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Manual Pages  — PRINTCAP

NAME

printcap – printer capability data base

CONTENTS

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(5), 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 to setup the database for a given printer.

CAPABILITIES

Refer to termcap(5) for a description of the file layout. Name Ta Type Ta Default
Description

af		 str NULL name of accounting file

br Ta num Ta none		 if lp is a tty, set the baud rate((ioctl) 2 call)

cf		 str NULL cifplot data filter

ct Ta num Ta 120		 TCP connection timeout in seconds

df		 str NULL tex data filter( DVI format)

du Ta num Ta 1		 UID to run daemon as

ff		 str '\f ' string to send for a form feed

fo Ta bool Ta false		 print a form feed when device is opened

gf		 str NULL graph data filter((plot) 3 format

hl Ta bool Ta false		 print the burst header page last

ic Ta bool Ta 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, or port@ machine to open a TCP socket

mc Ta num Ta 0		 maximum number of copies which can be requested onlpr(1), zero = unlimited

ms		 str NULL if lp is a tty, a comma-separated,stty(1)-like list describing the tty modes

mx Ta num Ta 0		 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 Ta num Ta 200		 price per foot or page in hundredths of cents

pl Ta num Ta 66		 page length (in lines)

pw Ta num Ta 132		 page width (in characters)

px Ta num Ta 0		 page width in pixels (horizontal)

py Ta num Ta 0		 page length in pixels (vertical)

rc Ta bool Ta false		 when sending to a remote host, resend copies (see below)

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 Ta bool Ta false		 restrict remote users to those with local accounts

rw Ta bool Ta false		 open the printer device for reading and writing

sb Ta bool Ta false		 short banner (one line only)

sc Ta bool Ta false		 suppress multiple copies

sd		 str /var/spool/lpd spool directory

sf Ta bool Ta false		 suppress form feeds

sh Ta bool Ta false		 suppress printing of burst page header

sr		 str NULL file name to hold statistics of each datafile as it is received

ss		 str NULL file name to hold statistics of each datafile as it is sent

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

Each two-letter capability has a human-readable alternate name. Short form
Long form

af		 acct.file

br		 tty.rate

cf		 filt.cifplot

ct		 remote.timeout

df		 filt.dvi

du		 daemon.user

ff		 job.formfeed

fo		 job.topofform

gf		 filt.plot

hl		 banner.last

if		 filt.input

lf		 spool.log

lo		 spool.lock

lp		 tty.device

mc		 max.copies

ms		 tty.mode

mx		 max.blocks

nf		 filt.ditroff

of		 filt.output

pc		 acct.price

pl		 page.length

pw		 page.width

px		 page.pwidth

py		 page.plength

rc		 remote.resend_copies

rf		 filt.fortran

rg		 daemon.restrictgrp

rm		 remote.host

rp		 remote.queue

rs		 daemon.restricted

rw		 tty.rw

sb		 banner.short

sc		 job.no_copies

sd		 spool.dir

sf		 job.no_formfeed

sh		 banner.disable

sr		 stat.recv

ss		 stat.send

st		 spool.status

tf		 filt.troff

tr		 job.trailer

vf		 filt.raster

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] -w width -l length -i indent -n login -h host acct-file

The -c flag is passed only if the -l flag (pass control characters literally) is specified to lpr(1). 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 -x width -y length -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.

REMOTE PRINTING

When printing to a remote printer using rm, it is possible to use either if or of. If both are specified, of is ignored. Both filters behave the same except that they are passed different arguments as above. Specifically, the output filter is terminated and restarted for each file transmitted. This is necessary in order to pass the resulting size to the remote lpd(8).

If the -p flag was passed to lpr(1), pr(1) is not executed locally, but is requested of the remote lpd(8). Any input filtering via if will therefore happen before pr(1) is executed rather than afterwards.

There are some models of network printers which accept jobs from lpd(8), but they ignore the control file for a job and simply print each data file as it arrives at the printer. One side-effect of this behavior is that the printer will ignore any request for multiple copies as given with the -# flag on the lpr(1) command. The rc entry will cause lpd(8) to resend each data file for each copy that the user originally requested. Note that the rc entry should only be specified on hosts which send jobs directly to the printer.

If lp is specified as port@ machine (and rm is not in use), print data will be sent directly to the given port on the given machine.

TRANSFER STATISTICS

When a print job is transferred to a remote machine (which might be another unix box, or may be a network printer), it may be useful to keep statistics on each transfer. The sr and ss options indicate filenames that lpd should use to store such statistics. A statistics line is written for each datafile of a job as the file is successfully transferred. The format of the line is the same for both the sending and receiving side of a transfer.

Statistics on datafiles being received would be used on a print server, if you are interested in network performance between a variety of machines which are sending jobs to that print server. The print server could collect statistics on the speed of each print job as it arrived on the server.

Statistics on datafiles being sent might be used as a minimal accounting record, when you want to know who sent which jobs to a remote printer, when they were sent, and how large (in bytes) the files were. This will not give include any idea of how many pages were printed, because there is no standard way to get that information back from a remote (network) printer in this case.

LOGGING

Error messages generated by the line printer programs themselves (that is, the lpd(8) and related 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 syslogd(8) 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

lpq(1), lpr(1), lprm(1), hosts.lpd(5), termcap(5), chkprintcap(8), lpc(8), lpd(8), pac(8)

4.3 BSD Line Printer Spooler Manual,

HISTORY

The printcap file format appeared in BSD 4.2 .
PRINTCAP (5) October 11, 2000
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