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).
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33 If "phone-number" contains non-numeric characters, faxspool interprets
34 it as an alias and tries to look it up in the files /etc/mgetty+send‐
35 fax/faxaliases and $HOME/.faxnrs. These files have a very simple for‐
36 mat: one line per alias, alias name first, whitespace (tab or blank),
37 phone number. Optionally, you can place a short description of the
38 receiver after the phone number, this will be used as if it had been
39 specified with "-D" (an explicit "-D" flag overrides this).
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41 Example: gert 0893244814 Gert Doering
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44 Access control is handled similar to the way "crontab" does it: if a
45 file /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.allow exists, only those users listed in
46 that file (one name per line) may use the fax service. If it does not
47 exist, but a file /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.deny exists, all users but
48 those listed in that file may use faxspool(1), and if neither file
49 exists, only root may send faxes. (Note: if the user name in the
50 fax.allow file is followed by a blank, the rest of that line is
51 ignored. Some other fax spooling software uses this to store additional
52 information about the user sending the request).
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55 Optionally, faxspool can generate user-customizable fax cover pages. It
56 is quite easy to set up: if a file /usr/lib64/mgetty+sendfax/make.cov‐
57 erpg exists and is executable, it is run with all relevant source/des‐
58 tination data on the command line, and its output is sent as the first
59 page of the resulting fax. If $HOME/.make.coverpg exists, this file is
60 used instead. See coverpg(1) for details.
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64 -n Tells faxspool to use normal resolution (as opposed to the
65 default, fine resolution) both when converting files to G3 for‐
66 mat and when transmitting (no effect on pbm files)
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68 -h <text file>
69 Use <text file> for the FAX header line(s). The default format
70 file for faxspool is /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxheader. '-' means
71 'no header line'.
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73 -q do not output progress messages (file ... is format ..., spool‐
74 ing to ...). Error messages will be seen anyway.
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76 -f <mail address>
77 Use the address given for the status mail that faxrunq(1) sends
78 after completing / dequeueing the request. If no mail address is
79 specified, the requesting user (on the local machine) gets the
80 mail.
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82 -u <user name>
83 Do not use the current user ID for authentication purposes but
84 the user name specified. Since this can lead to easy breach of
85 security, only "trusted" users may use this flag. Currently,
86 those users are "root", "lp" and "daemon" (hardwired into the
87 code). Note: the status mail will still go to the user running
88 faxspool(1) unless changed with "-f".
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90 -D <destination>
91 Verbose form of the fax's destination. Used only for informa‐
92 tional purposes, that is, faxq(1) will show it, faxrunq(1) will
93 put it into the return mail ("Subject: your fax to ..."), and a
94 @D@ in the page header will be replaced by it.
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96 -F <description>
97 Full name or similar description of the sending user (if not
98 specified, the full name field from /etc/passwd will be used).
99 Used only for informational purposes, that is, faxspool(1) will
100 substitute a @N@ in the page header file with it, and it will be
101 passed to the cover page program (if used) as <sender-NAME>.
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103 -P <priority>
104 Sets the priority of the fax in the queue. 9 is highest (mean‐
105 ing: faxes get sent out first), 1 is lowest. If nothing is spec‐
106 ified, a default value of 5 is used. Right now, only faxrunqd
107 understands priority, faxrunq will silently ignore it.
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109 -C <cover page program>
110 Specify that the named program is to be used to generate a cover
111 page for the fax that is being queued. How the program is called
112 is described in the coverpg(1) manpage.
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114 The special program name "-" is used to specify "no coverpage at
115 all".
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117 No message is issued if the program isn't found, or cannot be
118 executed, faxspool will simply queue the fax without cover page.
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120 The default cover page program used is $HOME/.make.coverpg; if
121 this file doesn't exist /usr/lib64/mgetty+sendfax/make.coverpg
122 is used. (However, if $HOME/.make.coverpg exists, but is not
123 executable, no coverpage is used at all.)
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125 -p Spool a request that will try polling (see "sendfax -p"). The
126 implementation isn't too smart yet, the polled files will simply
127 go into the job's spool directory.
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129 -t <hh:mm>
130 Don't send the fax before the time given. It may not be sent
131 exactly at <hh:mm>, but the first time faxrunq runs after that
132 time. If the fax cannot be sent successfully before midnight, it
133 won't be sent on the next day until <hh:mm>!
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135 -t <hh:mm>-<hh:mm>
136 Only send the fax in the time range between those two times.
137 This is only implemented in faxrunqd. If the second time speci‐
138 fied is 'earlier' than the first time, it is interpreted as a
139 time range crossing midnight.
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141 -A <data>
142 pass faxspool a chunk of data that is ignored (so you can put
143 anything you want here), but written to all the log files
144 (acct.log, sendfax.log). This can be used to tag faxes as pri‐
145 vate/corporate, to tag faxes with the customer ID to use for
146 billing, or something along that lines.
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148 -m <phone1> <phone2> <phone3> ... --
149 Multicasting - send the specified files to all phone numbers in
150 the list given after "-m". The list is terminated with "--".
151 "-m" has to be the last option on the command line.
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153 -M <file name>
154 Multicasting - read a list of telephone numbers to send the fax
155 to from the given file. Do not use in conjunction with "-m".
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157 -c Copy source files to a sub directory ".source-files/" in the fax
158 queue directory (most likely, you won't ever need this - I
159 needed it for one project, so it's here and documented. Don't
160 ask what it's good for).
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163 /var/spool/fax/outgoing/*
164 fax spool directory
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166 /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxaliases
167 global fax alias file
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169 $HOME/.faxnrs
170 private fax alias file
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172 /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.allow
173 list of allowed users
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175 /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.deny
176 list of denied users
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178 /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxheader
179 default fax page header
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181 /usr/lib64/mgetty+sendfax/make.coverpg
182 program to create fax cover page (see coverpg(1)).
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184 /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxspool.rules
185 program to control which file extentions are recognized (.txt,
186 .ps, ...) and how those file formats should be converted to G3.
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188 /usr/lib64/mgetty+sendfax/faxq-helper
189 this a small C helper program that facilitates access to the fax
190 spool queue (which is since mgetty 1.1.29 no longer world-write‐
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195 faxspool is not too smart about recognizing file types
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197 Use of faxspool -n with bitmap files may give wrong results, depending
198 on the aspect ratio of the input files.
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200 Multicasting with the -m and -M options is not implemented yet.
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204 g3cat(1), pbm2g3(1), sendfax(8), faxrunq(1), faxrunqd(8), faxq(1),
205 faxqueue(5), coverpg(1)
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208 faxspool is Copyright (C) 1993-2002 by Gert Doering, <gert@gree‐
209 nie.muc.de>. Access control and alias handling suggested by Caz
210 Yokoyama, <caz@shoki.osk.psq.mei.co.jp>.
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214greenie 23 Nov 02 faxspool(1)