Debian bug report logs - #1061 /etc/printcap vs. /usr/man/man5/printcap.5 Package: lpr ; Reported by: rdr@legislate.com (Raul Miller); 125 days old . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Message received at debian-bugs: From mdd.comm.mot.com!mitchell Wed Jun 28 15:20:45 1995 Return-Path: Received: from pixar.com by mongo.pixar.com with smtp (Smail3.1.28.1 #15) id m0sR5TQ-0006dcC; Wed, 28 Jun 95 15:20 PDT Received: from motgate.mot.com by pixar.com with SMTP id AA18409 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for debian-bugs-pipe@mongo.pixar.com); Wed, 28 Jun 1995 15:19:14 -0700 Received: from pobox.mot.com (pobox.mot.com [129.188.137.100]) by motgate.mot.com (8.6.11/8.6.10/MOT-3.7) with ESMTP id RAA12575; Wed, 28 Jun 1995 17:20:08 -0500 Received: from mdd.comm.mot.com (mdisea.mdd.comm.mot.com [138.242.64.201]) by pobox.mot.com (8.6.11/8.6.10/MOT-3.7) with SMTP id RAA08850; Wed, 28 Jun 1995 17:20:06 -0500 Received: from bb29c.mdd.comm.mot.com by mdd.comm.mot.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA01498; Wed, 28 Jun 95 15:20:05 PDT Received: by bb29c.mdd.comm.mot.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA02383; Wed, 28 Jun 95 15:20:01 PDT Date: Wed, 28 Jun 95 15:20:01 PDT From: mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell) Message-Id: <9506282220.AA02383@bb29c.mdd.comm.mot.com> To: debian-bugs@pixar.com, rdr@legislate.com Subject: Re: Bug#1061: /etc/printcap vs. /usr/man/man5/printcap.5 > Ideally: > > (a) the documentation would agree with the implementation > (b) the filters would support standard options where debian software exists > (c) the options would be meaningful for postscript (and pcl?) > (d) there'd be some sort of interactive dialog mechanism for printer > configuration > > (d) is probably the hardest... I could live with punting on this > issue if there's pointers to decent documentation. Just commenting that there are several packages which do interactive user dialog for configuration. My kermit package and Ian Jackson's smail package come to mind. There probably ought to be some set of standard conventions for doing this sort of thing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Acknowledgement sent to mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com (Bill Mitchell) : Extra info received and forwarded. Full text available. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Information forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com : Bug#1061 ; Package lpr . Full text available. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Message received at debian-bugs: From legislate.com!rdr Wed Jun 28 14:48:46 1995 Return-Path: Received: from pixar.com by mongo.pixar.com with smtp (Smail3.1.28.1 #15) id m0sR4yT-0005z9C; Wed, 28 Jun 95 14:48 PDT Received: from hydra.legislate.com ([192.77.155.4]) by pixar.com with SMTP id AA15481 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for debian-bugs-pipe@mongo.pixar.com); Wed, 28 Jun 1995 14:47:14 -0700 Received: by hydra.legislate.com id (Debian /\oo/\ Smail3.1.29.1 #29.32); Wed, 28 Jun 95 17:50 GMT Message-Id: Date: Wed, 28 Jun 95 17:50 GMT From: rdr@legislate.com (Raul Miller) To: debian-bugs@pixar.com Subject: /etc/printcap vs. /usr/man/man5/printcap.5 Package: lpr version: 5.9 package_revision: 6 /etc/printcap has the following entries: :df=/etc/filter.ps:\ :tf=/etc/filter.pcl:\ The printcap manual page has this to say: FILTERS The lpd(8) daemon creates a pipeline of filters to process files for var- ious printer types. The filters selected depend on the flags passed to lpr(1). The pipeline set up is: p pr | if regular text + pr(1) none if regular text c cf cifplot d df DVI (tex) g gf plot(3) n nf ditroff f rf Fortran t tf troff v vf raster image This means that the documentation says that: lpr -d will print dvi format files lpr -t will print troff format files but the implementation is such that lpr -d will print postscript format files lpr -t will print pcl format files Oddly enough, there are debian packages for TeX support as well as for *roff support. Also: when using this implementation hack (-d) for postscript support, the printer may be left in the middle of the final page, which means that later print jobs will begin there. [As an aside, the default configuration assumes an epson compatible printer for postscript support, and a pcl compatible printer for pcl support.] Ideally: (a) the documentation would agree with the implementation (b) the filters would support standard options where debian software exists (c) the options would be meaningful for postscript (and pcl?) (d) there'd be some sort of interactive dialog mechanism for printer configuration (d) is probably the hardest... I could live with punting on this issue if there's pointers to decent documentation. -- Raul ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Acknowledgement sent to rdr@legislate.com (Raul Miller) : New bug report received and forwarded. Full text available. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Report forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com : Bug#1061 ; Package lpr . Full text available. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ian Jackson / iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk , with the debian-bugs tracking mechanism This page last modified 07:43:01 GMT Wed 01 Nov