FAX(1)
NAME
fax - make, send, receive, view or print a fax
SYNOPSIS
fax help
fax make [-l] file
fax send [-l] [-v] { -m | number } filename...
fax [ receive [-v] [ filename-prefix ] ]
fax { print | view | rm } filename...
fax { queue | status [t] | start | stop }
fax paste r d [units] filename filename...
fax cut r d w h [units] filename
fax answer
fax wait
fax test
OPTIONS
-l use low (96 line per inch) resolution
-v display verbose messages for debugging
-m the phone call has already been dialed manually
The commands make, send, receive, view and queue may be
abbreviated to their first characters (e.g. ``fax q'').
Assignments of the form VARIABLE=value may appear before
the command name to temporarily change the values of most
fax script variables (e.g. ``fax PAGE=A4 print let-
ter.001'')
DESCRIPTION
fax provides a simple user interface to the efax(1) and
efix(1) programs. It allows you to send text or
Postscript files as faxes and receive, print or preview
received faxes. The fax help command prints a summary of
the possible commands.
To send a fax, the original files need to be converted
from ASCII or Postscript into a particular bit-map format
(TIFF with Group 3 encoding). This can be done automati-
cally by the fax send command or you can use the fax make
command to do the conversion before sending the fax. The
conversion will create one file per page. These files
will have the name of the original file with the page num-
ber as an additional suffix. For example, running fax
make doc.ps on the two-page postscript file doc.ps would
generate the files doc.ps.001 and doc.ps.002.
When sending a fax with the fax send command you may dial
the number manually and use the -m option or you may give
the phone number on the command line. The names of the
files to be sent are given on the command line, usually by
using wildcards. For example, to send a multi-page fax
consisting of the files doc.ps.001, doc.ps.002, and so on,
you could use the command fax send 555-1212 doc.ps.0* (if
you had already run the fax make command) or simply fax
send 555-1212 doc.ps. If the number is busy the script
will wait and try again.
Use the fax receive command to answer the phone and
receive a fax. If a file name is specified the received
fax will be stored in files with the given file name plus
an extension equal to the page number. If no options are
given, the received fax will be stored in files having a
name given by the date and time and an extension equal to
the page number. For example, a fax received beginning on
July 4 at 3:05:20 pm will generate files 0704150520.001,
0704150520.002, and so on.
The fax print, fax view, and fax rm commands are used to
print, preview or remove received fax files. As with the
send command the file names are usually given using wild-
cards.
If efax has been installed for automatic fax reception you
can use the fax queue command to check for files in the
incoming spool directory. For convenience the fax print,
view and rm commands will first check for the named files
in this spool directory. The fax status command shows the
status of the automatic receive process once, or every t
seconds. Privileged users can use the fax stop and fax
start commands to stop and restart the fax reception dae-
mon.
The fax answer command is used for unattended reception of
faxes. It is normally run automatically by init(8). The
fax wait command simply calls fax answer repeatedly in a
loop to emulate init(8) for occasional use or for testing
before installation in inittab(5) or ttytab(5). Note that
using fax wait may not allow incoming data calls with some
versions of login(1).
The fax cut command cuts out a rectangular portion of a
fax image and writes it to the standard output. This
image can then be pasted into other faxes as described
below or the efix program can be used to convert the image
into Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) format for use with
other applications. The d and r arguments give the loca-
tion of top left corner of the area to cut out while w and
h give the width and height. For example, the command fax
cut -l 24 22 44 12 mm 30Nov223513.001 >>sig.l would cut a
44x12 millimeter rectangle out of the low-resolution fax
file 30Nov223513.001 and save it in the file sig.l.
The fax paste commands allows you to paste one fax image
into others. This is useful for adding signatures, let-
terhead, or graphics to your faxes. The d and r arguments
give the shift of the pasted-in image down and to the
right. For example, fax paste 8 4 sig.l order.001 would
shift the image in the file sig.l down by 8 inches and
right 4 inches and then paste it into the file order.001.
Use an option of in, cm, mm, or pt after the location for
other units (e.g. ``fax paste 20 10 mm ...'').
The fax test command extracts configuration information
from the fax script and queries the fax modem for manufac-
turer, model and capability information. When reporting
problems with fax or efax please redirect the output of
the fax test command to a file (e.g. fax test >>debug.out)
and submit this file with your bug report.
RESOLUTION
Faxes can be created at low (98 lines per inch) or high
(196 lpi) resolution. Almost all fax machines will oper-
ate at either resolution. By default files are created at
high resolution but you can use the optional -l argument
to create files at low resolution.
SESSION LOGS
The modem commands and responses together with status and
error messages are written to file. If the fax is suc-
cessfully sent or received the log file is removed. Oth-
erwise a message is printed showing the log file name.
FILES
The fax script will `source' the optional shell scripts
/etc/efax.rc, ~/.efaxrc and/or ./.efaxrc before processing
command-line arguments. These files can be used to set
script variables to custom values for a particular host,
user and/or directory.
The following files are created in the FAXDIR spool direc-
tory when automatic fax reception is enabled (see the fax
script). DEV represents the name of the fax modem device
file in /dev (e.g. cua1 for /dev/cua1).
DEV.n the log file created by the fax answer daemon
with process id n
DEV.log contains collected log files for device DEV.
Log files showing a termination status of 1
(device busy) or 4 (no response from modem) are
not added to this file.
DEV.stop created by the fax stop command to prevent the
fax daemon from starting up.
AUTHOR
Fax was written by Ed Casas. Please send comments or bug
reports to edc@cce.com. Please describe the type of modem
used and include a copy of the session log created with
the -v option.
COPYRIGHT
Fax is copyright 1993, 1994, 1995 by Ed Casas. It may be
used, copied and modified under the terms of the GNU Pub-
lic License.
DISCLAIMER
Although fax has been tested, it may have errors that will
prevent it from working correctly on your system. Some of
these errors may cause serious problems including loss of
data and interruptions to telephone service.
SEE ALSO
efax(1) efix(1) pbm(5) g3topbm(1) ghostscript(1).
BUGS
See efax(1).