Print Spool Files on Multiple Printers

Q. How can I print multiple copies of a report on two different printers?

A. There are several ways to print spooled files on multiple printers.
One way is to modify your programs to print multiple copies to different output queues. Another method is to duplicate a spooled file and place it in a different output queue. To duplicate the spooled file, you can use either the CPYSPLF command or QUSRTOOL routines or write programs that use the print APIs to copy spooled files.

Rather than explain these options in detail, I suggest an easy-to-implement alternative that duplicates a spooled file and places it in the appropriate output queue with one command. You may be familiar with using SNADS to distribute objects (even spooled files) among different AS/400s. However, SNADS can also distribute objects on one machine. For spooled files, you can use the SNDNETSPLF command to send the spooled file to another user on the system. Sending the spooled file duplicates it and places it in the output queue defined in the profile of the user to whom you're sending the file. For purposes such as yours, I normally create a user profile with the same name as the output queue to which I want to send the spooled file. I set the user profile's password to *NONE so that no one can sign on with this profile, and I set the output queue parameter appropriately. After creating the user profile, I add it to the system directory so I can use SNADS to send objects to that user. Then, when I send a network spooled file to the user, the spooled file is automatically duplicated and placed in the appropriate output queue.

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