.TH FAX 1 "May 1996"
.UC 1
.SH NAME
fax \- make, send, receive, view or print a fax
.SH SYNOPSIS
.de ML
\fR[\fB-l\fR]
..
.de MV
\fR[\fB-v\fR]
..
.de MU
\fR[\fIunits\fR]
..
.de MF
\fIfilename\fR...
..
.B fax
.B help
.B fax
.B make
.ML
.I file
.B fax
.B send
.ML
.MV
{
.B -m
|
.I number
}
.MF
.B fax
[
\fBreceive\fR
.MV
[
.I filename-prefix
]
]
.B fax
{
.B print
|
.B view
|
.B rm
}
.MF
.B fax
\fR{\fB queue \fR|\fB status \fR[\fIt\fR] | \fB start \fR|\fB stop \fR}\fR
.B fax
.B answer
.SH OPTIONS
.TP 9
.B -l
use low (96 line per inch) resolution
.TP 9
.B -v
display verbose messages for debugging
.TP 9
.B -m
the phone call has already been dialed manually
.PP
The commands make, send, receive, view and queue may be
abbreviated to their first characters (e.g. ``fax q'').
Assignments of the form \fIVARIABLE\fB=\fIvalue\fR may appear
before the command name to temporarily change the values of most
fax script variables (e.g. ``fax PAGE=A4 print letter.001'')
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBfax\fP provides a simple user interface to the efax(1) and
efix(1) programs. It allows you to send text or Postscript files
as faxes and receive, print or preview received faxes. The
\fBfax help\fP command prints a summary of the possible commands.
To send a fax, the original files need to be converted from ASCII
or Postscript into a particular bit-map format (TIFF with Group 3
encoding). This can be done automatically by the \fBfax send\fP
command or you can use the \fBfax make\fP command to do the
conversion before sending the fax. The conversion will create
one file per page. These files will have the name of the
original file with the page number as an additional suffix. For
example, running \fBfax make doc.ps\fP on the two-page postscript
file doc.ps would generate the files doc.ps.001 and doc.ps.002.
When sending a fax with the \fBfax send\fP command you may dial
the number manually and use the \fB-m\fP option or you may give
the phone number on the command line. The names of the files to
be sent are given on the command line, usually by using
wildcards. For example, to send a multi-page fax consisting of
the files doc.ps.001, doc.ps.002, and so on, you could use the
command \fBfax send 555-1212 doc.ps.0*\fP (if you had already run
the \fBfax make\fP command) or simply \fBfax send 555-1212
doc.ps\fP. If the number is busy the script will wait and try
again.
Use the \fBfax receive\fP command to answer the phone and receive
a fax. If a file name is specified the received fax will be
stored in files with the given file name plus an extension equal
to the page number. If no options are given, the received fax
will be stored in files having a name given by the date and time
and an extension equal to the page number. For example, a fax
received beginning on July 4 at 3:05:20 pm will generate files
0704150520.001, 0704150520.002, and so on.
The \fBfax print\fP, \fBfax view\fP, and \fBfax rm\fP commands
are used to print, preview or remove received fax files. As with
the send command the file names are usually given using
wildcards.
If efax has been installed for automatic fax reception you can
use the \fBfax queue\fP command to check for files in the
incoming spool directory. The fax script can also be configured
to print received faxes or e-mail them as MIME attachments with
type image/tiff-f. For convenience the \fBfax print\fP,
\fBview\fP and \fBrm\fP commands will first check for the named
files in this spool directory. The \fBfax status\fP command
shows the status of the automatic receive process once, or every
\fIt\fP seconds. Privileged users can use the \fBfax stop\fP and
\fBfax start\fP commands to stop and restart the fax reception
daemon.
The \fBfax answer\fP command is used for unattended reception of
faxes. It is normally placed in the inittab(5) or ttytab(5) file
and is run automatically by init(8).
The \fB-v\fP option displays verbose messages.
Other features of the fax script are documented within the
script:
.TP 3
.B -
a directory that lets you specify recipients by name instead of
number
.TP 3
.B -
the \fBfax new\fP command to create a simple cover page and start
up a text editor
.TP 3
.B -
the \fBfax makefont\fP command converts a Postscript font to a
bit-mapped font for use in headers or text
.SH RESOLUTION
Faxes can be created at low (98 lines per inch) or high (196 lpi)
resolution. Almost all fax machines will operate at either
resolution. By default files are created at high resolution but
you can use the optional \fB-l\fP argument to create files at low
resolution.
.SH SESSION LOGS
The modem commands and responses together with status and error
messages are written to file. If the fax is successfully sent or
received the log file is removed. Otherwise a message is printed
showing the log file name. Please send a copy of this file when
reporting problems with efax.
.SH FILES
The fax script will `source' the optional shell scripts
\fB/etc/efax.rc\fP, \fB~/.efaxrc\fP and/or \fB./.efaxrc\fP before
processing command-line arguments. These files can be used to
set script variables to custom values for a particular system,
user and/or directory.
The following files are created in the FAXDIR spool directory
when automatic fax reception is enabled (see the fax script).
DEV represents the name of the fax modem device file in /dev
(e.g. cua1 for /dev/cua1).
.TP 10
DEV.\fIn\fP
the log file created by the fax answer daemon with process id
\fIn\fP
.TP 10
DEV.log
contains collected log files for device DEV. Log files showing a
termination status of 1 (device busy) or 4 (no response from
modem) are not added to this file.
.TP 10
DEV.stop
created by the fax stop command to prevent the fax daemon from
starting up.
.SH AUTHOR
Fax was written by Ed Casas. Please send comments or bug reports
to edc@cce.com. Please describe the type of modem used and
include a copy of the log file.
.SH COPYRIGHT
Fax is copyright 1993 -- 1999 by Ed Casas. It may be used,
copied and modified under the terms of the GNU Public License.
.SH DISCLAIMER
Although \fBfax\fP has been tested, it may have errors that will
prevent it from working correctly on your system. Some of these
errors may cause serious problems including loss of data and
interruptions to telephone service.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR efax(1),
.BR efix(1),
.BR ghostscript(1).
.SH BUGS
See efax(1).