4 fax \- make, send, receive, view or print a fax
62 \fR{\fB queue \fR|\fB status \fR[\fIt\fR] | \fB start \fR|\fB stop \fR}\fR
71 use low (96 line per inch) resolution
74 display verbose messages for debugging
77 the phone call has already been dialed manually
81 The commands make, send, receive, view and queue may be
82 abbreviated to their first characters (e.g. ``fax q'').
84 Assignments of the form \fIVARIABLE\fB=\fIvalue\fR may appear
85 before the command name to temporarily change the values of most
86 fax script variables (e.g. ``fax PAGE=A4 print letter.001'')
91 \fBfax\fP provides a simple user interface to the efax(1) and
92 efix(1) programs. It allows you to send text or Postscript files
93 as faxes and receive, print or preview received faxes. The
94 \fBfax help\fP command prints a summary of the possible commands.
96 To send a fax, the original files need to be converted from ASCII
97 or Postscript into a particular bit-map format (TIFF with Group 3
98 encoding). This can be done automatically by the \fBfax send\fP
99 command or you can use the \fBfax make\fP command to do the
100 conversion before sending the fax. The conversion will create
101 one file per page. These files will have the name of the
102 original file with the page number as an additional suffix. For
103 example, running \fBfax make doc.ps\fP on the two-page postscript
104 file doc.ps would generate the files doc.ps.001 and doc.ps.002.
106 When sending a fax with the \fBfax send\fP command you may dial
107 the number manually and use the \fB-m\fP option or you may give
108 the phone number on the command line. The names of the files to
109 be sent are given on the command line, usually by using
110 wildcards. For example, to send a multi-page fax consisting of
111 the files doc.ps.001, doc.ps.002, and so on, you could use the
112 command \fBfax send 555-1212 doc.ps.0*\fP (if you had already run
113 the \fBfax make\fP command) or simply \fBfax send 555-1212
114 doc.ps\fP. If the number is busy the script will wait and try
117 Use the \fBfax receive\fP command to answer the phone and receive
118 a fax. If a file name is specified the received fax will be
119 stored in files with the given file name plus an extension equal
120 to the page number. If no options are given, the received fax
121 will be stored in files having a name given by the date and time
122 and an extension equal to the page number. For example, a fax
123 received beginning on July 4 at 3:05:20 pm will generate files
124 0704150520.001, 0704150520.002, and so on.
126 The \fBfax print\fP, \fBfax view\fP, and \fBfax rm\fP commands
127 are used to print, preview or remove received fax files. As with
128 the send command the file names are usually given using
131 If efax has been installed for automatic fax reception you can
132 use the \fBfax queue\fP command to check for files in the
133 incoming spool directory. The fax script can also be configured
134 to print received faxes or e-mail them as MIME attachments with
135 type image/tiff-f. For convenience the \fBfax print\fP,
136 \fBview\fP and \fBrm\fP commands will first check for the named
137 files in this spool directory. The \fBfax status\fP command
138 shows the status of the automatic receive process once, or every
139 \fIt\fP seconds. Privileged users can use the \fBfax stop\fP and
140 \fBfax start\fP commands to stop and restart the fax reception
143 The \fBfax answer\fP command is used for unattended reception of
144 faxes. It is normally placed in the inittab(5) or ttytab(5) file
145 and is run automatically by init(8).
147 The \fB-v\fP option displays verbose messages.
149 Other features of the fax script are documented within the
154 a directory that lets you specify recipients by name instead of
159 the \fBfax new\fP command to create a simple cover page and start
164 the \fBfax makefont\fP command converts a Postscript font to a
165 bit-mapped font for use in headers or text
169 Faxes can be created at low (98 lines per inch) or high (196 lpi)
170 resolution. Almost all fax machines will operate at either
171 resolution. By default files are created at high resolution but
172 you can use the optional \fB-l\fP argument to create files at low
177 The modem commands and responses together with status and error
178 messages are written to file. If the fax is successfully sent or
179 received the log file is removed. Otherwise a message is printed
180 showing the log file name. Please send a copy of this file when
181 reporting problems with efax.
185 The fax script will `source' the optional shell scripts
186 \fB/etc/efax.rc\fP, \fB~/.efaxrc\fP and/or \fB./.efaxrc\fP before
187 processing command-line arguments. These files can be used to
188 set script variables to custom values for a particular system,
189 user and/or directory.
191 The following files are created in the FAXDIR spool directory
192 when automatic fax reception is enabled (see the fax script).
193 DEV represents the name of the fax modem device file in /dev
194 (e.g. cua1 for /dev/cua1).
198 the log file created by the fax answer daemon with process id
202 contains collected log files for device DEV. Log files showing a
203 termination status of 1 (device busy) or 4 (no response from
204 modem) are not added to this file.
207 created by the fax stop command to prevent the fax daemon from
212 Fax was written by Ed Casas. Please send comments or bug reports
213 to edc@cce.com. Please describe the type of modem used and
214 include a copy of the log file.
218 Fax is copyright 1993 -- 1999 by Ed Casas. It may be used,
219 copied and modified under the terms of the GNU Public License.
223 Although \fBfax\fP has been tested, it may have errors that will
224 prevent it from working correctly on your system. Some of these
225 errors may cause serious problems including loss of data and
226 interruptions to telephone service.