

2026

Specifies the “telnet” port number.

RemoteRegistrations

bool

FALSE

(HELIOS Admin “MDNS” option Remote Telnet Registrations)

Specifies if a service that is not locally logged-in is allowed to register new services.

ipaccess

str

(HELIOS Admin “MDNS” option IP Access)

Specifies the name of an (optional) IP access list (e.g. “ipaccess.mdnsproxysrv”). Usually this preference is not specified.

RemoteAccess

bool

FALSE

If set to TRUE, access to the proxy mDNS server service port (2026) is enabled to remote users (subject to the restrictions in the IP access list). By default, access is only enabled for users on the same host.

forward

str

(HELIOS Admin “MDNS” option Forward)

String that contains a list of IP addresses (of local interfaces that allow mDNS forwarding among each other).

For example, if you have a machine with 4 interfaces, and routing should be allowed between three of them, specify the addresses of the three interfaces with this preference.

Note:: The entry "0.0.0.0" completely switches off forwarding between the interfaces.

19.12 Notification server preference keys

The following keys require a service restart to take effect:

Key: Programs/notifysrv/<preference>

TelnetPort: int
2017; Specifies the “telnet” port number.

19.13 DHCP server and WINS preference keys

The following keys require a service restart to take effect:

Key: Programs/dhcpsrv/<preference>

dynage

int

(see description)

HELIOS clients can optionally be configured for dynamic IP address allocation, rather than manually configuring the address on each client. “HELIOSDIR/var/conf/ethers.pcs” is used in this case to store a list of client IP addresses which have been automatically allocated. Dynamically allocated IP addresses will be reused by the server for other clients if they are not used by the original client for dynage days.

The default for dynage is 62 (days). If dynage=0, the server never reuses IP addresses which have been dynamically allocated.

gateway

strlist

(e.g: "172.16.0.1","172.16.2.1")

(HELIOS Admin option Gateway for DHCP Client)

HELIOS clients can be optionally configured for dynamic IP address allocation, rather than manually configuring the address on each client. This preference specifies the name(s) and/or IP address(es) of one or more IP routers on the network (if any).

HELIOS clients configured for dynamic IP address allocation are then allocated to the gateway in this list which is appropriate to their IP address. The gateway list has the same function as the “gateway” entry in the local HOSTS file, which is not present if the client is configured for dynamic IP address allocation.

logserver

str

<ip-addr or name>

Specifies the IP address(es) of those syslog servers that are passed to DHCP clients. More than one IP address can be specified by comma-separation.

primaryage

int

Specifies the time interval (in seconds) in which a secondary boot server synchronizes the data with the primary boot server. At each client boot request this synchronization is intended to be carried out if at least primaryage time has passed after the last synchronization.

primarydownage

int

300

Has the same effect as primaryage (see above), but takes effect only if the primary boot server fails to answer.

bootpsyslogs

bool

FALSE

Specifies if an error message is written to the syslog file when the “Ethernet-to-IP address” mapping is missing at BOOTP protocol requests.

dns

strlist

Forms the list of one or more IP addresses of the servers which can be used. It is transferred to the client via DHCP. By default, the server uses the information from the local “/etc/resolv.conf” file.

dnsadd

str

Template which is used to make the “nsupdate” program add the IP address. The default is:

update delete %h.%d. in a\n
update delete %r.in-addr.arpa. in ptr\n
update add %h.%d. %t in a %a\n
update add %r.in-addr.arpa. %t in ptr %h.%d.\n\n

The “%escapes” are replaced as follows:

`%h`	`Host Name`
`%d`	`DNS Update Domain`
`%a`	`IP Address`
`%r`	`Reverse IP Address`
`%t`	`DNS TTL`

For more information on “nsupdate” see the respective UNIX manual pages.

