1faxspool(1) mgetty+sendfax manual faxspool(1)
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6 faxspool - queue and convert files for faxing with sendfax(8)
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9 faxspool [options] phone-number files...
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12 Queue the named files for later transmission with sendfax(8). The
13 input files are converted to G3 fax files, spooled to
14 /var/spool/fax/outgoing/<dir>/f*.g3, and queued for transmsssion to the
15 fax address "phone-number".
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17 On top of each page, faxspool puts a header line, telling the other
18 side the number of pages, your fax id, ..., whatever you like. The for‐
19 mat of this line is configurable via the file /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax‐
20 header and per-user via the file $HOME/.faxheader. (you can select
21 another one with the "-h" option, for example, one for your business
22 faxes and one for the private stuff).
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24 This file should contain a few lines of text, normally only one line,
25 but more than one line is permitted. The text may use the tokens @T@
26 for the remote telephone number, @U@ for the sending user name, @N@ for
27 his full name (fifth field of /etc/passwd, if not given with "-F"), @P@
28 for the page number and @M@ for the total number of pages. @D@ will be
29 replaced by the string specified with the "-D" option (see below),
30 @DATE@ will be substituted by the output of the `date` command, and
31 @ID@ stands for the sender's fax number (FAX_STATION_ID). Finally, @S@
32 will be substituted by the JOB ID (Fxxxxxx).
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34 If "phone-number" contains non-numeric characters, faxspool interprets
35 it as an alias and tries to look it up in the files /etc/mgetty+send‐
36 fax/faxaliases and $HOME/.faxnrs. These files have a very simple for‐
37 mat: one line per alias, alias name first, whitespace (tab or blank),
38 phone number. Optionally, you can place a short description of the
39 receiver after the phone number, this will be used as if it had been
40 specified with "-D" (an explicit "-D" flag overrides this).
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42 Example: gert 0893244814 Gert Doering
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45 Access control is handled similar to the way "crontab" does it: if a
46 file /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.allow exists, only those users listed in
47 that file (one name per line) may use the fax service. If it does not
48 exist, but a file /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.deny exists, all users but
49 those listed in that file may use faxspool(1), and if neither file
50 exists, only root may send faxes. (Note: if the user name in the
51 fax.allow file is followed by a blank, the rest of that line is
52 ignored. Some other fax spooling software uses this to store additional
53 information about the user sending the request).
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56 Optionally, faxspool can generate user-customizable fax cover pages. It
57 is quite easy to set up: if a file /usr/lib64/mgetty+sendfax/make.cov‐
58 erpg exists and is executable, it is run with all relevant source/des‐
59 tination data on the command line, and its output is sent as the first
60 page of the resulting fax. If $HOME/.make.coverpg exists, this file is
61 used instead. See coverpg(1) for details.
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65 -n Tells faxspool to use normal resolution (as opposed to the
66 default, fine resolution) both when converting files to G3 for‐
67 mat and when transmitting (no effect on pbm files)
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69 -h <text file>
70 Use <text file> for the FAX header line(s). The default format
71 file for faxspool is /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxheader. '-' means
72 'no header line'.
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74 -q do not output progress messages (file ... is format ..., spool‐
75 ing to ...). Error messages will be seen anyway.
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77 -f <mail address>
78 Use the address given for the status mail that faxrunq(1) sends
79 after completing / dequeueing the request. If no mail address is
80 specified, the requesting user (on the local machine) gets the
81 mail.
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83 -u <user name>
84 Do not use the current user ID for authentication purposes but
85 the user name specified. Since this can lead to easy breach of
86 security, only "trusted" users may use this flag. Currently,
87 those users are "root", "lp" and "daemon" (hardwired into the
88 code). Note: the status mail will still go to the user running
89 faxspool(1) unless changed with "-f".
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91 -D <destination>
92 Verbose form of the fax's destination. Used only for informa‐
93 tional purposes, that is, faxq(1) will show it, faxrunq(1) will
94 put it into the return mail ("Subject: your fax to ..."), and a
95 @D@ in the page header will be replaced by it.
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97 -F <description>
98 Full name or similar description of the sending user (if not
99 specified, the full name field from /etc/passwd will be used).
