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PRINTCAP(5) BSD File Formats Manual PRINTCAP(5)
NAME
printcap ? printer capability data base |
SYNOPSIS
printcap |
DESCRIPTION |
The Printcap function is a simplified version of the termcap(5) data base used to describe line printers. The spooling system accesses the printcap file every time it is used, allowing dynamic addition and deletion of printers. Each entry in the data base is used to describe one printer. This data base may not be substituted for, as is possible for termcap, because it may allow accounting to be bypassed. The default printer is normally lp, though the environment variable PRINTER may be used to override this. Each spooling utility supports an option, ?P printer, to allow explicit naming of a destination printer. Refer to the 4.3 BSD Line Printer Spooler Manual for a complete discussion on how setup the database for a given printer. |
CAPABILITIES
Refer to termcap(5) for a description of the file layout. |
Name |
Type |
Description |
af str NULL name of accounting file |
\f’ string to send for a formfeed
fo bool false print a form feed when device is opened If the local line printer driver supports indentation, the daemon must understand how to invoke it. |
FILTERS
The lpd(8) daemon creates a pipeline of filters to process files for various printer types. The filters selected depend on the flags passed to lpr(1). The pipeline set up is: p pr | if regular text + pr(1) |
none
if |
regular text |
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cf |
cifplot |
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df |
DVI (tex) |
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gf |
plot(3) |
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nf |
ditroff |
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rf |
Fortran |
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tf |
troff |
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vf |
raster image |
The if filter is invoked with arguments: if [?c] ?wwidth ?llength ?iindent ?n login ?h host acct-file The ?c flag is passed only if the ?l flag (pass control characters literally) is specified to lpr. The Width function and length specify the page width and length (from pw and pl respectively) in characters. The ?n and ?h parameters specify the login name and host name of the owner of the job respectively. The Acct-file function is passed from the af printcap entry. If no if is specified, of is used instead, with the distinction that of is opened only once, while if is opened for every individual job. Thus, if is better suited to performing accounting. The of is only given the width and length flags. All other filters are called as: filter ?xwidth ?ylength ?n login ?h host acct-file where width and length are represented in pixels, specified by the px and py entries respectively. All filters take stdin as the file, stdout as the printer, may log either to stderr or using syslog(3), and must not ignore SIGINT. |
LOGGING
Error messages generated by the line printer programs themselves (that is, the lp* programs) are logged by syslog(3) using the LPR facility. Messages printed on stderr of one of the filters are sent to the corresponding lf file. The filters may, of course, use syslog themselves. Error messages sent to the console have a carriage return and a line feed appended to them, rather than just a line feed. |
SEE ALSO
termcap(5), lpc(8), lpd(8), pac(8), lpr(1), lpq(1), lprm(1) |
4.3 BSD Line Printer Spooler Manual.
HISTORY
The printcap file format appeared in 4.2BSD .. 4.2 Berkeley Distribution May 10, 1991 4.2 Berkeley Distribution |