faxqueue(5)
NAME
faxqueue - sendfax fax spool queue control files
SYNOPSIS
/var/spool/fax/outgoing/F*/JOB
DESCRIPTION
The JOB files in the subdirectories of the outgoing fax
spool directory, /var/spool/fax/outgoing build up a queue
of faxes to be sent by faxrunq(1). They are created by
faxspool(1), can be viewed with faxq(1), and be deleted by
faxrm(1).
FORMAT
The format of the JOB file is as follows:
Each line consists of a leading keyword and associated
data (rest of the line). Some are required, some others
are optional. The currently implemented keywords are:
phone <<number>>
The telephone number to send the fax to. Required.
user <<user>>
The originating user name (on the local machine).
If no "mail" field is present, this user will get
the status mail about the fax. Required.
mail <<email>>
If this field is present, faxrunq(1) will send its
status mail to the address given here. If not,
faxrunq(1) will use the "user" field. Optional.
input <<file(s)>>
The file names passed to faxspool(1). Optional,
used only by faxq(1).
pages <<file(s)>>
The file names, relative to the directory where the
JOB file is found, that are to be sent with send-
fax(8). The files have to exist, and be readable by
the user that runs faxrunq(1). Required, except if
"poll" is used, then it's optional.
priority <<0-9>>
This can be used to set the priority for this job
in the fax queue (higher priority jobs get sent
before all lower-pri jobs). So far, only faxrunqd
uses this field, faxrunq does NOT. 9 is the high-
est, 0 the lowest priority. 5 is the default.
Status <<message>>
Automatically appended by faxrunq(1) after each
run, tells the reader about successful and unsuc-
cessful tries to send this job. If more than five
"FATAL" errors are listed, the fax job is removed
from the queue.
verbose_to <<blurb>>
A plain-text description of the receiver of the
fax. Is returned, if present, in the mail messages
"your fax to <blurb>". Optional.
time <<hhmm>>
If present, faxrunq won't send this job before the
given time. The format must be exactly "hhmm", in
24-hr-format, otherwise faxrunq won't understand
it. Optional.
poll Flag token. If present, faxrunq will try to poll
the given phone number for documents (see "sendfax
-p").
normal_res
Flag token. If present, faxrunq will transmit all
pages using normal resolution (see "sendfax -n").
acct_handle <<arbitrary string>>
This is a pure comment field, but sendfax(8) will
log it into its transaction log file. So this can
be used as a customer handle, a job number, what-
ever you need to get the phone bills charged to the
customer (the programs won't look at it, just pass
it through). Optional.
subject <<arbitrary string>>
This is also a pure comment field, used only for
informational purposes. faxrunq will return it in
the sucess/failure mail. If you use faxspool -s
<subj>, it will put this string on the cover page
and in the JOB file.
PROCESSING
While a given JOB file is processed by faxrunq(1), it's
locked against sending it multiple times by temporarily
renaming it to JOB.locked, thus it may happen that a
faxq(1) command doesn't show this job.
When a job is successfully sent, it's not deleted but the
JOB file is renamed to JOB.done. Because of this, you can
still see old jobs with "faxq -o". You should regularly
clean up the outgoing fax directory, removing old faxes.
If you don't want this behaviour, look into the faxrunq
shell script, and remove the comment signs before the code
to delete the job files.
When a job cannot be sent after several tries (excluding
normal difficulties like the called number being busy or
the modem being in use), the JOB file is renamed to
JOB.suspended. To re-queue this job, rename the JOB file
back and remove all the "Status" lines in it.
SEE ALSO
faxrunq(1) faxspool(1) faxrm(1) faxq(1)