*** UNIX MANUAL PAGE BROWSER ***

A Nergahak database for man pages research.

Navigation

Directory Browser

1Browse 4.4BSD4.4BSD
1Browse Digital UNIXDigital UNIX 4.0e
1Browse FreeBSDFreeBSD 14.3
1Browse MINIXMINIX 3.4.0rc6-d5e4fc0
1Browse NetBSDNetBSD 10.1
1Browse OpenBSDOpenBSD 7.7
1Browse UNIX v7Version 7 UNIX
1Browse UNIX v10Version 10 UNIX

Manual Page Search

Manual Page Result

0 Command: printcap | Section: 4 | Source: Digital UNIX | File: printcap.4.gz
printcap(4) Kernel Interfaces Manual printcap(4) NAME printcap - Printer capability data base SYNOPSIS /etc/printcap DESCRIPTION The printcap file is used to describe printer characteristics. The format of the printcap file is a simplified version of the /etc/termcap database format. The lpd line printer daemon accesses the /etc/printcap file every time a file is passed to the spooler for printing. The print spooling system uses the printcap file to obtain information about each printer at- tached to the system and about remote printers. Each entry in the printcap file describes a single printer. When the local line printer driver supports indentation, the lpd line printer daemon must understand how to invoke this capability. The default printer for your system usually has the device reference lp, although environment variable PRINTER can be used to override the default printer reference. The print commands (for example, lpr, lpq, and lprm) support the -Pprinter option, which enables you to specify a specific printer. Printer Characteristic Symbols Each printer has various characteristics that tell the lpd line printer daemon how to communicate with the printing device defined in the /dev directory. A table in this section lists the printer characteristic symbols and provides the following information for each: The symbol, which is a 2-character mnemonic. The symbol must be specified exactly as it appears in this column. Type of data expressed by the entry as str, num, or bool. When the characteristic defined by the symbol is referenced as a string variable (str) in the Type column, it must be followed by an = (equal sign) together with a string value; when you do not define the string value, it either remains a NULL string and con- tains no data or takes the value specified in the Default column. When the Type column defines a symbol type as bool, it may only be logically true (yes) or logically false (no). When the parameter you define is a numerical variable, it must be followed with a # (pound sign) together with the numerical value you assign; when you do not define the numerical parameter it takes the value specified in the Default column of the table. A summary of the printer characteristic that the symbol speci- fies. Symbols whose descriptions are followed by "(I18N)" are provided to meet country-specific printing requirements. Refer to i18n_printing(5) for information about when these symbols are valid in a printer entry. The following is an example of a printcap entry: myprinter|lp0:\ :af=/usr/adm/lpacct:\ :br#9600:\ :ct=dev:\ :fc#0177777:\ :fs#023:\ :if=/usr/lbin/la75of:\ :lf=/usr/adm/lperr:\ :lp=/dev/tty00:\ :mx#0:\ :of=/usr/lbin/la75of:\ :pl#66:\ :pw#80:\ :sd=/usr/spool/lpd:\ :xc#0177777:\ :xf=/usr/lbin/xf:\ :xs#044000: Entries can continue onto multiple lines by specifying the back- slash (\) as the last character of a line. Empty fields can be included for readability (here between the last field on a line and the first field on the next line). Comments can be included on lines beginning with the pound sign (#). tab(@); lfHB lfHB lfHB lfHB l1 l1 l lw(2.5i). _ Name@Type@Default@Description _ af@str@NULL@Name of accounting file br@num@none@T{ If lp is a tty, set the baud rate (ioctl call). T} cf@str@NULL@The cifplot data filter. ct@str@dev@T{ The connection type. Only valid when up=psv4.0. The choices are: dev, LAT, and remote. (Required for LAT printers.) T} ct@str@LAT@T{ Remote printing using LAT as the transport. T} df@str@NULL@The tex data filter (DVI format). fc@num@0@T{ If lp is a tty, clear flag bits (sgtty.h). T} ff@str@\f@String to send for a form feed. fo@bool@false@Print a form feed when the device is opened. fs@num@0@Like fc, but set bits. gf@str@NULL@The graph data filter (plot format). hl@bool@false@Print the burst header page last. ic@bool@false@T{ Driver supports (non standard) ioctl to indent print- out. T} if@str@NULL@Name of text filter that does accounting. lf@str@/dev/console@Error logging filename. lo@str@lock@Name of lock file. lp@str@/dev/lp@T{ Device name to open for output. (Required for LAT and remote printers.) T} mx@num@1000@T{ Maximum file size (in BUF- SIZ blocks). Zero = unlimited. T} nf@str@NULL@T{ The ditroff data fil- ter (for device independent troff). T} of@str@NULL@Name of output fil- tering program. pl@num@66@Page length (in lines). pw@num@132@Page width (in columns). px@num@0@Page width in pixels (horizontal). py@num@0@Page length in pixels (vertical). rf@str@NULL@T{ Filter for printing FORTRAN style text files. T} rm@str@NULL@T{ Machine name for remote printer. (Required for remote printers.) T} rp@str@lp@T{ Remote printer name argument. (Required for remote printers.) T} rs@bool@false@Restrict remote users to those with local accounts. rw@bool@false@T{ Open the printer device for reading and writing. T} sb@bool@false@Short banner (one line only). sc@bool@false@Suppress multiple copies. sd@str@/usr/spool/lpd@T{ Spool directory. (Required for LAT and remote printers.) T} sf@bool@false@Suppress form feeds. sh@bool@false@Suppress printing of burst page header. st@str@sta- tus@Status filename. tf@str@NULL@T{ The troff data filter (for the cat phototypesetter). T} tr@str@NULL@T{ Trailer string to print when queue empties. T} vf@str@NULL@The raster image filter. xc@num@0@T{ If lp is a tty, clear local mode bits (tty). T} xf@str@NULL@Pass-through fil- ter. xs@num@0@Like xc, but set bits. ya@str@NULL@Additional parame- ters for print filter (I18N). yd@str@NULL@Secondary device name for font faulting (I18N). yj@str@NULL@Restart of for every job (I18N). yp@str@NULL@Printer ID conforming to Wototo standard (I18N). ys@num@0@Size of SoftODL character cache (I18N). yt@str@"fifo"@SoftODL character replacement strategy (I18N). _ When the local line printer driver supports indentation, the lpd line printer daemon must understand how to invoke this capability. LAT Printing Characteristics The following table lists the LAT printing characteristics: tab(@); lfHB lfHB lfHB lfHB l l l l. _ Name@Type@Default@Description _ ct@str@LAT@Remote printing using LAT as the @@@transport. lp@str@/dev/ttyWX@T{ Device name to open for output where WX is a LAT device. T} _ Filter and Flags The lpd line printer daemon creates a pipeline of filters to process files for various different printer device. The filters you select de- pend on the flags that are passed to the lpr command. The pipeline setup is: tab(@); lfHB lfHB lfHB lb lb l. _ Flag@Filter@Description _ none@if@regular text -p@pr | if@regular text + pr -c@cf@cifplot -d@df@DVI (tex) -g@gf@plot -n@nf@ditroff -f@rf@FORTRAN -t@tf@troff -v@vf@raster image _ The if filter is invoked with arguments according to the following for- mat: if [-c] -wwidth -llength -iindent -nlogin -hhost acct-file The xf pass-through filter is specified when output is preformatted and does not require special filtering. The -c flag is passed only when the -l flag (pass control-characters literally) is specified to the lpr command. The -wwidth and -llength parameters specify the page width and length (from the assigned or de- fault values of pw and pl respectively in the printcap file) in charac- ters. The -n and -h flags specify the login name and hostname of the owner of the job, respectively. The acct-file is passed from the af en- try in the printcap file. The if filter is opened for all individual jobs, which makes it suit- able for accounting. When the if filter is not specified, the system uses the of filter as the default value. The of filter however, is opened only once and is only given the -wwidth and -llength flags. All other filters are called according to the following format: filter -xwidth -ylength -nlogin -h host acct-file In this format, -xwidth and -ylength are represented in pixels as spec- ified by the px and py entries, respectively, in the printcap file. All filters take standard input (stdin) as the source file and standard output (stdout) as the destination. The printer may log either to standard error (stderr) or use syslogd, and must not ignore the SIGINT signal. ERROR LOGGING Error messages generated by the line printer programs (that is, the lp* programs) are logged by syslogd using the lpr facility. Messages printed on the stderr of one of the filters are sent to the correspond- ing lf file specified in the printcap file. The filters may, of course, also use syslogd. Error messages sent to the console have a carriage return and a line feed appended to them, rather than just a line feed. RELATED INFORMATION Commands: lpq(1), lpr(1), lprm(1), lpc(8), lpd(8), lprsetup(8), pac(8) Files: termcap(4) Others: i18n_printing(5) System Administration Network Administration delim off printcap(4)

Navigation Options