illumos: manual page: lpforms.8

LPFORMS(8) Maintenance Procedures LPFORMS(8)

NAME

lpforms - administer forms used with the LP print service

SYNOPSIS

lpforms -f form-name option

lpforms -f form-name -A alert-type [-P paper-name [-d]]
[-Q requests] [-W minutes]

DESCRIPTION

The lpforms command administers the use of preprinted forms, such as
company letterhead paper, with the LP print service. A form is specified
by its form-name. Users may specify a form when submitting a print
request (see lp(1)). The argument all can be used instead of form-name
with either of the command lines shown above. The first command line
allows the administrator to add, change, and delete forms, to list the
attributes of an existing form, and to allow and deny users access to
particular forms. The second command line is used to establish the method
by which the administrator is alerted that the form form-name must be
mounted on a printer.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported:

-f form-name
Specify a form.

The first form of lpforms requires that one of the following options
(-, -l, -F, -x) must be used:

-F pathname
To add or change form form-name, as specified by the
information in pathname.

-
To add or change form form-name, as specified by the
information from standard input.

-l
To list the attributes of form form-name.

-x
To delete form form-name (this option must be used
separately; it may not be used with any other option).

The second form of the lpforms command requires the -A alert-type
option. The other options are optional.

-A alert-type
Defines an alert to mount the form when there are
queued jobs which need it.

-P paper-name [ -d ]
Specify the paper name when creating the form. If
-d is specified, this paper is the default.

-Q requests
An alert will be sent when a certain number of
print requests that need the form are waiting.

-W minutes
An alert will be sent at intervals specified by
minutes.

USAGE

Adding or Changing a Form

The -F pathname option is used to add a new form, form-name, to the LP
print service, or to change the attributes of an existing form. The form
description is taken from pathname if the -F option is given, or from the
standard input if the - option is used. One of these two options must be
used to define or change a form.

pathname is the path name of a file that contains all or any subset of
the following information about the form.

Page length: scaled-decimal-number1
Page width: scaled-decimal-number2
Number of pages: integer
Line pitch: scaled-decimal-number3
Character pitch: scaled-decimal-number4
Character set choice: character-set/print-wheel [mandatory]
Ribbon color: ribbon-color
Comment:
comment
Alignment pattern: [content-type]
content

The term ``scaled-decimal-number'' refers to a non-negative number used
to indicate a unit of size. The type of unit is shown by a ``trailing''
letter attached to the number. Three types of scaled decimal numbers can
be used with the LP print service: numbers that show sizes in centimeters
(marked with a trailing c); numbers that show sizes in inches (marked
with a trailing i); and numbers that show sizes in units appropriate to
use (without a trailing letter); lines, characters, lines per inch, or
characters per inch.

Except for the last two lines, the above lines may appear in any order.
The Comment: and comment items must appear in consecutive order but may
appear before the other items, and the Alignment pattern: and the content
items must appear in consecutive order at the end of the file. Also, the
comment item may not contain a line that begins with any of the key
phrases above, unless the key phrase is preceded with a > sign. Any
leading > sign found in the comment will be removed when the comment is
displayed. There is no case distinction among the key phrases.

When this command is issued, the form specified by form-name is added to
the list of forms. If the form already exists, its description is changed
to reflect the new information. Once added, a form is available for use
in a print request, except where access to the form has been restricted,
as described under the -u option. A form may also be allowed to be used
on certain printers only.

A description of each form attribute is below:

Page length and Page Width

Before printing the content of a print request needing this form, the
generic interface program provided with the LP print service will
initialize the physical printer to handle pages scaled-decimal-
number1 long, and scaled-decimal-number2 wide using the printer type
as a key into the terminfo(5) database. The page length and page
width will also be passed, if possible, to each filter used in a
request needing this form.

Number of pages

Each time the alignment pattern is printed, the LP print service will
attempt to truncate the content to a single form by, if possible,
passing to each filter the page subset of 1-integer.

