fax(1) fax(1)
NAME
fax - make, send, receive, view or print a fax
SYNOPSIS
fax help
fax make [-l] file
fax send [-l] [-v] { -m | number } filename...
fax [ receive [-v] [ filename-prefix ] ]
fax { print | view | rm } filename...
fax { queue | status [t] | start | stop }
fax answer
OPTIONS
-l use low (96 line per inch) resolution
-v display verbose messages for debugging
-m the phone call has already been dialed manually
The commands make, send, receive, view and queue may be abbreviated to
their first characters (e.g. ``fax q'').
Assignments of the form VARIABLE=value may appear before the command
name to temporarily change the values of most fax script variables
(e.g. ``fax PAGE=A4 print letter.001'')
DESCRIPTION
fax provides a simple user interface to the efax(1) and efix(1) pro-
grams. It allows you to send text or Postscript files as faxes and
receive, print or preview received faxes. The fax help 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 encod-
ing). This can be done automatically by the fax send command or you
can use the fax make 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 addi-
tional suffix. For example, running fax make doc.ps 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 fax send command you may dial the number
manually and use the -m option or you may give the phone number on the
command line. The names of the files to be sent are given on the com-
mand 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 fax send 555-1212 doc.ps.0* (if you had already
run the fax make command) or simply fax send 555-1212 doc.ps. If the
number is busy the script will wait and try again.
Use the fax receive 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 num-
ber. 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 fax print, fax view, and fax rm 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
fax queue 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
fax print, view and rm commands will first check for the named files in
this spool directory. The fax status command shows the status of the
automatic receive process once, or every t seconds. Privileged users
can use the fax stop and fax start commands to stop and restart the fax
reception daemon.
The fax answer command is used for unattended reception of faxes. It
is normally placed in a launchd.plist(5) file and is run automatically
by launchd(8). The -v option displays verbose messages.
Other features of the fax script are documented within the script:
- a directory that lets you specify recipients by name instead of num-
ber
- the fax new command to create a simple cover page and start up a
text editor
- the fax makefont command converts a Postscript font to a bit-mapped
font for use in headers or text
RESOLUTION
Faxes can be created at low (98 lines per inch) or high (196 lpi) reso-
lution. Almost all fax machines will operate at either resolution. By
default files are created at high resolution but you can use the
optional -l argument to create files at low resolution.
SESSION LOGS
The modem commands and responses together with status and error mes-
sages 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.
FILES
The fax script will `source' the optional shell scripts /etc/efax.rc,
~/.efaxrc and/or ./.efaxrc 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 repre-
sents the name of the fax modem device file in /dev (e.g. cua1 for
/dev/cua1).
DEV.n the log file created by the fax answer daemon with process id
n
DEV.log contains collected log files for device DEV. Log files show-
ing a termination status of 1 (device busy) or 4 (no response
from modem) are not added to this file.
DEV.stop created by the fax stop command to prevent the fax daemon
from starting up.
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.
COPYRIGHT
Fax is copyright 1993 -- 1999 by Ed Casas. It may be used, copied and
modified under the terms of the GNU Public License.
DISCLAIMER
Although fax 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.
SEE ALSO
efax(1), efix(1), launchd(8).
BUGS
See efax(1).
3rd Berkeley Distribution May 1996 fax(1)
Mac OS X 10.6 - Generated Thu Sep 17 20:07:36 CDT 2009