.\" $OpenBSD: printcap.5,v 1.22 2010/01/03 14:31:01 schwarze Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: printcap.5,v 1.7 1998/02/20 12:24:50 hubertf Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)printcap.5 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93 .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: January 3 2010 $ .Dt PRINTCAP 5 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm printcap .Nd printer capability database .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm printcap .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm file is a simplified version of the .Xr termcap 5 database used to describe line printers. The spooling system accesses the .Nm file every time it is used, allowing dynamic addition and deletion of printers. Each entry in the database is used to describe one printer. This database may not be substituted for, as is possible for .Xr termcap 5 , because it may allow accounting to be bypassed. .Pp The default printer is normally .Dq lp , though the environment variable .Ev PRINTER may be used to override this. Each spooling utility supports an option, .Fl P Ns Ar printer , to allow explicit naming of a destination printer. .Pp Refer to the .%T "4.3 BSD Line Printer Spooler Manual" for a complete discussion on how to set up the database for a given printer. .Sh CAPABILITIES Refer to .Xr termcap 5 for a description of the file layout. .Bl -column "xx" "xx" "/var/spool/" .It Sy Name Type Default Description .It "af str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "name of accounting file" .It "br num none if lp is a tty, set baud rate" .Pf ( Xr ioctl 2 call) .It "cf str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "cifplot data filter" .It "df str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "tex data filter" .Pf ( Tn DVI format) .It "fc num 0 if lp is a tty, clear flag bits" .Pq Aq Pa sgtty.h .It "ff str" Ta So Li \ef Sc Ta No "string to send for a form feed" .It "fo bool false print a form feed when device is opened" .It "fs num 0 if lp is a tty, set flag bits" .Pq Aq Pa sgtty.h .It "gf str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "graph data filter" .Pf ( Xr plot 3 format) .It "hl bool false print the burst header page last" .It "ic bool false supports non-standard ioctl to indent printout" .It "if str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "name of text filter which does accounting" .It "lf str" Ta Pa /dev/console Ta No "error logging file name" .It "lo str" Ta Pa lock Ta No "name of lock file" .It "lp str" Ta Pa /dev/lp Ta No "local printer device, or port@host for remote" .It "mc num 0 maximum number of copies allowed; 0=unlimited" .It "ms str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "list of terminal modes to set or clear" .It "mx num 0 max file size (in" .Dv BUFSIZ blocks); 0=unlimited .It "nd str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "next directory for queues list (unimplemented)" .It "nf str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "ditroff data filter (device independent troff)" .It "of str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "name of output filtering program" .It "pc num 200 price per foot or page in hundredths of cents" .It "pl num 66 page length (in lines)" .It "pw num 132 page width (in characters)" .It "px num 0 page width in pixels (horizontal)" .It "py num 0 page length in pixels (vertical)" .It "rf str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "filter for printing" .Tn FORTRAN style text files .It "rg str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "restricted group-only group members can access" .It "rm str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "machine name for remote printer" .It "rp str ``lp'' remote printer name argument" .It "rs bool false remote users must have a local account" .It "rw bool false open printer device for reading and writing" .It "sb bool false short banner (one line only)" .It "sc bool false suppress multiple copies" .It "sd str" Ta Pa /var/spool/output Ta No "spool directory" .It "sf bool false suppress form feeds" .It "sh bool false suppress printing of burst page header" .It "st str" Ta Pa status Ta No "status file name" .It "tf str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "troff data filter (cat phototypesetter)" .It "tr str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "trailer string to print when queue empties" .It "vf str" Ta Dv NULL Ta No "raster image filter" .It "xc num 0 if lp is a tty, clear local mode bits" .Pq Xr tty 4 .It "xs num 0 if lp is a tty, set local mode bits" .Pq Xr tty 4 .El .Pp If the local line printer driver supports indentation, the daemon must understand how to invoke it. .Sh FILTERS If a printer is specified via .Sy lp (either local or remote), the .Xr lpd 8 daemon creates a pipeline of .Dq filters to process files for various printer types. The pipeline is not set up for remote printers specified via .Sy rm unless the local host is the same as the remote printer host given. The filters selected depend on the flags passed to .Xr lpr 1 . The pipeline set up is: .Bd -literal -offset indent p pr | if regular text + pr(1) none if regular text c cf cifplot d df DVI (tex) g gf plot(3) n nf ditroff f rf Fortran t tf troff v vf raster image .Ed .Pp The .Sy if filter is invoked with arguments: .Bd -filled -offset indent .Sy if .Op Fl c .Fl w Ns Ar width .Fl l Ns Ar length .Fl i Ns Ar indent .Fl n Ar login .Fl h Ar host acct-file .Ed .Pp The .Fl c flag is passed only if the .Fl l flag (pass control characters literally) is specified to .Xr lpr 1 . .Ar width and .Ar length specify the page width and length (from .Sy pw and .Sy pl , respectively) in characters. The .Fl n and .Fl h parameters specify the login name and host name of the owner of the job, respectively. The .Ar acct-file function is passed from the .Sy af .Nm entry. .Pp If no .Sy if is specified, .Sy of is used instead, with the distinction that .Sy of is opened only once, while .Sy if is opened for every individual job. Thus, .Sy if is better suited to performing accounting. The .Sy of is only given the .Ar width and .Ar length flags. .Pp All other filters are called as: .Bd -filled -offset indent .Nm filter .Fl x Ns Ar width .Fl y Ns Ar length .Fl n Ar login .Fl h Ar host acct-file .Ed .Pp where .Ar width and .Ar length are represented in pixels, specified by the .Sy px and .Sy py entries, respectively. All filters take .Em stdin as the file, .Em stdout as the printer, may log either to .Em stderr or using .Xr syslog 3 , and must not ignore .Dv SIGINT . .Sh LOGGING Error messages generated by the line printer programs themselves are logged by .Xr syslog 3 using the .Dv LPR facility. Messages printed on .Em stderr by the filters are sent to the corresponding .Sy lf file. The filters may, of course, use .Xr syslog 3 themselves. .Pp Error messages sent to the console have a carriage return and a line feed appended to them, rather than just a line feed. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr lpq 1 , .Xr lpr 1 , .Xr lprm 1 , .Xr termcap 5 , .Xr lpc 8 , .Xr lpd 8 , .Xr pac 8 .Rs .%T "4.3 BSD Line Printer Spooler Manual" .Re .Sh HISTORY The .Nm file format appeared in .Bx 4.2 .