dnsdel

str

Template which is used to make the “nsupdate” program delete the IP address. The default is:

update delete %h.%d. in a\n
update delete %r.in-addr.arpa. in ptr\n\n

The “%escapes” are the same as those described in dnsadd.

dnsidletime

int

120

Stops the “nsupdate” program if it has been idling for the specified amount of time (in seconds). If necessary, it is started again.

dnsttl

int

3600

Time (in seconds) how long a DNS entry is allowed to remain in the cache.

dnsupdate

str

nsupdate

Program, which is used for dynamic DNS updates and belongs to the UNIX “named” packet that is part of the DNS “bind” daemon packet. The program is called in a pipe and controlled by the dnsadd and dnsdel templates.

leasetime

int

57600

Specifies the DHCP lease time (in seconds) for an IP address.

flushtime

int

600

Defines the time span (in seconds) the data is flushed from memory into the “ethers.pcs” file after a change in the internal DHCP data.

RemoteAccess

bool

FALSE

If set to TRUE, access to the DHCP server service port (2027) is enabled to remote users (subject to the restrictions in the IP access list). By default, access is only enabled for users on the same host.

ldapurl

str

Specifies the complete LDAP URL that is assigned to DHCP clients.

searchdomain

str

Specifies the domain search list used when resolving host names with DNS that is assigned to DHCP clients.

The following three preferences must be set with the key:

Key: Programs/pcshare/<preference>

scopeid

str

(HELIOS Admin option Scope Identifier)

Specifies the scope ID that is assigned to DHCP clients.

nameserver

str

(HELIOS Admin option WINS IP Address)

Specifies the NetBIOS name server that is assigned to DHCP clients.

nameserverbackup

str

Specifies the NetBIOS backup name server that is assigned to DHCP clients.

19.14 HELIOS Admin server preference keys

The following keys require a service restart to take effect:

Key: Programs/heladmsrv/<preference>

IpAddress

str

If a host has more than one network interface, the interface, which provides the service (“heladmsrv”) can be specified by use of this preference. If this preference is not set, the service is provided on all interfaces.

AllowSavePassword

bool

FALSE

If set to TRUE, an additional checkbox becomes available in the HELIOS Admin login dialog which allows saving the password.

Port

int

2006

Specifies a different port for client/server communication. In the case that “heladmsrv” issues the following error message to the system log file, another service is already using this port:

bind port 2006: Address already in use

LogHttpErrors

bool

FALSE

The HELIOS Admin client displays all HTTP protocol errors in a dialog box. Some error messages are suppressed by the HELIOS Admin client, because they are only destined for the internal workflow of the client. With this preference set to TRUE, they are additionally written to the system log file.

LogSessionErrors

bool

FALSE

HELIOS Admin displays all administration session errors in a dialog box. Some error messages are suppressed by the HELIOS Admin client, because they are only destined for the internal workflow of the client. With this preference set to TRUE, they are additionally written to the system log file.

SessionLifetime

int

3600

This preference specifies (in seconds) how long the server waits for HELIOS Admin client requests. If no client request has occurred during this time interval, the server assumes that the HELIOS Admin client has been unexpectedly closed and terminates.

AuthTimeout

int

4000

This preference specifies the maximum response time (in milliseconds) for the authentication server while checking the validity of a password. For details see 10 “The authentication server”.

ipaccess

str

Specifies the name of an (optional) IP access list (e.g. “ipaccess.heladmsrv”). Usually this preference is not specified.

logdenied

bool

FALSE

If set to TRUE, this parameter lets “heladmsrv” append a record to the system messages if, due to the IP access list, access to one or more users has been denied.

FilterUid

int

The value specified with this preference is registered with the key “:du#” in the “printcap” file.

The following preference is legacy:

NBPLookupCount: int
1; This preference controls how many NBP lookups are done to find printers. If a printer does not appear in the Name: pop-up menu of the AppleTalk printer settings, this preference can be set to a higher value.

HELIOS Manuals February 6, 2019