Line pitch and Character pitch

Before printing the content of a print request needing this form, the
interface program provided with the LP print service will initialize
the physical printer to handle these pitches, using the printer type
as a key into the terminfo(5) database. Also, the pitches will be
passed, if possible, to each filter used in a request needing this
form. scaled-decimal-number3 is in lines-per-centimeter if a c is
appended, and lines-per-inch otherwise; similarly, scaled-decimal-
number4 is in characters-per-centimeter if a c is appended, and
characters-per-inch otherwise. The character pitch can also be given
as elite (12 characters-per-inch), pica (10 characters-per-inch), or
compressed (as many characters-per-inch as possible).

Character set choice

When the LP print service alerts an administrator to mount this form,
it will also mention that the print wheel print-wheel should be used
on those printers that take print wheels. If printing with this form
is to be done on a printer that has selectable or loadable character
sets instead of print wheels, the interface programs provided with
the LP print service will automatically select or load the correct
character set. If mandatory is appended, a user is not allowed to
select a different character set for use with the form; otherwise,
the character set or print wheel named is a suggestion and a default
only.

Ribbon color

When the LP print service alerts an administrator to mount this form,
it will also mention that the color of the ribbon should be ribbon-
color.

Comment

The LP print service will display the comment unaltered when a user
asks about this form (see lpstat(1)).

Alignment pattern

When mounting this form, an administrator can ask for the content to
be printed repeatedly, as an aid in correctly positioning the
preprinted form. The optional content-type defines the type of
printer for which content had been generated. If content-type is not
given, simple is assumed. Note that the content is stored as given,
and will be readable only by the user lp.

When an existing form is changed with this command, items missing in the
new information are left as they were. When a new form is added with this
command, missing items will get the following defaults:

Page Length: 66
Page Width: 80
Number of Pages: 1
Line Pitch: 6
Character Pitch: 10
Character Set Choice: any
Ribbon Color: any

Deleting a Form

LP print service" The -x option is used to delete the form form-name
from the LP print service.

Listing Form Attributes

The -l option is used to list the attributes of the existing form form-
name. The attributes listed are those described under Adding and Changing
a Form, above. Because of the potentially sensitive nature of the
alignment pattern, only the administrator can examine the form with this
command. Other people may use the lpstat(1) command to examine the non-
sensitive part of the form description.

Allowing and Denying Access to a Form

The -u option, followed by the argument allow:login-ID-list or -u
deny:login-ID-list lets you determine which users will be allowed to
specify a particular form with a print request. This option can be used
with the -F or - option, each of which is described above under Adding or
Changing a Form.

The login-ID-list argument may include any or all of the following
constructs:

login-ID
A user on any system

system_name!login-ID
A user on system system_name

system_name!all
All users on system system_name

all!login-ID
A user on all systems

all
All users on all systems

The LP print service keeps two lists of users for each form: an ``allow-
list'' of people allowed to use the form, and a ``deny-list'' of people
that may not use the form. With the -u allow option, the users listed are
added to the allow-list and removed from the deny-list. With the -u deny
option, the users listed are added to the deny-list and removed from the
allow-list. (Both forms of the -u option can be run together with the -F
or the - option.)

If the allow-list is not empty, only the users in the list are allowed
access to the form, regardless of the content of the deny-list. If the
allow-list is empty but the deny-list is not, the users in the deny-list
may not use the form, (but all others may use it). All users can be
denied access to a form by specifying -f deny:all. All users can be
allowed access to a form by specifying -f allow:all. (This is the
default.)

Setting an Alert to Mount a Form

The -f form-name option is used with the -A alert-type option to define
an alert to mount the form when there are queued jobs which need it. If
this option is not used to arrange alerting for a form, no alert will be
sent for that form.

