lpforms(1M) lpforms(1M)
NAME
lpforms - administer forms used with the LP print service
SYNOPSIS
lpforms -f form-name options
lpforms -f form-name -A alert-type [-Q minutes] [-W
requests]
DESCRIPTION
The lpforms command is used to administer the use of pre-
printed forms, such as company letterhead paper, with the LP
print service. A form is specified 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. With the first lpforms command line,
one of the following options 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
-x To delete form form-name (this option must be
used separately; it may not be used with any
other option)
-l To list the attributes of form form-name
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 infor-
mation about the form.
Page length: scaled-decimal-number
Page width: scaled-decimal-number 1
Number of pages: integer 2
Line pitch: scaled-decimal-number
Character pitch: scaled-decimal-n3
umber
Character set choice: character-set/pr4
int-wheel [mandatory]
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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 ``trailing'' letter attached to the number.
Three types of scaled decimal numbers 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), that is, 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 com-
ment items must appear in consecutive order but may appear
before the other items, and the Alignment pattern: and the
content 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 comment is
displayed. Case distinctions in the key phrases are
ignored.
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-decimal-number long,
and scaled-decimal-number wide using the printe1
r type
as a key into the terminfo 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 possible, passing to each filter the
page subset of 1-integer.
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Line pitch and Character pitch
Before printing the content of a print request needing
this form, the interface programs provided with the LP
print service will initialize the physical printer to
handle these pitches, using the printer type as a key
into the terminfo database. Also, the pitches will be
passed, if possible, to each filter used in a request
needing this form. Scaled-decimal-number is in lines
per centimeter if a c is appended, and 3
lines per inch
otherwise; similarly, scaled-decimal-number is in
characters per centimeter if a c is appended,4and char-
acters 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 char-
acters 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 loadable char-
acter sets instead of print wheels, the interface pro-
grams provided with the LP print service will automati-
cally 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; other-
wise, the character set or print wheel named is a
suggestion 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
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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
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 command to examine 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 constructs:
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
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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 contents
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 via the mail command to
the administrator.
write Write the message, via 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 tem-
porarily stop receiving further messages about
a known problem. Once the form form-name has
been mounted and subsequently unmounted, mes-
sages will again be sent when the number of
print requests reaches the threshold specified
by the -Q option.
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
blanks embedded in the command, enclose the
command in quotes. Note that the mail and
write values for this option are equivalent to
the values mail login-ID and write login-ID
respectively, where login-ID is the current
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name for the administrator. This will be the
login name of the person submitting this com-
mand unless he or she has used the su command
to change to another login-ID. If the su com-
mand 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 (integer requests).
integer print requests await this form.
Use the2ribbon-color ribbon.
Use the print-wheel print wheel, if appropriate.
The printers listed are those that the administrator had
earlier specified were candidates for this form. The number
integer listed next to each printer is the number of
request1
s eligible for the printer. The number integer
shown after the list of printers is the total number o2
f
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 description. 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 alerting defined in this command
applies to any form for which an alert has not yet been
defined. If form-name is all, the alerting defined in this
command applies to all forms.
If the -W option is not given, the default procedure is that
only one message will be sent per need to mount the form.
Not specifying the -W option is equivalent to specifying -W
once or -W 0. If minutes is a number greater than 0, an
alert will be sent at intervals specified by minutes. If
the -Q 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
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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 type of alert 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 with shell-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 minutes minutes
- No alert
The phrase every minutes minutes is replaced with once if
minutes (-W minutes) 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 tem-
porarily stop receiving further messages about a known prob-
lem. 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.
SEE ALSO
lpadmin(1M), terminfo(4).
lp(1) in the User's Reference Manual.
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