apsfilterrc —
configuration file for magic print filter
Apsfilterrc is a configuration file for printers
controlled by the
apsfilter(1) magic filter.
Every apsfilter printer in
printcap(5) has an
apsfilterrc file of its own.
There is one global apsfilterrc file that controls print characteristics for all
printer. The printer-specific
apsfilterrc files
have preference over the global one.
Reasons for using an
apsfilterrc file are if it
turns out, that you have to type in some commandline options too often or if
an application is unable to parameterize the print command, so that you have
to hardcode the print characteristic for such dumb applications.
An enhancement to this concept are user-specific config files, that have
preference over the global and the printer-specific config file. This allows
configuration of print characteristics on a per-user basis.
You should make use of user-specific config files instead of using the
deprecated USE_USER_CODE variable, which compromises system security and is
only an option on a single-user machine, see below.
- QUALITY
- Select print quality (draft, lo|low, med|medium, hi|high,
photo).
- SWEEP
- Print uni- or bidirectional (uni, bi).
- MEDIA
- Select paper type (plain, coated, glossy, premium,
trans).
- COLOR
- Select color mode (color|colour, gray|grey, mono).
- METHOD
- Choose apsfilters method of data processing (auto, ascii,
raw). Automatic file type recognition and automatic conversion to
Postscript is apsfilters default processing method. If you want to print
mostly files `as is', you can set the default to 'raw', this disables any
kind of file type recognition and conversion. If you want to print mostly
everything as ASCII text, then you can set this option to 'ascii'.
- PAPERSIZE
- Set the default paper size (a3, a4, legal, ledger,
tabloid).
- ASCII_FILTER
- Text file filter to use, when printing ASCII documents
(a2ps, mpage, enscript, recode).
- PAPERTRAY
- Paper feed tray number (tray0...tray9).
- PRETTY_PRINTING
- a2ps highlight level for pretty-printing when using a2ps or
enscript as ascii filter (0, 1, 2). See also ASCII_FILTER.
- ASCII_HEADER
- Whether you want headers in your text prints when using
a2ps, mpage or enscript as ascii filter (header, noheader).
- ASCII_BORDER
- Whether you want borders in your text prints when using
a2ps, mpage or enscript as ascii filter (border, noborder).
- PS_NUP|ASCII_PPS
- Pages per sheet (1pps, 2pps, 4pps, 8pps).
- LANDSCAPE|ASCII_LANDSCAPE
- Paper orientation (landscape, portrait).
- PS_BOOK
- Output pages in "book" format, implies
commandline options "2pps,duplex,shortbind". Related options:
PS_NUP, ASCII_PPS, DUPLEX, BINDING.
- DUPLEX
- Whether to use duplex mode or not (duplex, simplex).
- BINDING
- Paper binding edge (shortbind, longbind).
- COPIES
- Number of copies (copies=N).
- USE_USER_CODE
- Enabling this option is a big potential security hole !!!
If you don't understand this, DO NOT USE IT. It makes user manageable
apsfilterrc files possible which will be
sourced (included/executed) during runtime of a printjob under the
permissions of the calling process (lpd). This option is only valid for
typical "single-user" systems, where a user wants direct access
to an apsfilterrc without having to become root to make changes. A more
conveniant way on a multi-user system, where security is an issue, is that
a system administrator creates user-specific
apsfilterrc files. Additional informations
can be found in the apsfilter handbook and in the apsfilterrc file
together with some examples.
- /etc/apsfilter/apsfilterrc
- apsfilter global config file,
settings are overwriteable by more specific printer config files, see
below.
- /etc/apsfilter/QUEUE/apsfilterrc
- apsfilter config file on a per
printer queue basis. This file has preference over the global config
file.
- /etc/apsfilter/QUEUE/apsfilterrc.USER
- apsfilter config file on a per
user basis (per print queue). This file has preference over the global
and the printer queue specific config file.
- $HOME/.apsfilter/apsfilterrc.QUEUE
- A user defineable config file
on a per printer queue basis. This file has preference over the global,
the printer queue specific and the central per user config file, which is
administered by a system administrator. Enabling this has a deep impact on
your systems security, should NOT be used,
especially on multi-user systems and is therefore
disabled by default. See comments to
USE_USER_CODE variable.
apsfilter(1),
printcap(5)
See apsfilter software center -
http://www.apsfilter.org/ - for new versions, bugfixes
and known bugs.
Please use the new tool
apsfilter-bug(1) to release
bug- or problem reports. It automatically presents you a
form in an editor window which asks you some
standard questions. If you save and quit the editor session, then this report
is sent automatically via
e-mail to the proper
apsfilter mailinglist.
If apsfilter fails to print something or prints it in a way you wouldn't expect
and you want to report an apsfilter error then please save the debugging
output of one print session using the new
aps2file(1) utility by typing
aps2file -D -Z options file > /dev/null 2>
file.debug and including the debugging output in the file
file.debug into the edit session of the
apsfilter-bug utility, so that it is included
into the mail to the apsfilter mailinglist.
Please note that you need to run /bin/sh (Bourne Shell), bash or a compatible
shell, so that the above mentioned output redirection works. Under C-shell
(/bin/csh) or tcsh it would't work. If you don't know, then simply make sure
you use the Bournce shell by typing
/bin/sh or
bash, then you should have no problems with
redirection of
stdout and
stderr (> /dev/null 2> file.debug).
See official apsfilter homepage
- http://www.apsfilter.org/handbook.html
- Apsfilter Handbook including the Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ)
Please send questions to the official apsfilter help channel
[email protected]. The above section
BUGS and the file
HOWTO-BUGREPORTS tells you how to report bugs. If
you want to know how to troubleshoot your apsfilter installation, please read
the manpage
aps2file(1) and
apsfilter-bug(1) as well as the
Apsfilter Handbook carefully.
Apsfilter developement started in 1994.
The
apsfilterrc file on a "per printer
queue" basis appeared in apsfilter 5.4.0.