User-modifiable tables

NPF's VTAM® capture point application uses two user-modifiable tables to define certain processing rules for its sessions. These tables are introduced here and more fully explained later in the book.

The end-of-file rules table
The Network Print Facility uses the concept of a print file, defined as:
- A batch of related print data which should be handled as a single document. NPF keeps all of the data for a file together as it is queued, transmitted to LPD, and printed.
For correct results, it is necessary for NPF's VTAM capture point application to determine accurately where one file should end and the next one should begin. Unfortunately, it is not always clear how to do this.

To help in making these decisions, the Network Print Facility provides a user-modifiable end-of-file rules table. This table allows different end-of-file rules to be defined for different combinations of logical printer LU, session partner LU, and LU type used on the session. See File definition for VTAM output for more information about how the Network Print Facility defines file boundaries.
The default page format table
In some cases, the SCS data streams used on LU type 1 sessions depend on a default page format which is hard-wired or otherwise pre-set for the printer being used.

The Network Print Facility provides a user-modifiable table to allow the equivalent of these hard-wired defaults to be defined for its logical printers. See Page format definition for more details on the Network Print Facility's page formats.