faxspool(1)
NAME
faxspool - queue and convert files for faxing with send-
fax(8)
SYNOPSIS
faxspool [options] phone-number files...
DESCRIPTION
Queue the named files for later transmission with send-
fax(8). The input files are converted to G3 fax files,
spooled to /var/spool/fax/outgoing/<dir>/f*.g3, and queued
for transmsssion to the fax address "phone-number".
On top of each page, faxspool puts a header line, telling
the other side the number of pages, your fax id, ...,
whatever you like. The format of this line is configurable
via the file /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxheader (you can select
another one with the "-h" option, for example, one for
your business faxes and one for the private stuff).
This file should contain a few lines of text, normally
only one line, but more than one line is permitted. The
text may use the tokens @T@ for the remote telephone num-
ber, @U@ for the sending user name, @N@ for his full name
(fifth field of /etc/passwd, if not given with "-F"), @P@
for the page number and @M@ for the total number of pages.
@D@ will be replaced by the string specified with the "-D"
option (see below), @DATE@ will be substituted by the out-
put of the `date` command, and @ID@ stands for the
sender's fax number (FAX_STATION_ID).
If "phone-number" contains non-numeric characters,
faxspool interprets it as an alias and tries to look it up
in the files /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxaliases and
$HOME/.faxnrs. These files have a very simple format: one
line per alias, alias name first, whitespace (tab or
blank), phone number. Optionally, you can place a short
description of the receiver after the phone number, this
will be used as if it had been specified with "-D" (an
explicit "-D" flag overrides this).
Example: gert 0893244814 Gert Doering
Access control is handled similar to the way "crontab"
does it: if a file /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.allow exists,
only those users listed in that file (one name per line)
may use the fax service. If it does not exist, but a file
/etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.deny exists, all users but those
listed in that file may use faxspool(1), and if neither
file exists, only root may send faxes. (Note: if the user
name in the fax.allow file is followed by a blank, the
rest of that line is ignored. Some other fax spooling
software uses this to store additional information about
the user sending the request).
Optionally, faxspool can generate user-customizable fax
cover pages. It is quite easy to set up: if a file
/etc/mgetty+sendfax/make.coverpg exists and is executable,
it is run with all relevant source/destination data on the
command line, and its output is sent as the first page of
the resulting fax. See coverpg(1) for details.
OPTIONS
-n Tells faxspool to use normal resolution (as opposed
to the default, fine resolution) both when convert-
ing files to G3 format and when transmitting (no
effect on pbm files)
-h <<text file>>
Use <<text file>> for the FAX header line(s). The
default format file for faxspool is
/etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxheader. '-' means 'no header
line'.
-q do not output progress messages (file ... is format
..., spooling to ...). Error messages will be seen
anyway.
-f <<mail address>>
Use the address given for the status mail that
faxrunq(1) sends after completing / dequeueing the
request. If no mail address is specified, the
requesting user (on the local machine) gets the
mail.
-u <<user name>>
Do not use the current user ID for authentication
purposes but the user name specified. Since this
can lead to easy breach of security, only "trusted"
users may use this flag. Currently, those users are
"root", "lp" and "daemon" (hardwired into the
code). Note: the status mail will still go to the
user running faxspool(1) unless changed with "-f".
-D <<destination>>
Verbose form of the fax's destination. Used only
for informational purposes, that is, faxq(1) will
show it, faxrunq(1) will put it into the return
mail ("Subject: your fax to ..."), and a @D@ in the
page header will be replaced by it.
-F <<description>>
Full name or similar description of the sending
user (if not specified, the full name field from
/etc/passwd will be used). Used only for
informational purposes, that is, faxspool(1) will
substitute a @N@ in the page header file with it,
and it will be passed to the cover page program (if
used) as <sender-NAME>.
-P <<priority>>
Sets the priority of the fax in the queue. 9 is
highest (meaning: faxes get sent out first), 1 is
lowest. If nothing is specified, a default value of
5 is used. Right now, only faxrunqd understands
priority, faxrunq will silently ignore it.
-C <<cover page program>>
Specify that the named program is to be used to
generate a cover page for the fax that is being
queued. How the program is called is described in
the coverpg(1) manpage.
The special program name "-" is used to specify "no
coverpage at all".
No message is issued if the program isn't found, or
cannot be executed, faxspool will simply queue the
fax without cover page.
The default cover page program used is
/usr/lib/mgetty+sendfax/make.coverpg.
-p Spool a request that will try polling (see "sendfax
-p"). The implementation isn't too smart yet, the
polled files will simply go into the job's spool
directory.
-t <<hh:mm>>
Don't send the fax before the time given. It may
not be sent exactly at <hh:mm>, but the first time
faxrunq runs after that time. If the fax cannot be
sent successfully before midnight, it won't be sent
on the next day until <hh:mm>!
-m <<phone1>> <<phone2>> <<phone3>> ... --
Multicasting - send the specified files to all
phone numbers in the list given after "-m". The
list is terminated with "--". "-m" has to be the
last option on the command line.
-M <<file name>>
Multicasting - read a list of telephone numbers to
send the fax to from the given file. Do not use in
conjunction with "-m".
-c Copy source files to a sub directory ".source-
files/" in the fax queue directory (most likely,
you won't ever need this - I needed it for one
project, so it's here and documented. Don't ask
what it's good for).
FILES
/var/spool/fax/outgoing/*
fax spool directory
/etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxaliases
global fax alias file
$HOME/.faxnrs
private fax alias file
/etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.allow
list of allowed users
/etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.deny
list of denied users
/etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxheader
default fax page header
/usr/lib/mgetty+sendfax/make.coverpg
program to create fax cover page (see coverpg(1)).
BUGS
faxspool is not too smart about recognizing file types
faxspool does only do limited access control - if a user
can write to the fax spool directory, he can bypass the
"access control"
Use of faxspool -n with bitmap files may give wrong
results, depending on the aspect ratio of the input files.
Multicasting with the -m and -M options is not implemented
yet.
SEE ALSO
g3cat(1) pbm2g3(1) sendfax(8) faxrunq(1) faxq(1)
faxqueue(5) coverpg(1)
AUTHOR
faxspool is Copyright (C) 1993 by Gert Doering,
lt;gert@greenie.muc.de. Access control and alias handling
suggested by Caz Yokoyama, lt;caz@shoki.osk.psq.mei.co.jp.