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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!news.unimelb.edu.au!ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au!lugb!latcs1!wongm Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: Re: printcap filters Message-ID: <D0DG9L.F35@latcs1.lat.oz.au> From: wongm@latcs1.lat.oz.au (M.C. Wong) Date: Tue, 6 Dec 1994 04:24:56 GMT References: <RICK.94Nov24045024@vox.trystero.com> Organization: Comp Sci, La Trobe Uni, Australia Lines: 67 In article <RICK.94Nov24045024@vox.trystero.com> rick@vox.trystero.com (Richard E. Nickle) writes: > >Hi, > >Well, this might be an FAQ, or at least a previously asked >question. > >I tried to install a fake printer that filters postscript >through the ghostscript program before putting it out to >the device (in this case, a remote printer running on a >non-Unix system). > >What I tried is various iterations of setting the 'if' >(and later 'of') variable in /etc/printcap. > >When the printjob is spooled, however, it is never passed >to the filter program. I even went so far as to have the >filter program emit some text to a seperate logfile to at >least verify if it was ever called. > >A cursory search of the sources turned up no references >to anything that looks like a run of the 'if' or 'of' strings >running the of or if' program specified in printcap. > >I also did a string search for strings looking like a >call to a filter (fil, if, of, etc) and turned up nothing. > >Anybody solve this problem before? > > > >-- >-- >"When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it." > >- President Bill Clinton (sworn defender of the Constitution) > 3-22-94, MTV's "Enough is Enough" > >Richard Nickle http://www.trystero.com/rick.html While I haven't got the soluation s to your problem, I did have the similar unsuccessful experience of using filter for printing non-ASCII file. BTW, I am using apsfilter-1.11 as the input filter. Hen I said : lpr -v file.ps the spawned lpd coredumped, and lpq will say no daemon present! lpd.core can be found in the spool directory for the printer used (default lp). However, I guess it's wrong to say lpd is not using if in printcap, since when printing ASCII file, it is OK, and I know apsfilter does gets invoked because I uncomment set -x to get it emit verbose info, and it did. But when it is dealing with lpr -v or lpr -d (I think in general attempt to use if explicitly), lpd coredumps. I guess, I can do : lpr file.ps and let apsfilter figures out it is a PS or DVI or etc file, as apsfilter does detect file type. I haven't got the chance to test it yet, but I will test it today, and if that works, I am diving into lpd codes. -- - wongm@latcs1.lat.oz.au (M.C Wong) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Just an enthusiastic and curious learner of computing technology.