lpforms(1M) DG/UX R4.11 lpforms(1M)
NAME
lpforms - administer forms used with the LP print service
SYNOPSIS
lpforms -f form-name options
lpforms -f form-name -A alert-type [-Q minutes] [-W requests]
DESCRIPTION
The lpforms command is used to administer 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.
With the first lpforms command line, one of the following options
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
-x To delete form form-name (this option must be used
separately; it may not be used with any other option)
-l To list the attributes of form form-name
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),
that is, 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. Case distinctions in
the key phrases are ignored.
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 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 programs 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
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
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 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
systemname!login-ID
A user on system systemname
systemname!all
All users on system systemname
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 contents 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 via the mailx command to the
administrator.
write Write the message, via 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.
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 blanks embedded in the
command, enclose the command in quotes. Note that the
mail and write values for this option are equivalent to
the values mailx 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 had earlier
specified were 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 alerting defined in this command applies to
any form for which an alert has not yet been defined. If form-name
is all, the alerting defined in this command applies to all forms.
If the -W 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 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 type of alert 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 with shell-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 (-W
minutes) 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.
SEE ALSO
lpadmin(1M), terminfo(4).
lp(1).
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