1lpfilter(1M) System Administration Commands lpfilter(1M)
2
6 lpfilter - administer filters used with the LP print service
7
9 /usr/sbin/lpfilter -f filter-name
10 {- | -i | -l | -x | -F pathname}
11
14 The lpfilter command is used to add, change, delete, or list a filter
15 used with the LP print service. These filters convert the content of a
16 file to have a content type acceptable to a printer.
17
19 Arguments consist of the -ffilter-name option and exactly one of the
20 arguments appearing within braces ({}) in the SYNOPSIS.
21 − Adds or changes a filter as specified from standard
23 input. The format of the input is specified below. If
24 -f all is specified with the − option, the specified
25 change is made to all existing filters. This is not
26 useful.
27 -f filter-name Specifies the filter-name of the filter to be added,
30 changed, reset, deleted, or listed. The filter name
31 all is a special filter name defined below. The -f
32 option is required.
33 -F pathname Adds or changes a filter as specified by the contents
36 of the file pathname. The format of the file's con‐
37 tents is specified below. If -f all is specified with
38 the -F option, the specified change is made to all
39 existing filters. This is not useful.
40 -i Resets a filter to its default settings. Using -f
43 all with the -i option restores all filters for
44 which predefined settings are available to their
45 original settings.
46 -l Lists a filter description. Using -f all with the -l
49 option produces a list of all filters.
50 -x Deletes a filter. Using -f all with the -x option
53 results in all filters being deleted.
54
57 Adding or Changing a Filter
58 The filter named in the -f option is added to the filter table. If the
59 filter already exists, its description is changed to reflect the new
60 information in the input.
61 When − is specified, standard input supplies the filter description.
64 When -F is specified, the file pathname supplies the filter descrip‐
65 tion. One of these two options must be specified to add or change a
66 filter.
67 When an existing filter is changed with the -F or − option, lines in
70 the filter description that are not specified in the new information
71 are not changed. When a new filter is added with this command, unspec‐
72 ified lines receive default values. See below.
73 Filters are used to convert the content of a request from its initial
76 type into a type acceptable to a printer. For a given print request,
77 the LP print service knows the following:
78 o The content type of the request (specified by lp -T or
80 determined implicitly).
81 o The name of the printer (specified by lp -d).
83 o The printer type (specified by lpadmin -T).
85 The printer type is intended to be a printer model, but some
87 people specify it with a content type even though lpadmin -I
88 is intended for this purpose.
89 o The content types acceptable to the printer (specified by
91 lpadmin -I).
92 The values specified by the lpadmin -T are treated as if
94 they were specified by the -I option as well.
95 o The modes of printing asked for by the originator of the
97 request (specified by various options to lp).
98 The system uses the above information to construct a list of one or
101 more filters that converts the document's content type into a content
102 type acceptable to the printer and consumes all lp arguments that
103 invoke filters (-y and -P).
104 The contents of the file (specified by the -F option) and the input
107 stream from standard input (specified by −) must consist of a series
108 of lines, such that each line conforms to the syntax specified by one
109 of the seven lines below. All lists are comma or space separated. Each
110 item contains a description.
111 Input types: content-type-list
113 Output types: content-type-list
114 Printer types: printer-type-list
115 Printers: printer-list
116 Filter type: filter-type
117 Command: shell-command
118 Options: template-list
119 Input types This gives the content types that can be accepted by
123 the filter. The default is any. The document content
124 type must be a member of this list for the initial
125 filter in the sequence.
126 Output types This gives the content types that the filter can pro‐
129 duce from any of the input (content) types. The
130 default is any. The intersection of the output types
131 of this list and the content types acceptable to the
132 printer (from lpadmin -I and lpadmin -T) must be non-
133 null for the last filter in the sequence. For adja‐
134 cent filters in the sequence, the intersection of out‐
135 put types of one and the input types of the next must
136 be non-null.
137 Printer types This gives the printer types for which this printer
140 can be used. The LP print service will restrict the
141 use of the filter to these printer types (from lpad‐
142 min -T). The default is any.
143 Printers This gives the names of the printers for which the
146 filter can be used. The LP print service will restrict
147 the use of the filter to just the printers named. The
148 default is any.
149 Filter type This marks the filter as a slow filter or a fast fil‐
152 ter. Slow filters are generally those that take a long
153 time to convert their input (that is, minutes or
154 hours). They are run before the job is scheduled for a
155 printer, to keep the printers from being tied up
156 while the filter is running. If a listed printer is
157 on a remote system, the filter type for it must have
158 the value slow. That is, if a client defines a filter,
159 it must be a slow filter. Fast filters are generally
160 those that convert their input quickly (that is,
161 faster than the printer can process the data), or
162 those that must be connected to the printer when run.
163 Fast filters will be given to the interface program to
164 run while connected to the physical printer.
