System Administration Commands lpfilter(1M)
NAME
lpfilter - administer filters used with the LP print service
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/lpfilter -f filter-name
{- -i -l -x -F pathname}
DESCRIPTION
The lpfilter command is used to add, change, delete, or list
a filter used with the LP print service. These filters con-
vert the content of a file to have a content type acceptable
to a printer.
OPTIONS
Arguments consist of the -ffilter-name option and exactly
one of the arguments appearing within braces ({}) in the
SYNOPSIS.
- Adds or changes a filter as specified from
standard input. The format of the input is
specified below. If -f all is specified
with the - option, the specified change
is made to all existing filters. This is
not useful.
-f filter-name Specifies the filter-name of the filter
to be added, changed, reset, deleted, or
listed. The filter name all is a special
filter name defined below. The -f option
is required.
-F pathname Adds or changes a filter as specified by
the contents of the file pathname. The
format of the file's contents is specified
below. If -f all is specified with the -F
option, the specified change is made to
all existing filters. This is not useful.
-i Resets a filter to its default settings.
Using -f all with the -i option restores
all filters for which predefined settings
are available to their original settings.
-l Lists a filter description. Using -f all
with the -l option produces a list of all
filters.
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System Administration Commands lpfilter(1M)
-x Deletes a filter. Using -f all with the -x
option results in all filters being
deleted.
USAGE
Adding or Changing a Filter
The filter named in the -f option is added to the filter
table. If the filter already exists, its description is
changed to reflect the new information in the input.
When - is specified, standard input supplies the filter
description. When -F is specified, the file pathname sup-
plies the filter description. One of these two options must
be specified to add or change a filter.
When an existing filter is changed with the -F or - option,
lines in the filter description that are not specified in
the new information are not changed. When a new filter is
added with this command, unspecified lines receive default
values. See below.
Filters are used to convert the content of a request from
its initial type into a type acceptable to a printer. For a
given print request, the LP print service knows the follow-
ing:
o The content type of the request (specified by lp
-T or determined implicitly).
o The name of the printer (specified by lp -d).
o The printer type (specified by lpadmin -T).
The printer type is intended to be a printer model,
but some people specify it with a content type even
though lpadmin -I is intended for this purpose.
o The content types acceptable to the printer (speci-
fied by lpadmin -I).
The values specified by the lpadmin -T are treated
as if they were specified by the -I option as well.
o The modes of printing asked for by the originator
of the request (specified by various options to
lp).
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System Administration Commands lpfilter(1M)
The system uses the above information to construct a list of
one or more filters that converts the document's content
type into a content type acceptable to the printer and con-
sumes all lp arguments that invoke filters (-y and -P).
The contents of the file (specified by the -F option) and
the input stream from standard input (specified by -) must
consist of a series of lines, such that each line conforms
to the syntax specified by one of the seven lines below. All
lists are comma or space separated. Each item contains a
description.
Input types: content-type-list
Output types: content-type-list
Printer types: printer-type-list
Printers: printer-list
Filter type: filter-type
Command: shell-command
Options: template-list
Input types This gives the content types that can be
accepted by the filter. The default is any.
The document content type must be a member
of this list for the initial filter in the
sequence.
Output types This gives the content types that the
filter can produce from any of the input
(content) types. The default is any. The
intersection of the output types of this
list and the content types acceptable to
the printer (from lpadmin -I and lpadmin
-T) must be non-null for the last filter in
the sequence. For adjacent filters in the
sequence, the intersection of output types
of one and the input types of the next must
be non-null.
Printer types This gives the printer types for which this
printer can be used. The LP print service
will restrict the use of the filter to
these printer types (from lpadmin -T). The
default is any.
Printers This gives the names of the printers for
which the filter can be used. The LP print
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System Administration Commands lpfilter(1M)
service will restrict the use of the filter
to just the printers named. The default is
any.
Filter type This marks the filter as a slow filter or a
fast filter. Slow filters are generally
those that take a long time to convert
their input (that is, minutes or hours).
They are run before the job is scheduled
for a printer, to keep the printers from
being tied up while the filter is running.
If a listed printer is on a remote system,
the filter type for it must have the value
slow. That is, if a client defines a
filter, it must be a slow filter. Fast
filters are generally those that convert
their input quickly (that is, faster than
the printer can process the data), or those
that must be connected to the printer when
run. Fast filters will be given to the
interface program to run while connected
to the physical printer.
