lpfilter(1M) System Administration Commands lpfilter(1M)NAMElpfilter - administer filters used with the LP print service
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/lpfilter -f filter-name
{- | -i | -l | -x | -F pathname}
DESCRIPTION
The lpfilter command is used to add, change, delete, or list a filter
used with the LP print service. These filters convert the content of a
file to have a content type acceptable to a printer.
OPTIONS
Arguments consist of the -ffilter-name option and exactly one of the
arguments appearing within braces ({}) in the SYNOPSIS.
− Adds or changes a filter as specified from standard
input. The format of the input is specified below. If
-f all is specified with the − option, the specified
change is made to all existing filters. This is not
useful.
-f filter-name Specifies the filter-name of the filter to be added,
changed, reset, deleted, or listed. The filter name
all is a special filter name defined below. The -f
option is required.
-F pathname Adds or changes a filter as specified by the contents
of the file pathname. The format of the file's con‐
tents is specified below. If -f all is specified with
the -F option, the specified change is made to all
existing filters. This is not useful.
-i Resets a filter to its default settings. Using -f
all with the -i option restores all filters for
which predefined settings are available to their
original settings.
-l Lists a filter description. Using -f all with the -l
option produces a list of all filters.
-x Deletes a filter. Using -f all with the -x option
results in all filters being deleted.
USAGE
Adding or Changing a Filter
The filter named in the -f option is added to the filter table. If the
filter already exists, its description is changed to reflect the new
information in the input.
When − is specified, standard input supplies the filter description.
When -F is specified, the file pathname supplies the filter descrip‐
tion. One of these two options must be specified to add or change a
filter.
When an existing filter is changed with the -F or − option, lines in
the filter description that are not specified in the new information
are not changed. When a new filter is added with this command, unspec‐
ified lines receive default values. See below.
Filters are used to convert the content of a request from its initial
type into a type acceptable to a printer. For a given print request,
the LP print service knows the following:
o The content type of the request (specified by lp -T or
determined implicitly).
o The name of the printer (specified by lp -d).
o The printer type (specified by lpadmin -T).
The printer type is intended to be a printer model, but some
people specify it with a content type even though lpadmin -I
is intended for this purpose.
o The content types acceptable to the printer (specified by
lpadmin -I).
The values specified by the lpadmin -T are treated as if
they were specified by the -I option as well.
o The modes of printing asked for by the originator of the
request (specified by various options to lp).
The system uses the above information to construct a list of one or
more filters that converts the document's content type into a content
type acceptable to the printer and consumes all lp arguments that
invoke filters (-y and -P).
The contents of the file (specified by the -F option) and the input
stream from standard input (specified by −) must consist of a series
of lines, such that each line conforms to the syntax specified by one
of the seven lines below. All lists are comma or space separated. Each
item contains a description.
Input types: content-type-list
Output types: content-type-list
Printer types: printer-type-list
Printers: printer-list
Filter type: filter-type
Command: shell-command
Options: template-list
Input types This gives the content types that can be accepted by
the filter. The default is any. The document content
type must be a member of this list for the initial
filter in the sequence.
Output types This gives the content types that the filter can pro‐
duce from any of the input (content) types. The
default is any. The intersection of the output types
of this list and the content types acceptable to the
printer (from lpadmin -I and lpadmin -T) must be non-
null for the last filter in the sequence. For adja‐
cent filters in the sequence, the intersection of out‐
put types of one and the input types of the next must
be non-null.
Printer types This gives the printer types for which this printer
can be used. The LP print service will restrict the
use of the filter to these printer types (from lpad‐
min -T). The default is any.
Printers This gives the names of the printers for which the
filter can be used. The LP print service will restrict
the use of the filter to just the printers named. The
default is any.
Filter type This marks the filter as a slow filter or a fast fil‐
ter. Slow filters are generally those that take a long
time to convert their input (that is, minutes or
hours). They are run before the job is scheduled for a
printer, to keep the printers from being tied up
while the filter is running. If a listed printer is
on a remote system, the filter type for it must have
the value slow. That is, if a client defines a filter,
it must be a slow filter. Fast filters are generally
those that convert their input quickly (that is,
faster than the printer can process the data), or
those that must be connected to the printer when run.
