NAME

mp − POSTSCRIPT pretty printer

SYNOPSIS

mp [−A4] [−C] [−F] [−PS] [−US] [−a] [−d] [−e] [−ff] [−fp] [−l] [−m] [−o] [−p prologue] [−s subject] [−tm] [−ts] [−v] [−?] [filename...]

DESCRIPTION

The mp program reads each filename in sequence and generates a prettified version of the contents in POSTSCRIPT format, sent to standard output.  If no filename argument is provided, mp reads the standard input.  If the standard input is a terminal, input is terminated by an EOF signal, usually Ctrl-D. 

Mail items, news articles, ordinary ASCII files, complete mail folders, and digests are all acceptable input formats for mp. The output format includes grayscale lozenges containing banner information at the top and bottom of every page.

The program is conveniently used in conjunction with the print button of the SunView/xnews(1) mailtool(1) programs, or the pipe command provided by mail(1). Add the following two lines to your .mailrc file:

set printmail=’mp | lpr’
set cmd="mp | lpr &"

Source the .mailrc file, and you are ready to use mp. For printing ordinary ASCII files, the following alias (to be placed in your .cshrc file) may also prove useful:

alias print ’mp -o -s "\!∗" <\!∗ | lpr’

OPTIONS

−A4 Use A4 paper size (8.5 x 11.4 inches). 

−C Instead of using "\nFrom" to denote the start of new mail messages, mp will look for (and use) the value of the Content-Length: mail header. If the Content-Length doesn’t take you to the next "\nFrom", then it’s wrong, and mp falls back to looking for the next "\nFrom" in the mail folder. 

−F Instead of printing who the mail article is for, the top header will contain who the mail article is from. A useful option for people with their own personal printer. 

−PS If the mail or digest message just has PostScript as the text of the message, then this is normally just passed straight through. Specifying this option, causes PostScript to be printed as text. 

−US Use US paper size (8.5 x 11 inches). 

−a Format the file as a news article.  The top banner contains the text: "Article from newsgroup ", where newsgroup is the first news group found on the Newsgroups: line. 

−d Format the file as a digest. 

−e Assume the ELM mail frontend intermediate file format. Used when printing messages from within ELM (using the "p" command), especially for printing tagged messages. This option must be specified in your ELM option setup. 

−ff Format the file for use with a Filofax personal organiser. 

−fp Format the file for use with a Franklin Planner personal organiser. 

−l Format output in landscape mode.  Two pages of text will be printed per sheet of paper. 

−m Format the file as a mail folder, printing multiple messages. 

−o Format the file as an ordinary ASCII file. 

−p prologue
Employ the file prologue as the POSTSCRIPT prologue file, overriding any previously defined file names. 

−s subject
Use subject as the new subject for the printout. If you are printing ordinary ASCII files which have been specified on the command line, the the subject will default to the name of each of these files. 

−tm Format the file for use with the Time Manager personal organiser. 

−ts format the file for use with the Time/System International personal organiser. 

−v Print the version number of this release of mp.

−?  Print the usage line for mp (note that the ?  character must be escaped if using csh(1)).

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The mp prologue file is determined by first looking for the environment variable MP_PROLOGUE, which specifies the directory where mp prologue files are to be found.  If MP_PROLOGUE is not found, then the default directory is assumed (LIBDIR/mp.pro.ps).

SUPPLIED PROLOGUE FILES

The following prologue files are provided:

mp.pro.ps
Used by default

mp.pro.l.ps
Used by the −l landscape mode option

mp.pro.ff.ps
Used if the −ff option is in effect

mp.pro.fp.ps
Used if the −fp option is in effect

mp.pro.tm.ps
Used if the −tm option is in effect

mp.pro.ts.ps
Used if the −ts option is in effect

mp.pro.alt.ps
An alternative modification of the default prologue file which outputs the page number in the right corner of the bottom banner.

mp.pro.altl.ps
An alternative landscape option mode prologue file.

FILES

.cshrc initialization file for csh(1)

.mailrc
initialization file for mail(1)

BINDIR/mp
executable

LIBDIR/mp.pro.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for mail printing

LIBDIR/mp.pro.l.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for landscape format

LIBDIR/mp.pro.alt.ps
alternative "default" POSTSCRIPT prologue, inserts page numbers in the bottom right corner of each page

LIBDIR/mp.pro.altl.ps
alternative "landscape" POSTSCRIPT prologue. 

LIBDIR/mp.pro.ff.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for Filofax format

LIBDIR/mp.pro.fp.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for Franklin Planner format. 

LIBDIR/mp.pro.tm.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for Time Manager format

LIBDIR/mp.pro.ts.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for Time/System International format. 

SEE ALSO

mail(1), mailtool(1), xnews(1)

AUTHORS

Original version by Steve Holden. 

Converted to C, modified and maintained by Rich Burridge, Sun Microsystems, Australia. 

Original modified to handle net news articles and MH mail by Bruno Pillard, Chorus Systemes, France. 

Handling of mail digests added by Dave Glowacki of Public Works Computer Services, St Paul, MN. 

Manual page revised by Rick Rodgers, UCSF School of Pharmacy, San Francicso. 

Support for Personal Organiser printing style added by Douglas Buchanan, Sun Microsystems Europe. 

Substantial modifications to header parsing by Jeremy Webber, Computer Science Department, University of Adelaide, Australia. 

Support for printing multiple files and subject line filename print for ordinary ASCII files added by Sam Manoharan, Edinburgh University. 

Support for landscape mode written by Michael Tuchiarone. 

Revision of the POSTSCRIPT structuring and the way that the prologue files are handled was included by Johan Vromans. 

New style POSTSCRIPT prologue files by John Macdonald. 

Support for the ISO8859 character set by Bertrand DeCouty. 

Rich Burridge.  PHONE: +61 2 413 2666  MAIL: richb@Aus.Sun.COM

7th Edition  —  17 February 1992