magicfilter(8)magicfilter(8)NAMEmagicfilter - automatic configurable printer filter
SYNOPSISmagicfilter config-file [-c] [-n user] [-h host] [other-options]
DESCRIPTIONmagicfilter is an extensible and customizable automatic printer filter.
It selects an appropriate conversion technique for the input data by
seeking for magic numbers, and then utilizing the appropriate conver‐
sion utility.
magicfilter is primarily intended for use as the ``input filter'' by
the lpd print spooler. The options accepted by magicfilter are exactly
the ones passed to the input filter by lpd.
OPTIONS
Typically magicfilter will be invoked by lpd and hence provided the
right options automatically. This list is included for reference only.
-c Copy the input to the output without any conversion whatsoever
(used by lpd whenever the -l option is passed to the lpr pro‐
gram).
-nuser The login name of the user who submitted the job. Available to
subfilters as $LPUSER. If the user has an associated GECOS
entry it will be available as $LPUSERNAME.
-hhost The host on which the job was submitted. Available to subfil‐
ters as $LPHOST.
-iindent
A numeric option passed by lpd; can be set by the user by the -i
option to lpr. Although nominally used for the amount of inden‐
tation requested, magicfilter makes it available to subfilters
for any useful purpose as $LPINDENT.
--debug
Write debugging output to stdout. Every --debug
increases the quantity of debugging output.
--version
Tell what version of magicfilter this is.
--help Prints out a synopsis of the command-line switches sup‐
ported.
other options
Any other options, such as the -w, -l, -x, and -y options
typically passed by lpd are ignored.
USING LPD
To run magicfilter from lpd it should be entered as one of the
filters in the /etc/printcap file. Typically, it will be the
input filter (if). Since most version of lpd do not accept
arguments entered as part of the filter name, typically the fil‐
ter name entered into the /etc/printcap file will simply be the
name of the configuration file, which is set executable and
starts with the line:
#! /usr/local/bin/magicfilter
Most UNIX kernels will then be able to treat the configuration
file itself as if it was the actual program.
For systems which do not support the ``#!-hack'', the filter set
in the if entry should point to magicfilter directly, and the
accounting file (af) entry should point to the configuration
file. This, however, is a less general, and hence less desir‐
able solution.
BUGS
Magicfilter has been extensively modified for the 2.0 release,
and has very little in common with the old 1.2 magicfilter. The
config-file format has changed pretty drastically, and old con‐
fig files will not work anymore.
Currently, there is no protection against the pipe or fpipe
facilities going into an infinite loop.
AUTHOR
H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>, David Parsons
<orc@pell.chi.il.us>
SEE ALSOprintcap(5), lpr(8), dvips(1), grog(1), gs(1), gzip(1),
troff(1).
2002/09/05 Version 2.3.h magicfilter(8)
