man apsfilterrc (5): configuration file for magic print filter

SYNOPSIS

apsfillterrc

DESCRIPTION

Apsfilterrc is a configuration file for printers controlled by the apsfilter(1) magic filter.

Every apsfilter printer in printcap(5) has an apsfillterrc file of its own.

There is one global apsfilterrc file that controls print characteristics for all printer. The printer-specific apsfillterrc files have preference over the global one.

Reasons for using an apsfillterrc 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.

Capabilities

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 apsfillterrc 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 apsfillterrc files. Additional informations can be found in the apsfilter handbook and in the apsfilterrc file together with some examples.

FILES

/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.

BUGS

See apsfilter software center - http://www.apsfilter.org/ - for new versions, bugfixes and known bugs.

Please use the new tool apsfilter-bug1 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).

DOCUMENTATION

See official apsfilter homepage

http://www.apsfilter.org/handbook.html: Apsfilter Handbook including the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

USER FORUM

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-bug1 as well as the Apsfilter Handbook carefully.

HISTORY

Apsfilter developement started in 1994.

The apsfillterrc file on a "per printer queue" basis appeared in apsfilter 5.4.0.