.\"	$OpenBSD: printcap.5,v 1.28 2020/02/10 13:18:20 schwarze Exp $
.\"	$NetBSD: printcap.5,v 1.7 1998/02/20 12:24:50 hubertf Exp $
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.\"     @(#)printcap.5	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: February 10 2020 $
.Dt PRINTCAP 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm printcap
.Nd printer capability database
.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 "Name" "Type" "/var/spool/output/lpd" "Description"
.It Sy Name Ta Sy Type Ta Sy Default Ta Sy Description
.It "af	str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "name of accounting file"
.It "br" Ta "num" Ta "none" Ta "if lp is a tty, set baud rate"
.Pf ( Xr ioctl 2
call)
.It "cf" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "cifplot data filter"
.It "df" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "tex data filter (DVI format)"
.It "ff" Ta "str" Ta So Li \ef Sc Ta "string to send for a form feed"
.It "fo" Ta "bool" Ta "false" Ta "print a form feed when device is opened"
.It "gf" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "graph data filter"
.Pf ( Xr plot 3
format)
.It "hl" Ta "bool" Ta "false" Ta "print the burst header page last"
.It "ic" Ta "bool" Ta "false" Ta "supports non-standard ioctl to indent printout"
.It "if" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "name of text filter which does accounting"
.It "lf" Ta "str" Ta Pa /dev/console Ta "error logging file name"
.It "lo" Ta "str" Ta Pa lock Ta "name of lock file"
.It "lp" Ta "str" Ta Pa /dev/lp Ta "local printer device, or port@host for remote"
.It "mc" Ta "num" Ta "0" Ta "maximum number of copies allowed; 0=unlimited"
.It "ms" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "if lp is a tty, a comma-separated,"
.Xr stty 1 Ns -like
list describing the tty modes
.It "mx" Ta "num" Ta "0" Ta "max file size (in"
.Dv BUFSIZ
blocks); 0=unlimited
.It "nd" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "next directory for queues list (unimplemented)"
.It "nf" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "ditroff data filter (device independent troff)"
.It "of" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "name of output filtering program"
.It "pc" Ta "num" Ta "200" Ta "price per foot or page in hundredths of cents"
.It "pl" Ta "num" Ta "66" Ta "page length (in lines)"
.It "pw" Ta "num" Ta "132" Ta "page width (in characters)"
.It "px" Ta "num" Ta "0" Ta "page width in pixels (horizontal)"
.It "py" Ta "num" Ta "0" Ta "page length in pixels (vertical)"
.It "rf" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "filter for printing FORTRAN style text files"
.It "rg" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "restricted group-only group members can access"
.It "rm" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "machine name for remote printer"
.It "rp" Ta "str" Ta "``lp''" Ta "remote printer name argument"
.It "rs" Ta "bool" Ta "false" Ta "remote users must have a local account"
.It "rw" Ta "bool" Ta "false" Ta "open printer device for reading and writing"
.It "sb" Ta "bool" Ta "false" Ta "short banner (one line only)"
.It "sc" Ta "bool" Ta "false" Ta "suppress multiple copies"
.It "sd" Ta "str" Ta Pa /var/spool/output/lpd Ta "spool directory"
.It "sf" Ta "bool" Ta "false" Ta "suppress form feeds"
.It "sh" Ta "bool" Ta "false" Ta "suppress printing of burst page header"
.It "st" Ta "str" Ta Pa status Ta "status file name"
.It "tf" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "troff data filter (cat phototypesetter)"
.It "tr" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "trailer string to print when queue empties"
.It "vf" Ta "str" Ta Dv NULL Ta "raster image filter"
.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 FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/examples/printcap -compact
.It Pa /etc/printcap
Default location of the database file.
.It Pa /etc/examples/printcap
Example database file.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr lpq 1 ,
.Xr lpr 1 ,
.Xr lprm 1 ,
.Xr termcap 5 ,
.Xr lpc 8 ,
.Xr lpd 8
.Rs
.%T "4.3 BSD Line Printer Spooler Manual"
.Re
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
file format appeared in
.Bx 4.2 .