TYPERULES(5F)TYPERULES(5F)NAMEtyperules - HylaFAX file type identification and conversion rules
DESCRIPTION
Only three types of files are accepted by the HylaFAX server for trans‐
mission as facsimile: POSTSCRIPT® files, PDF files, and TIFF Class F
(bilevel Group 3-encoded) files. All other types of files must be con‐
verted to one of these three formats. The facsimile submission program
applies a set of rules against the contents of each input file to iden‐
tify the file's type and to figure out how to convert the file to a
format that is suitable for transmission. These rules are stored in
the file /usr/share/fax/typerules, an ASCII file that is patterned
after the /etc/magic file used by the System V file(1) program. How‐
ever, there are significant differences, noted below.
Type rules work by matching data patterns in a file; typically patterns
that appear in the first few bytes of the file (i.e. magic numbers).
There are two types of rules, primary rules and secondary rules. Sec‐
ondary rules specify additional rules to apply after a primary rule has
been matched. When secondary rules are used, rule scanning continues
up to the next primary type rule in the file.
Each rule consists of a set of whitespace-separated fields:
offset datatype match result command
If an line is terminated wth a backslash character, the entry is con‐
tinued on the next line with any leading whitespace characters com‐
pressed to a single space. Comments are marked with the ``#'' charac‐
ter; everything from to the end of the line is discarded. Secondary
rules have a ``>'' character in the first column of the line; primary
rules do not.
The fields in each rule entry are:
offset The byte offset in the file at which data should be extracted
and compared to a matching string or value.
datatype The type of data value to extract at the specified offset for
comparison purposes; one of: ``byte'' (8 bit unsigned num‐
ber), ``short'' (16 bit unsigned number), ``long'' (32 bit
unsigned number), ``string'' (an array of bytes), ``istring''
(a case-insensitive array of bytes), or ``ascii'' (an array
of ASCII-only bytes).
match The value and operation to use in matching; the value used is
based on the datatype field. If value is ``x'', then it is
interpreted to mean match anything; otherwise the following
operators are supported (where data is the value extracted
from the file and value is specified in the match field)
except for types ``string'', ``istring'', and ``ascii'':
= data == value != data != value
> data > value < data < value
<= data <= value >= data >= value
& (data & value) == value ! (data & value) != value
^ (data ^ value) != 0
If no operation is specified then ``='' is used.
For ``string'', ``istring'', and ``ascii'' no operator is allowed; the implicit
operation is always ``=''. In these cases, the field is terminated by
a tab or end of line, not by ``#'' or `` ''. Characters in the field have
their literal value; there are no C-style character escapes.
result One of ``ps'', ``tiff'', or ``error'' (case insensitive).
The first two results specify whether the rule generates a
POSTSCRIPT file or a TIFF/F file (Group 3-encoded bilevel
data), respectively. The ``error'' result indicates that a
file is unsuitable for transmission and, if supplied for
transmission, should cause the job to be aborted with the
command field used in an error message.
command A command description that is expanded and passed to the
shell to convert the input file to the result format (suit‐
able for sending as facsimile). Before the string is passed
to the shell, it is scanned and the following ``%'' escape
codes are substituted for:
%i input file name
%o output file name
%r output horizontal resolution in pixels/mm
%R output horizontal resolution in pixels/inch
%v output vertical resolution in lines/mm
%V output vertical resolution in lines/inch
%f data format, ``1'' for 1-d encoding or ``2'' for 2-d encoding
%w page width in pixels
%W page width in mm
%l page length in pixels
%L page length in mm
%s page size by name
%F the directory where HylaFAX filter programs reside
%<x> the <x> character (e.g. ``%%'' results in ``%''
See below for example uses of these codes.
EXAMPLES
The following rules are used to match the formats that are handled
directly by the server:
#offset datatype match result command
0 string %! ps # POSTSCRIPT
0 string %PDF ps # POSTSCRIPT by Ghostscript
0 short 0x4d4d tiff # big-endian TIFF
0 short 0x4949 tiff # little-endian TIFF
These rules are used to process the ASCII version of IRIS Inventor
database files while blocking the transmission of the binary format
variant:
#offset datatype match result command
0 string #Inventor V error IRIS Inventor file
>15 string binary error binary IRIS Inventor file
>15 string ascii ps %F/textfmt -fCourier-Bold -p11bp\
-U -q >%o <%i
This rule is typically the last entry in the file and is used to con‐
vert all unmatched ASCII data files to POSTSCRIPT:
#offset datatype match result command
0 ascii x ps %F/textfmt -fCourier-Bold -p11bp -U -q >%o <%i
NOTES
It is much better to convert data that is to be transmitted to POST‐
SCRIPT because this data format permits the facsimile server to do the
final imaging according to the optimal transfer parameters (resolution,
binary encoding, etc.).
It might be better to allow secondary rules to augment a primary rule
rather than just replace them. This would allow, for example, command
line options to be selected based on file type.
SEE ALSOsendfax(1), hylafax-client(1)
May 12, 1993 TYPERULES(5F)
