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Manual page for PRINTCAP(5)

printcap - printer capability data base

SYNOPSIS

/etc/printcap

DESCRIPTION

NOTE: This file is superseded by netinfo(5) if NetInfo is running.

Printcap 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, -Pprinter, to allow explicit naming of a destination printer.

Refer to the 4.3BSD 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	Default	Description
af	str	NULL	name of accounting file
br	num	none	if lp is a tty, set the baud rate (ioctl call)
cf	str	NULL	cifplot data filter
df	str	NULL	tex data filter (DVI format)
fc	num	0	if lp is a tty, clear flag bits (sgtty.h)
ff	str	``\f''	string to send for a form feed
fo	bool	false	print a form feed when device is opened
fs	num	0	like `fc' but set bits
gf	str	NULL	graph data filter (plot (3X) format)
hl	bool	false	print the burst header page last
ic	bool	false	driver supports (non standard) ioctl to indent printout
if	str	NULL	name of text filter which does accounting
lf	str	``/dev/console''	error logging file name
lo	str	``lock''	name of lock file
lp	str	``/dev/lp''	device name to open for output
mx	num	1000	maximum file size (in BUFSIZ blocks), zero = unlimited
nd	str	NULL	next directory for list of queues (unimplemented)
nf	str	NULL	ditroff data filter (device independent troff)
of	str	NULL	name of output filtering program
pc	num	200	price per foot or page in hundredths of cents
pl	num	66	page length (in lines)
pw	num	132	page width (in characters)
px	num	0	page width in pixels (horizontal)
py	num	0	page length in pixels (vertical)
rf	str	NULL	filter for printing FORTRAN style text files
rg	str	NULL	restricted group. Only members of group allowed access
rm	str	NULL	machine name for remote printer
rp	str	``lp''	remote printer name argument
rs	bool	false	restrict remote users to those with local accounts
rw	bool	false	open the printer device for reading and writing
sb	bool	false	short banner (one line only)
sc	bool	false	suppress multiple copies
sd	str	``/usr/spool/lpd''	spool directory
sf	bool	false	suppress form feeds
sh	bool	false	suppress printing of burst page header
st	str	``status''	status file name
tf	str	NULL	troff data filter (cat phototypesetter)
tr	str	NULL	trailer string to print when queue empties
vf	str	NULL	raster image filter
xc	num	0	if lp is a tty, clear local mode bits (tty (4))
xs	num	0	like `xc' but set bits

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
-c	cf	cifplot
-d	df	DVI (tex)
-g	gf	plot(3)
-n	nf	ditroff
-f	rf	Fortran
-t	tf	troff
-v	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. Width 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. Acct-file 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.