Printronix P8000 Series Cartridge Ribbon Printer - Manual (Page 368)

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Appendix F The PTX_SETUP Commands
Summary of the CONFIG Command
The UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD command can be used for uploading and
downloading complete printer configurations. If a customer needs to configure
50 printers identically, the customer needs only configure one printer and
UPLOAD the configurations. The UPLOADed configurations may then be
DOWNLOADed to other printers eliminating the necessity for the operator to
configure each printer manually.
The UPLOAD command will always place a header and a footer into the
uploaded data. This header will be the DOWNLOAD command followed by
the configuration number. The footer will be the DOWNLOAD END command.
The operator should be aware that the UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD
commands use a secondary copy of the menu structure which does not affect
the printer's active configuration. This allows the UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD
commands to operate without affecting the printer's current configuration. If
the operator intends to use one of the DOWNLOADed configurations, the
operator should reboot the printer to ensure proper operation. This can be
accomplished by adding the RESET command as the last command in your
setup file. This is necessary because the printer caches the active
configuration. Rebooting the printer ensures that the desired configuration is
correctly read from FLASH.
NOTE: While an upload or download is in progress, the Front Panel will be
unavailable.
The Configuration Save and Delete commands from the front panel can be
blocked by using the Protect Configurations feature. This is intended to
prevent someone from inadvertently reconfiguring a printer. The PTX_SETUP
commands, however, will override the protect configurations feature. All
PTX_SETUP commands will be honored regardless of the value of the
Protect Configurations feature.
Operation of the FILE_IO Command
When a file is opened for writing with the FILE_IO–CAPTURE; filename
command, the system will allocate RAM for file control blocks and 1 Kbyte for
data. If the file already exists on the Flash File System and the Overwrite
Enable feature in the Flash File System menu is set to disable, a warning will
be displayed on the front panel. After clearing the warning, the file data will be
printed. To overwrite the existing file, set the Overwrite Files option to enable.
Due to the nature of writing to flash, any data intended to be stored
permanently in flash must first be copied into RAM. As a result, the ability to
manipulate files in the Flash File System is dependent upon the printer having
sufficient RAM. None of the captured file data will be committed to flash until
the entire file is loaded. The PTX_SETUP parser will interpret the command
“FILE_IO–CAPTURE<lf>” as an end of file marker. Receipt of the command
will cause all file data to be written to flash. The file system allocates RAM for
temporary data storage in 1 Kbyte blocks. If at any time during the file
download the printer runs out of RAM, a warning will be displayed on the front
panel and as much of the file as possible will be saved in flash.