100 Used only for informational purposes, that is, faxspool(1) will
101 substitute a @N@ in the page header file with it, and it will be
102 passed to the cover page program (if used) as <sender-NAME>.
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104 -P <priority>
105 Sets the priority of the fax in the queue. 9 is highest (mean‐
106 ing: faxes get sent out first), 1 is lowest. If nothing is spec‐
107 ified, a default value of 5 is used. Right now, only faxrunqd
108 understands priority, faxrunq will silently ignore it.
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110 -C <cover page program>
111 Specify that the named program is to be used to generate a cover
112 page for the fax that is being queued. How the program is called
113 is described in the coverpg(1) manpage.
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115 The special program name "-" is used to specify "no coverpage at
116 all".
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118 No message is issued if the program isn't found, or cannot be
119 executed, faxspool will simply queue the fax without cover page.
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121 The default cover page program used is $HOME/.make.coverpg; if
122 this file doesn't exist /usr/lib64/mgetty+sendfax/make.coverpg
123 is used. (However, if $HOME/.make.coverpg exists, but is not
124 executable, no coverpage is used at all.)
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126 -p Spool a request that will try polling (see "sendfax -p"). The
127 implementation isn't too smart yet, the polled files will simply
128 go into the job's spool directory.
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130 -t <hh:mm>
131 Don't send the fax before the time given. It may not be sent
132 exactly at <hh:mm>, but the first time faxrunq runs after that
133 time. If the fax cannot be sent successfully before midnight, it
134 won't be sent on the next day until <hh:mm>!
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136 -t <hh:mm>-<hh:mm>
137 Only send the fax in the time range between those two times.
138 This is only implemented in faxrunqd. If the second time speci‐
139 fied is 'earlier' than the first time, it is interpreted as a
140 time range crossing midnight.
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142 -A <data>
143 pass faxspool a chunk of data that is ignored (so you can put
144 anything you want here), but written to all the log files
145 (acct.log, sendfax.log). This can be used to tag faxes as pri‐
146 vate/corporate, to tag faxes with the customer ID to use for
147 billing, or something along that lines.
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149 -m <phone1> <phone2> <phone3> ... --
150 Multicasting - send the specified files to all phone numbers in
151 the list given after "-m". The list is terminated with "--".
152 "-m" has to be the last option on the command line (not imple‐
153 mented yet).
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155 -M <file name>
156 Multicasting - read a list of telephone numbers to send the fax
157 to from the given file. Do not use in conjunction with "-m" (not
158 implemented yet).
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160 -c Copy source files to a sub directory ".source-files/" in the fax
161 queue directory (most likely, you won't ever need this - I
162 needed it for one project, so it's here and documented. Don't
163 ask what it's good for).
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166 /var/spool/fax/outgoing/*
167 fax spool directory
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169 /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxaliases
170 global fax alias file
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172 $HOME/.faxnrs
173 private fax alias file
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175 /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.allow
176 list of allowed users
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178 /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.deny
179 list of denied users
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181 /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxheader
182 default fax page header
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184 /usr/lib64/mgetty+sendfax/make.coverpg
185 program to create fax cover page (see coverpg(1)).
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187 /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxspool.rules
188 program to control which file extentions are recognized (.txt,
189 .ps, ...) and how those file formats should be converted to G3.
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191 /usr/lib64/mgetty+sendfax/faxq-helper
192 this a small C helper program that facilitates access to the fax
193 spool queue (which is since mgetty 1.1.29 no longer world-write‐
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198 faxspool is not too smart about recognizing file types
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200 Use of faxspool -n with bitmap files may give wrong results, depending
201 on the aspect ratio of the input files.
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203 Multicasting with the -m and -M options is not implemented yet.
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207 g3cat(1), pbm2g3(1), sendfax(8), faxrunq(1), faxrunqd(8), faxq(1),
208 faxqueue(5), coverpg(1)
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211 faxspool is Copyright (C) 1993-2002 by Gert Doering, <gert@gree‐
212 nie.muc.de>. Access control and alias handling suggested by Caz
213 Yokoyama, <caz@shoki.osk.psq.mei.co.jp>.
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217greenie 23 Nov 02 faxspool(1)