165 Command This specifies which program to run to invoke the fil‐
168 ter. The full program pathname as well as fixed
169 options must be included in the shell-command; addi‐
170 tional options are constructed, based on the charac‐
171 teristics of each print request and on the Options
172 field. A command must be given for each filter. The
173 command must accept a data stream as standard input
174 and produce the converted data stream on its standard
175 output. This allows filter pipelines to be constructed
176 to convert data not handled by a single filter.
177 Options This is a comma-separated list of templates used by
180 the LP print service to construct options to the fil‐
181 ter from the characteristics of each print request
182 listed in the table later. The -y and - P arguments
183 to the lp command cause a filter sequence to be built
184 even if there is no need for a conversion of content
185 types.
186 In general, each template is of the following form:
188 keyword pattern = replacement
190 The keyword names the characteristic that the template
192 attempts to map into a filter-specific option; each
193 valid keyword is listed in the table below.
194 A pattern is one of the following: a literal pattern
196 of one of the forms listed in the table, a single
197 asterisk (*), or a regular expression. If pattern
198 matches the value of the characteristic, the template
199 fits and is used to generate a filter-specific option.
200 The replacement is what will be used as the option.
201 Regular expressions are the same as those found on the
203 regexp(5) manual page. This includes the \(...\) and
204 \n constructions, which can be used to extract por‐
205 tions of the pattern for copying into the replacement,
206 and the &, which can be used to copy the entire pat‐
207 tern into the replacement.
208 The replacement can also contain a *; it too, is
210 replaced with the entire pattern, just like the & of
211 regexp(5).
212 The keywords are:
216 lp Option Characteristic keyword Possible patterns
218 -T Content type INPUT content-type
220 (input)
221 Not applicable Content type OUTPUT content-type
223 (output)
224 not applicable Printer type TERM printer-type
226 -d Printer name PRINTER printer-name
228 -f, -o cpi= Character pitch CPI integer
230 -f, -o lpi= Line pitch LPI integer
232 -f, -o length= Page length LENGTH integer
234 -f, -o width= Page width WIDTH integer
236 -P Pages to print PAGES page-list
238 -S Character set CHARSET character-set-name
240 Print wheel CHARSET print-wheel-name
241 -f Form name FORM form-name
243 -y Modes MODES mode
245 -n Number of COPIES integer
247 copies
248 Resetting a Filter to Defaults
252 If the filter named is one originally delivered with the LP print
253 service, the -i option restores the original filter description.
254 Deleting a Filter
256 The -x option is used to delete the filter specified in filter-name
257 from the LP filter table.
258 Listing a Filter Description
260 The -l option is used to list the description of the filter named in
261 filter-name. If the command is successful, the following message is
262 sent to standard output:
263 Input types: content-type-list
265 Output types: content-type-list
266 Printer types: printer-type-list
267 Printers: printer-list
268 Filter type: filter-type
269 Command: shell-command
270 Options: template-list
271 If the command fails, an error message is sent to standard error.
276 Large File Behavior
278 See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of lpfilter when
279 encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
280
282 Example 1 Printing with the landscape option
283 For example, the template
286 MODES landscape = -l
289 shows that if a print request is submitted with the -y landscape
294 option, the filter will be given the option -l.
295 Example 2 Selecting the printer type
298 As another example, the template
301 TERM * = -T *
304 shows that the filter will be given the option -T printer-type for
309 whichever printer-type is associated with a print request using the
310 filter.
311 Example 3 Using the keywords table
314 Consider the template
317 MODES prwidth\=\(.*\) = -w\1
320 Suppose a user gives the command
325 lp -y prwidth=10
328 From the table above, the LP print service determines that the -y
333 option is handled by a MODES template. The MODES template here works
334 because the pattern prwidth=) matches the prwidth=10 given by the
335 user. The replacement -w1 causes the LP print service to generate the
336 filter option -w10. If necessary, the LP print service will construct a
337 filter pipeline by concatenating several filters to handle the user's
338 file and all the print options. See sh(1) for a description of a pipe‐
339 line. If the print service constructs a filter pipeline, the INPUT and
340 OUTPUT values used for each filter in the pipeline are the types of
341 input and output for that filter, not for the entire pipeline.
342
345 The following exit values are returned:
346 0 Successful completion.
348 non-zero An error occurred.
351
354 See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
355 ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
360 │ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
361 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
362 │Availability │SUNWpsu │
363 └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
364
366 lp(1), sh(1), lpadmin(1M), attributes(5), largefile(5), regexp(5)
367
372 If the lp command specifies more than one document, the filtering chain
373 is determined by the first document. Other documents may have a differ‐
374 ent format, but they will print correctly only if the filter chain is
375 able to handle their format.
376SunOS 5.11 3 Apr 1997 lpfilter(1M)