NAME
psf - PostScript filter
SYNOPSIS
psf [-n name] [-h host] [-w width] [-l length] [-i indent] [-c]
DESCRIPTION
psf is an lpd filter for PostScript printing. psf interprets the name
it was called with to determine what filters to invoke. First, if the
string ‘‘pap´´ appears anywhere in the name, psf invokes pap to talk to
a printer via AppleTalk. Next, if the string ‘‘rev´´ appears, psf
invokes psorder to reverse the pages of the job. Finally, if psf was
called with a filter´s name as the leading string, it invokes that
filter. If there is no filter to run, psf examines the magic number of
the input, and if the input is not PostScript, converts it to
PostScript.
KLUDGE
In the default configuration, psf supports two kludges. The first
causes psf to check its name for the letter ‘m´. If this letter is
found and accounting is turned on, psf calls pap twice, once to get an
initial page count and to print the job, and another time to get a
final page count. This is a work-around for bugs in a variety of PAP
implementions that cause printers to never properly close the PAP
output file. A notable example is any printer by Hewlett-Packard.
The second kludge causes psf to examine its name for the letter ‘w´. If
this letter is found and accounting is turned on, psf calls pap with
the -w flag. This flag causes pap to wait until the printer´s status
contains the string ‘idle´. Once this string is found, the job is
printed as normal. This kludge is a work-around for printers, notably
Hewlett-Packard´s LaserJet IV, which will report a page count while a
previous jobs is still printing.
EXAMPLE
The sample printcap entry below invokes psf to print text files,
PostScript files, troff´s C/A/T output, and TeX´s DVI output, to an
AppleTalk connected LaserWriter Plus. Since the LaserWriter Plus stacks
pages in descending order, we reverse the pages and print the burst
page last.
laser|lp|LaserWriter Plus on AppleTalk:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/laser:\
:lp=/var/spool/lpd/laser/null:\
:lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:pw#80:hl:\
:of=/usr/lib/netatalk/ofpap:\
:if=/usr/lib/netatalk/ifpaprev:\
:tf=/usr/lib/netatalk/tfpaprev:\
:df=/usr/lib/netatalk/dfpaprev:
Note that if the host in question spools to more than one AppleTalk
printer, /dev/null should not be used for the lp capability. Instead, a
null device should be created with mknod for each printer, as has been
done above.
Finally, there is a file in the spool directory, /var/spool/lpd/laser,
called .paprc, which pap reads for the AppleTalk name of the printer.
SEE ALSO
psorder(1), printcap(5), lpd(1), mknod(1), pap(1).