lpforms(1M) UNIX System V 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
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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
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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.
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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
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 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.
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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 mail 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 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 had earlier
specified were candidates for this form. The number $integer sub 1$
listed next to each printer is the number of requests eligible for the
printer. The number $integer sub 2$ 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
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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
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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) in the User's Reference Manual.
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