picpack(1M)         (Line Printer PostScript Utilities)         picpack(1M)

NAME
     picpack - PostScript picture packing preprocessor

SYNOPSIS
     /usr/lib/lp/postscript/picpack [options] [files]

DESCRIPTION
     picpack copies files to stdout, expanding picture inclusion requests
     (marked by the .BP or .PI macros) into an inline format that can be
     passed through troff and handled by dpost. If no files are specified
     or if - is one of the input files standard input is read.

OPTIONS
     -klist
          list is a comma or space separated string of words used to locate
          picture inclusion requests. The start of every line in the input
          files is compared with each word in list. If there's a match, the
          second string on the line is taken as the pathname of a picture
          file that's added to the output file. The default list is ".BP
          .PI".

     -q   Suppress "missing picture file" error messages.

     picpack is a trivial preprocessor that, in a sense, duplicates some of
     the picture inclusion capabilities already available in dpost. picpack
     should not be used if your formatting command line includes a call to
     dpost. Its only purpose is to combine picture files with text in a
     single file that can be passed through troff and unpacked, at some
     later time, by dpost. The original picture inclusion mechanism, with
     files are pulled in by dpost, is the preferred approach.

EXAMPLES
     A typical application might be in a distributed printing environment
     where everything up to troff is run by the user and everything after
     troff is handled by a spooling daemon (perhaps lp). In that case the
     command line would be,

          pic file | tbl | eqn | picpack | troff -mm -Tpost | lp

     A bad example, although one that should still work, would be,

          pic file | tbl | eqn | picpack | troff -mm -Tpost | dpost
          >file.ps

     In this case picture inclusion requests could (and should) be handled
     by dpost. Running picpack is not needed or even recommended. It should
     be dropped from any pipeline that includes a call to dpost.

WARNINGS
     Combining pictures and text using the capabilities available in dpost
     is the recommended approach and is always guaranteed to be more effi-
     cient than picpack. Running picpack and dpost in the same pipeline



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picpack(1M)         (Line Printer PostScript Utilities)         picpack(1M)

     makes little sense.

     Using picpack will likely result in files that can no longer be reli-
     ably passed through other important troff postprocessors like proof.
     At present picpack is only guaranteed to work with dpost.

DIAGNOSTICS
     0 exit status is returned if files were successfully processed.

SEE ALSO
     dpost(1M), troff(1M).











































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