Fast filters will be given to the interface program to
run while connected to the physical printer.
Command This specifies which program to run to invoke the fil‐
ter. The full program pathname as well as fixed
options must be included in the shell-command; addi‐
tional options are constructed, based on the charac‐
teristics of each print request and on the Options
field. A command must be given for each filter. The
command must accept a data stream as standard input
and produce the converted data stream on its standard
output. This allows filter pipelines to be constructed
to convert data not handled by a single filter.
Options This is a comma-separated list of templates used by
the LP print service to construct options to the fil‐
ter from the characteristics of each print request
listed in the table later. The -y and - P arguments
to the lp command cause a filter sequence to be built
even if there is no need for a conversion of content
types.
In general, each template is of the following form:
keyword pattern = replacement
The keyword names the characteristic that the template
attempts to map into a filter-specific option; each
valid keyword is listed in the table below.
A pattern is one of the following: a literal pattern
of one of the forms listed in the table, a single
asterisk (*), or a regular expression. If pattern
matches the value of the characteristic, the template
fits and is used to generate a filter-specific option.
The replacement is what will be used as the option.
Regular expressions are the same as those found on the
regexp(5) manual page. This includes the \(...\) and
\n constructions, which can be used to extract por‐
tions of the pattern for copying into the replacement,
and the &, which can be used to copy the entire pat‐
tern into the replacement.
The replacement can also contain a *; it too, is
replaced with the entire pattern, just like the & of
regexp(5).
The keywords are:
lp Option Characteristic keyword Possible patterns
-T Content type INPUT content-type
(input)
Not applicable Content type OUTPUT content-type
(output)
not applicable Printer type TERM printer-type
-d Printer name PRINTER printer-name
-f, -o cpi= Character pitch CPI integer
-f, -o lpi= Line pitch LPI integer
-f, -o length= Page length LENGTH integer
-f, -o width= Page width WIDTH integer
-P Pages to print PAGES page-list
-S Character set CHARSET character-set-name
Print wheel CHARSET print-wheel-name
-f Form name FORM form-name
-y Modes MODES mode
-n Number of COPIES integer
copies
Resetting a Filter to Defaults
If the filter named is one originally delivered with the LP print
service, the -i option restores the original filter description.
Deleting a Filter
The -x option is used to delete the filter specified in filter-name
from the LP filter table.
Listing a Filter Description
The -l option is used to list the description of the filter named in
filter-name. If the command is successful, the following message is
sent to standard output:
Input types: content-type-list
Output types: content-type-list
Printer types: printer-type-list
Printers: printer-list
Filter type: filter-type
Command: shell-command
Options: template-list
If the command fails, an error message is sent to standard error.
Large File Behavior
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of lpfilter when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Printing with the landscape option
For example, the template
MODES landscape = -l
shows that if a print request is submitted with the -y landscape
option, the filter will be given the option -l.
Example 2 Selecting the printer type
As another example, the template
TERM * = -T *
shows that the filter will be given the option -T printer-type for
whichever printer-type is associated with a print request using the
filter.
Example 3 Using the keywords table
Consider the template
MODES prwidth\=\(.*\) = -w\1
Suppose a user gives the command
lp -y prwidth=10
From the table above, the LP print service determines that the -y
option is handled by a MODES template. The MODES template here works
because the pattern prwidth=) matches the prwidth=10 given by the
user. The replacement -w1 causes the LP print service to generate the
filter option -w10. If necessary, the LP print service will construct a
filter pipeline by concatenating several filters to handle the user's
file and all the print options. See sh(1) for a description of a pipe‐
line. If the print service constructs a filter pipeline, the INPUT and
OUTPUT values used for each filter in the pipeline are the types of
input and output for that filter, not for the entire pipeline.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
non-zero An error occurred.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │print/lp │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOlp(1), sh(1), lpadmin(1M), attributes(5), largefile(5), regexp(5)NOTES
If the lp command specifies more than one document, the filtering chain
is determined by the first document. Other documents may have a differ‐
ent format, but they will print correctly only if the filter chain is
able to handle their format.
SunOS 5.11 3 Apr 1997 lpfilter(1M)
