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APSFILTERRC(5) File Formats Manual APSFILTERRC(5)

apsfilterrc — configuration file for magic print filter

apsfillterrc

Apsfilterrc is a configuration file for printers controlled by the apsfilter(1) magic filter.

Every apsfilter printer in printcap(5) has an apsfilterrc file of its own.

There is one global apsfilterrc file that controls print characteristics for all printer. The printer-specific apsfilterrc files have preference over the global one.

Reasons for using an apsfilterrc file are if it turns out, that you have to type in some commandline options too often or if an application is unable to parameterize the print command, so that you have to hardcode the print characteristic for such dumb applications.

An enhancement to this concept are user-specific config files, that have preference over the global and the printer-specific config file. This allows configuration of print characteristics on a per-user basis.

You should make use of user-specific config files instead of using the deprecated USE_USER_CODE variable, which compromises system security and is only an option on a single-user machine, see below.

QUALITY
Select print quality (draft, lo|low, med|medium, hi|high, photo).
SWEEP
Print uni- or bidirectional (uni, bi).
MEDIA
Select paper type (plain, coated, glossy, premium, trans).
COLOR
Select color mode (color|colour, gray|grey, mono).
METHOD
Choose apsfilters method of data processing (auto, ascii, raw). Automatic file type recognition and automatic conversion to Postscript is apsfilters default processing method. If you want to print mostly files `as is', you can set the default to 'raw', this disables any kind of file type recognition and conversion. If you want to print mostly everything as ASCII text, then you can set this option to 'ascii'.
PAPERSIZE
Set the default paper size (a3, a4, legal, ledger, tabloid).
ASCII_FILTER
Text file filter to use, when printing ASCII documents (a2ps, mpage, enscript, recode).
PAPERTRAY
Paper feed tray number (tray0...tray9).
PRETTY_PRINTING
a2ps highlight level for pretty-printing when using a2ps or enscript as ascii filter (0, 1, 2). See also ASCII_FILTER.
ASCII_HEADER
Whether you want headers in your text prints when using a2ps, mpage or enscript as ascii filter (header, noheader).
ASCII_BORDER
Whether you want borders in your text prints when using a2ps, mpage or enscript as ascii filter (border, noborder).
PS_NUP|ASCII_PPS
Pages per sheet (1pps, 2pps, 4pps, 8pps).
LANDSCAPE|ASCII_LANDSCAPE
Paper orientation (landscape, portrait).
PS_BOOK
Output pages in "book" format, implies commandline options "2pps,duplex,shortbind". Related options: PS_NUP, ASCII_PPS, DUPLEX, BINDING.
DUPLEX
Whether to use duplex mode or not (duplex, simplex).
BINDING
Paper binding edge (shortbind, longbind).
COPIES
Number of copies (copies=N).
USE_USER_CODE
Enabling this option is a big potential security hole !!! If you don't understand this, DO NOT USE IT. It makes user manageable apsfilterrc files possible which will be sourced (included/executed) during runtime of a printjob under the permissions of the calling process (lpd). This option is only valid for typical "single-user" systems, where a user wants direct access to an apsfilterrc without having to become root to make changes. A more conveniant way on a multi-user system, where security is an issue, is that a system administrator creates user-specific apsfilterrc files. Additional informations can be found in the apsfilter handbook and in the apsfilterrc file together with some examples.

/etc/apsfilter/apsfilterrc
apsfilter config file, settings are overwriteable by more specific printer config files, see below.
/etc/apsfilter/QUEUE/apsfilterrc
apsfilter config file on a per printer queue basis. This file has preference over the global config file.
/etc/apsfilter/QUEUE/apsfilterrc.USER
apsfilter config file on a per user basis (per print queue). This file has preference over the global and the printer queue specific config file.
$HOME/.apsfilter/apsfilterrc.QUEUE
A config file on a per printer queue basis. This file has preference over the global, the printer queue specific and the central per user config file, which is administered by a system administrator. Enabling this has a deep impact on your systems security, especially on multi-user systems and is therefore See comments to USE_USER_CODE variable.

apsfilter(1), printcap(5)

See apsfilter software center - http://www.apsfilter.org/ - for new versions, bugfixes and known bugs.

Please use the new tool apsfilter-bug(1) to release bug- or problem reports. It automatically presents you a form in an editor window which asks you some standard questions. If you save and quit the editor session, then this report is sent automatically via e-mail to the proper apsfilter mailinglist.

If apsfilter fails to print something or prints it in a way you wouldn't expect and you want to report an apsfilter error then please save the debugging output of one print session using the new aps2file(1) utility by typing aps2file -D -Z options file > /dev/null 2> file.debug and including the debugging output in the file file.debug into the edit session of the apsfilter-bug utility, so that it is included into the mail to the apsfilter mailinglist.

Please note that you need to run /bin/sh (Bourne Shell), bash or a compatible shell, so that the above mentioned output redirection works. Under C-shell (/bin/csh) or tcsh it would't work. If you don't know, then simply make sure you use the Bournce shell by typing /bin/sh or bash, then you should have no problems with redirection of stdout and stderr (> /dev/null 2> file.debug).

See official apsfilter homepage

http://www.apsfilter.org/handbook.html
Apsfilter Handbook including the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Please send questions to the official apsfilter help channel apsfilter-help@apsfilter.org. The above section BUGS and the file HOWTO-BUGREPORTS tells you how to report bugs. If you want to know how to troubleshoot your apsfilter installation, please read the manpage aps2file(1) and apsfilter-bug(1) as well as the Apsfilter Handbook carefully.

Apsfilter developement started in 1994.

The apsfilterrc file on a "per printer queue" basis appeared in apsfilter 5.4.0.

April 8, 2000 Debian