PRINTCAP(4) Printing Tools PRINTCAP(4) NAME printcap - BSD printer capability data base SYNOPSIS /etc/printcap DESCRIPTION Printcap is a data base used to describe line printers. The spooling system accesses the printcap file every time it is used, allowing dynamic addition and deletion of printers. Each entry in the data base is used to describe one printer. This data base may not be substituted for, because it may allow accounting to be bypassed. The default printer is normally lp, though the environment variable PRINTER may be used to override this. Each spooling utility supports an option, -Pprinter, to allow explicit naming of a destination printer. CAPABILITIES Name Type Default Description af str NULL name of accounting file br num none if lp is a tty, set the baud rate (ioctl call) cf str NULL cifplot data filter df str NULL tex data filter (DVI format) du num 1 default uid under which filters are run fc num 0 if lp is a tty, clear flag bits (see FLAG BITS below) ff str ``\f'' string to send for a form feed fo bool false print a form feed when device is opened fs num 0 like `fc' but set bits (see FLAG BITS below) gf str NULL graph data filter hl bool false print the burst header page last ic bool false driver supports (non standard) ioctl to indent printout if str NULL name of text filter which does accounting lf str ``/dev/console'' error logging file name lo str ``lock'' name of lock file lp str ``/dev/lp'' device name to open for output mx num 1000 maximum file size (in BUFSIZ blocks), zero = unlimited nd str NULL next directory for list of queues (unimplemented) nf str NULL ditroff data filter (device independent troff) of str NULL name of output filtering program pc num 200 price per foot or page in hundredths of cents pl num 66 page length (in lines) pw num 132 page width (in characters) px num 0 page width in pixels (horizontal) py num 0 page length in pixels (vertical) rf str NULL filter for printing FORTRAN style text files rg str NULL restricted group. Only members of group allowed access rm str NULL machine name for remote printer rp str ``lp'' remote printer name argument rs bool false restrict remote users to those with local accounts rw bool false open the printer device for reading and writing sb bool false short banner (one line only) sc bool false suppress multiple copies sd str ``/usr/spool/lpd'' spool directory sf bool false suppress form feeds sh bool false suppress printing of burst page header st str ``status'' status file name tf str NULL troff data filter (cat phototypesetter) tr str NULL trailer string to print when queue empties vf str NULL raster image filter xc num 0 if lp is a tty, clear local mode bits (tty (4)) xs num 0 like `xc' but set bits If the local line printer driver supports indentation, the daemon must understand how to invoke it. FLAG BITS In order to provide compatibility with BSD-based systems, the flag bits supplied as part of the fc and fs printcap entries are based on Berkeley's sgtty structure. The following table summarizes the meanings of these bits (note that all values are in octal): ALLDELAY 0177400 Delay algorithm selection BSDELAY 0100000 Select backspace delays BS0 0 No delay BS1 0100000 0.10 second delay VTDELAY 0040000 Select form-feed and vertical-tab delays: FF0 0 No delay FF1 0040000 2.0 second delay CRDELAY 0030000 Select carriage-return delays: CR0 0 No delay CR1 0010000 Delay dependent on current column. CR2 0020000 0.10 second delay CR3 0030000 0.15 second delay TBDELAY 0006000 Select tab delays: TAB0 0 No delay TAB1 0002000 Delay dependent on current column. TAB2 0004000 0.10 second delay XTABS 0006000 NLDELAY 0001400 Select new-line delays: NL0 0 No delay NL3 0001400 0.15 second delay EVENP 0000200 Even parity allowed on input ODDP 0000100 Odd parity allowed on input RAW 0000040 Raw mode: wake up on all characters, 8-bit interface CRMOD 0000020 Map CR into LF; output LF as CR-LF ECHO 0000010 Echo (full duplex) LCASE 0000004 Map upper case to lower on input and lower to upper on output CBREAK 0000002 Return each character as soon as typed TANDEM 0000001 Automatic flow control FILTERS The lpd(1M) daemon creates a pipeline of filters to process files for various printer types. The filters selected depend on the flags passed to lpr(1). The pipeline set up is: -p pr | if regular text + pr(1) none if regular text -c cf cifplot -d df DVI (tex) -g gf plot(3) -n nf ditroff -f rf Fortran -t tf troff -v vf raster image The if filter is invoked with arguments: if [ -c ] -wwidth -llength -iindent -n login -h host acct-file The -c flag is passed only if the -l flag (pass control characters literally) is specified to lpr. Width and length specify the page width and length (from pw and pl respectively) in characters. The -n and -h parameters specify the login name and host name of the owner of the job respectively. Acct-file is passed from the af printcap entry. If no if is specified, of is used instead, with the distinction that of is opened only once, while if is opened for every individual job. Thus, if is better suited to performing accounting. The of is only given the width and length flags. All other filters are called as: filter -xwidth -ylength -n login -h host acct-file where width and length are represented in pixels, specified by the px and py entries respectively. All filters take stdin as the file, stdout as the printer, may log either to stderr or using syslog(3), and must not ignore SIGINT. LOGGING Error messages generated by the line printer programs themselves (that is, the lp* programs) are logged by syslog(3) using the LPR facility. Messages printed on stderr of one of the filters are sent to the corresponding lf file. The filters may, of course, use syslog themselves. Error messages sent to the console have a carriage return and a line feed appended to them, rather than just a line feed. COMPATIBILITY NOTES In an attempt to provide compatibility with existing BSD printcap entries, the SGI version of the lpd spooler emulates the output bits in the BSD tty flag word (defined in the BSD include file <sgtty.h>) via IRIX termio. SEE ALSO lpc(1M), lpd(1M), pac(1M), lpr(1), lpq(1), lprm(1) Page 4