Command This specifies which program to run to
invoke the filter. The full program path-
name as well as fixed options must be
included in the shell-command; additional
options are constructed, based on the
characteristics of each print request and
on the Options field. A command must be
given for each filter. The command must
accept a data stream as standard input and
produce the converted data stream on its
standard output. This allows filter pipe-
lines to be constructed to convert data not
handled by a single filter.
Options This is a comma-separated list of templates
used by the LP print service to construct
options to the filter from the charac-
teristics of each print request listed in
the table later. The -y and - P arguments
to the lp command cause a filter sequence
to be built even if there is no need for a
conversion of content types.
In general, each template is of the follow-
ing form:
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System Administration Commands lpfilter(1M)
keyword pattern = replacement
The keyword names the characteristic that
the template attempts to map into a
filter-specific option; each valid keyword
is listed in the table below.
A pattern is one of the following: a
literal pattern of one of the forms listed
in the table, a single asterisk (*), or a
regular expression. If pattern matches
the value of the characteristic, the tem-
plate fits and is used to generate a
filter-specific option. The replacement is
what will be used as the option.
Regular expressions are the same as those
found on the regexp(5) manual page. This
includes the \(...\) and \n constructions,
which can be used to extract portions of
the pattern for copying into the replace-
ment, and the &, which can be used to copy
the entire pattern into the replacement.
The replacement can also contain a *; it
too, is replaced with the entire pattern,
just like the & of regexp(5).
The keywords are:
lp Option Characteristic keyword Possible patterns
-T Content type INPUT content-type
(input)
Not applicable Content type OUTPUT content-type
(output)
not applicable Printer type TERM printer-type
-d Printer name PRINTER printer-name
-f, -o cpi= Character pitch CPI integer
-f, -o lpi= Line pitch LPI integer
-f, -o length= Page length LENGTH integer
-f, -o width= Page width WIDTH integer
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System Administration Commands lpfilter(1M)
-P Pages to print PAGES page-list
-S Character set CHARSET character-set-name
Print wheel CHARSET print-wheel-name
-f Form name FORM form-name
-y Modes MODES mode
-n Number of COPIES integer
copies
Resetting a Filter to Defaults
If the filter named is one originally delivered with the
LP print service, the -i option restores the original filter
description.
Deleting a Filter
The -x option is used to delete the filter specified in
filter-name from the LP filter table.
Listing a Filter Description
The -l option is used to list the description of the filter
named in filter-name. If the command is successful, the
following message is sent to standard output:
Input types: content-type-list
Output types: content-type-list
Printer types: printer-type-list
Printers: printer-list
Filter type: filter-type
Command: shell-command
Options: template-list
If the command fails, an error message is sent to standard
error.
Large File Behavior
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of
lpfilter when encountering files greater than or equal to 2
Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Printing with the landscape option
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System Administration Commands lpfilter(1M)
For example, the template
MODES landscape = -l
shows that if a print request is submitted with the -y
landscape option, the filter will be given the option -l.
Example 2 Selecting the printer type
As another example, the template
TERM * = -T *
shows that the filter will be given the option -T printer-
type for whichever printer-type is associated with a print
request using the filter.
Example 3 Using the keywords table
Consider the template
MODES prwidth\=\(.*\) = -w\1
Suppose a user gives the command
lp -y prwidth=10
From the table above, the LP print service determines that
the -y option is handled by a MODES template. The MODES
template here works because the pattern prwidth=) matches
the prwidth=10 given by the user. The replacement -w1
causes the LP print service to generate the filter option
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System Administration Commands lpfilter(1M)
-w10. If necessary, the LP print service will construct a
filter pipeline by concatenating several filters to handle
the user's file and all the print options. See sh(1) for a
description of a pipeline. If the print service constructs a
filter pipeline, the INPUT and OUTPUT values used for each
filter in the pipeline are the types of input and output for
that filter, not for the entire pipeline.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
non-zero An error occurred.
ATRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
ATRIBUTE TYPE ATRIBUTE VALUE
Availability SUNWpsu
SEE ALSO
lp(1), sh(1), lpadmin(1M), attributes(5), largefile(5),
regexp(5)
NOTES
If the lp command specifies more than one document, the
filtering chain is determined by the first document. Other
documents may have a different format, but they will print
correctly only if the filter chain is able to handle their
format.
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