NAME¶

fax - make, send, receive, view or print a fax

SYNOPSIS¶

fax help

fax make [-l] file

fax send [-l] [-v] { -m | number } filename...

fax [ receive [-v] [ filename-prefix ] ]

fax { print | view | rm } filename...

fax { queue | status [t] | start | stop }

fax paste r d [units] filename filename...

fax cut r d w h [units] filename

fax answer

fax wait

fax test

OPTIONS¶

-l

use low (96 line per inch) resolution

-v

display verbose messages for debugging

-m

the phone call has already been dialed manually

The commands make, send, receive, view and queue may be abbreviated to their first characters (e.g. ``fax q'').

Assignments of the form VARIABLE=value may appear before the command name to temporarily change the values of most fax script variables (e.g. ``fax PAGE=A4 print letter.001'')

DESCRIPTION¶

fax provides a simple user interface to the efax(1) and efix(1) programs. It allows you to send text or Postscript files as faxes and receive, print or preview received faxes. The fax help command prints a summary of the possible commands.

To send a fax, the original files need to be converted from ASCII or Postscript into a particular bit-map format (TIFF with Group 3 encoding). This can be done automatically by the fax send command or you can use the fax make command to do the conversion before sending the fax. The conversion will create one file per page. These files will have the name of the original file with the page number as an additional suffix. For example, running fax make doc.ps on the two-page postscript file doc.ps would generate the files doc.ps.001 and doc.ps.002.

When sending a fax with the fax send command you may dial the number manually and use the -m option or you may give the phone number on the command line. The names of the files to be sent are given on the command line, usually by using wildcards. For example, to send a multi-page fax consisting of the files doc.ps.001, doc.ps.002, and so on, you could use the command fax send 555-1212 doc.ps.0* (if you had already run the fax make command) or simply fax send 555-1212 doc.ps. If the number is busy the script will wait and try again.

Use the fax receive command to answer the phone and receive a fax. If a file name is specified the received fax will be stored in files with the given file name plus an extension equal to the page number. If no options are given, the received fax will be stored in files having a name given by the date and time and an extension equal to the page number. For example, a fax received beginning on July 4 at 3:05:20 pm will generate files 0704150520.001, 0704150520.002, and so on.

The fax print, fax view, and fax rm commands are used to print, preview or remove received fax files. As with the send command the file names are usually given using wildcards.

If efax has been installed for automatic fax reception you can use the fax queue command to check for files in the incoming spool directory. For convenience the fax print, view and rm commands will first check for the named files in this spool directory. The fax status command shows the status of the automatic receive process once, or every t seconds. Privileged users can use the fax stop and fax start commands to stop and restart the fax reception daemon.

The fax answer command is used for unattended reception of faxes. It is normally run automatically by init(8). The fax wait command simply calls fax answer repeatedly in a loop to emulate init(8) for occasional use or for testing before installation in inittab(5) or ttytab(5). Note that using fax wait may not allow incoming data calls with some versions of login(1).

The fax cut command cuts out a rectangular portion of a fax image and writes it to the standard output. This image can then be pasted into other faxes as described below or the efix program can be used to convert the image into Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) format for use with other applications. The d and r arguments give the location of top left corner of the area to cut out while w and h give the width and height. For example, the command fax cut -l 24 22 44 12 mm 30Nov223513.001 >sig.l would cut a 44x12 millimeter rectangle out of the low-resolution fax file 30Nov223513.001 and save it in the file sig.l.

The fax paste commands allows you to paste one fax image into others. This is useful for adding signatures, letterhead, or graphics to your faxes. The d and r arguments give the shift of the pasted-in image down and to the right. For example, fax paste 8 4 sig.l order.001 would shift the image in the file sig.l down by 8 inches and right 4 inches and then paste it into the file order.001. Use an option of in, cm, mm, or pt after the location for other units (e.g. ``fax paste 20 10 mm ...'').

The fax test command extracts configuration information from the fax script and queries the fax modem for manufacturer, model and capability information. When reporting problems with fax or efax please redirect the output of the fax test command to a file (e.g. fax test >debug.out) and submit this file with your bug report.

RESOLUTION¶

Faxes can be created at low (98 lines per inch) or high (196 lpi) resolution. Almost all fax machines will operate at either resolution. By default files are created at high resolution but you can use the optional -l argument to create files at low resolution.

SESSION LOGS¶

The modem commands and responses together with status and error messages are written to file. If the fax is successfully sent or received the log file is removed. Otherwise a message is printed showing the log file name.

FILES¶

The fax script will `source' the optional shell scripts /etc/efax.rc, ~/.efaxrc and/or ./.efaxrc before processing command-line arguments. These files can be used to set script variables to custom values for a particular host, user and/or directory.

The following files are created in the FAXDIR spool directory when automatic fax reception is enabled (see the fax script). DEV represents the name of the fax modem device file in /dev (e.g. cua1 for /dev/cua1).

DEV.n

the log file created by the fax answer daemon with process id n

DEV.log

contains collected log files for device DEV. Log files showing a termination status of 1 (device busy) or 4 (no response from modem) are not added to this file.

DEV.stop

created by the fax stop command to prevent the fax daemon from starting up.

AUTHOR¶

Fax was written by Ed Casas. Please send comments or bug reports to edc@cce.com. Please describe the type of modem used and include a copy of the session log created with the -v option.

COPYRIGHT¶

Fax is copyright 1993, 1994, 1995 by Ed Casas. It may be used, copied and modified under the terms of the GNU Public License.

DISCLAIMER¶

Although fax has been tested, it may have errors that will prevent it from working correctly on your system. Some of these errors may cause serious problems including loss of data and interruptions to telephone service.

SEE ALSO¶

efax(1), efix(1), pbm(5), g3topbm(1), ghostscript(1).

BUGS¶

See efax(1).