lpf(8) System Manager's Manual lpf(8)
Name
lpf - general purpose line printer filter
Syntax
/usr/lib/lpdfilters/lpf [-c] [-nlogin] [-hhost] [-wwidth] [-lnum] [-iindent] [accounting file]
Description
The filter handles text data destined for impact printers: LP25, LP26, LP27, LA50, LA75, LA100, LA120, LA210, LG01. The filter regulates
the device dependencies of the printers and performs accounting functions. When the print job is done, writes accounting records to the
file specified by the af field in /etc/printcap.
The filter can handle plain ASCII files as well as files that have been preprocessed by nroff. However, it ignores escape sequences
requesting superscripting and subscripting.
You can specify the filter in both the of and the if fields of the file. For further information, see When you specify both fields, the of
filter prints the banner page only, then stops. The if filter then gains access to the printer. The if filter maintains accounting infor-
mation.
If you specify the of field only, it prints the banner page then stops and restarts to maintain accounting information.
If you specify the if field only, it sends the banner page directly to the printer. This is not a problem for most impact printers.
For a more detailed discussion on filters see the ``Line Printer Spooler Manual'' in the ULTRIX Supplementary Documents, Volume 2: Program-
mer.
The arguments passed to the filter depend on its use. The of filter is called with the following arguments:
lpf -wwidth -llength
The width and length values come from the pw and pl fields in the database. The if (or restart of) filter is passed the following
arguments:
lpf -c -nlogin -hhost -wwidth -lnum -iindent accounting file
The -c flag is optional and supplied only when control characters are to be printed; when the -l option of is used to print the file. The
-w and -l arguments are the same as for the of filter, however, they may have different values if the -w and/or -z options of were used to
print the file. The -n and -h arguments specify the login name and host name of the job owner. These arguments are used to record account-
ing information. The -i option specifies the amount of indentation to be used. The last argument is the name of the accounting file speci-
fied from the af field in the database.
Diagnostics
The lf field (default /dev/null) in the database specifies error logging file name.
Files
Printer capabilities database
See Also
lpr(1), pr(1), printcap(5), lpd(8), MAKEDEV(8), pac(8)
``Line Printer Spooler Manual,'' ULTRIX Supplementary Documents, Volume 2: Programmer
lpf(8)