The method by which the alert is sent depends on the value of the alert-
type argument specified with the -A option. The alert-types are:

mail
Send the alert message using the mail command to the
administrator.

write
Write the message, using the write command, to the
terminal on which the administrator is logged in. If the
administrator is logged in on several terminals, one is
arbitrarily chosen.

quiet
Do not send messages for the current condition. An
administrator can use this option to temporarily stop
receiving further messages about a known problem. Once
the form form-name has been mounted and subsequently
unmounted, messages will again be sent when the number
of print requests reaches the threshold specified by the
-Q option.

showfault
Attempt to execute a form alert handler on each system
that has a print job for that form in the queue. The
fault handler is /etc/lp/alerts/form. It is invoked
with three parameters: form_name, date, file_name.
file_name is the name of a file containing the form
alert message.

none
Do not send messages until the -A option is given again
with a different alert-type (other than quiet).

shell-command
Run the shell-command each time the alert needs to be
sent. The shell command should expect the message in
standard input. If there are blank spaces embedded in
the command, enclose the command in quotes. Note that
the mail and write values for this option are equivalent
to the values mail login-ID and write login-ID
respectively, where login-ID is the current name for the
administrator. This will be the login name of the person
submitting this command unless he or she has used the su
command to change to another login-ID. If the su command
has been used to change the user ID, then the user-name
for the new ID is used.

list
Display the type of the alert for the form on standard
output. No change is made to the alert.

The message sent appears as follows:

The form form-name needs to be mounted
on the printer(s):printer (integer1 requests).
integer2 print requests await this form.
Use the ribbon-color ribbon.
Use the print-wheel print wheel, if appropriate.

The printers listed are those that the administrator has specified as
candidates for this form. The number integer1 listed next to each printer
is the number of requests eligible for the printer. The number integer2
shown after the list of printers is the total number of requests awaiting
the form. It will be less than the sum of the other numbers if some
requests can be handled by more than one printer. The ribbon-color and
print-wheel are those specified in the form description. The last line in
the message is always sent, even if none of the printers listed use print
wheels, because the administrator may choose to mount the form on a
printer that does use a print wheel.

Where any color ribbon or any print wheel can be used, the statements
above will read:

Use any ribbon.
Use any print-wheel.

If form-name is any, the alert-type defined in this command applies to
any form for which an alert has not yet been defined. If form-name is
all, the alert-type defined in this command applies to all forms.

If the -W minutes option is not given, the default procedure is that
only one message will be sent per need to mount the form. Not specifying
the -W option is equivalent to specifying -W once or -W 0. If minutes is
a number greater than 0, an alert will be sent at intervals specified by
minutes.

If the -Q requests option is also given, the alert will be sent when a
certain number (specified by the argument requests) of print requests
that need the form are waiting. If the -Q option is not given, or the
value of requests is 1 or any (which are both the default), a message is
sent as soon as anyone submits a print request for the form when it is
not mounted.

Listing the Current Alert

The -f option, followed by the -A option and the argument list is used to
list the alert-type that has been defined for the specified form form-
name. No change is made to the alert. If form-name is recognized by the
LP print service, one of the following lines is sent to the standard
output, depending on the type of alert for the form.

-
When requests requests are queued: alert withshell-command every
minutes minutes

-
When requests requests are queued: write to user-name every
minutes minutes

-
When requests requests are queued: mail to user-name every
minutes minutes

-
No alert

The phrase every minutes minutes is replaced with once if minutes
(-Wminutes) is 0.

Terminating an Active Alert

The -A quiet option is used to stop messages for the current condition.
An administrator can use this option to temporarily stop receiving
further messages about a known problem. Once the form has been mounted
and then unmounted, messages will again be sent when the number of print
requests reaches the threshold requests.

Removing an Alert Definition

No messages will be sent after the -A none option is used until the -A
option is given again with a different alert-type. This can be used to
permanently stop further messages from being sent as any existing alert
definition for the form will be removed.

Large File Behavior

See largefile(7) for the description of the behavior of lpforms when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values are returned:

0
Successful completion.

non-zero
An error occurred.

FILES

/etc/lp/alerts/form
Fault handler for lpform.