lpforms(1M) System Administration Commands lpforms(1M)NAMElpforms - administer forms used with the LP print service
SYNOPSISlpforms-f form-name option
lpforms-f form-name -A alert-type [-P paper-name [-d]]
[-Q requests] [-W minutes]
DESCRIPTION
The lpforms command administers the use of preprinted forms, such as
company letterhead paper, with the LP print service. A form is speci‐
fied 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.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-f form-name Specify a form.
The first form of lpforms requires that one of the following options
(−, -l, -F, -x) 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.
-l To list the attributes of form form-name.
-x To delete form form-name (this option must be used sepa‐
rately; it may not be used with any other option).
The second form of the lpforms command requires the -A alert-type
option. The other options are optional.
-A alert-type Defines an alert to mount the form when there
are queued jobs which need it.
-P paper-name [ -d ] Specify the paper name when creating the form.
If -d is specified, this paper is the default.
-Q requests An alert will be sent when a certain number of
print requests that need the form are waiting.
-W minutes An alert will be sent at intervals specified by
minutes.
USAGE
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
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 ``trail‐
ing'' letter attached to the number. Three types of scaled decimal num‐
bers 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); 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 con‐
tent 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 com‐
ment is displayed. There is no case distinction among the key phrases.
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-deci‐
mal-number1 long, and scaled-decimal-number2 wide using the printer
type as a key into the terminfo(4) 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 possi‐
ble, 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 program provided with the LP print service will ini‐
tialize the physical printer to handle these pitches, using the
printer type as a key into the terminfo(4) 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-
centimeter if a c is appended, and lines-per-inch otherwise; simi‐
larly, 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 load‐
able 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 sug‐
gestion 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
LP print service" The -x option is used to delete the form form-name
from the LP print service.
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(1) command to exam‐
ine 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 con‐
structs:
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 content 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.
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 using the mail command to the
administrator.
write Write the message, using 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.
showfault Attempt to execute a form alert handler on each system
that has a print job for that form in the queue. The
fault handler is /etc/lp/alerts/form. It is invoked
with three parameters: form_name, date, file_name.
file_name is the name of a file containing the form
alert message.
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 blank spaces embedded in
the command, enclose the command in quotes. Note that
the mail and write values for this option are equiva‐
lent 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 has specified as
candidates for this form. The number integer1 listed next to each
printer is the number of requests eligible for the printer. The number
integer2 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 printer. The
ribbon-color and print-wheel are those specified in the form descrip‐
tion. 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 alert-type defined in this command applies to
any form for which an alert has not yet been defined. If form-name is
all, the alert-type defined in this command applies to all forms.
If the -W minutes option is not given, the default procedure is that
only one message will be sent per need to mount the form. Not specify‐
ing the -W option is equivalent to specifying -W once or -W 0. If min‐
utes is a number greater than 0, an alert will be sent at intervals
specified by minutes.
If the -Q requests 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 alert-type 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 withshell-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 min‐
utes minutes
− No alert
The phrase every minutes minutes is replaced with once if minutes
(-Wminutes) 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 fur‐
ther 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.
Large File Behavior
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of lpforms when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
non-zero An error occurred.
FILES
/etc/lp/alerts/form Fault handler for lpform.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │print/lp │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOlp(1), lpstat(1), lpadmin(1M), terminfo(4), attributes(5), largefile(5)SunOS 5.11 3 Apr 1997 lpforms(1M)
