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  let­
       ter.001'')


DESCRIPTION

       fax  provides  a  simple user interface to the efax(1) and
       efix(1)  programs.   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 encoding).  This can be done automati­
       cally 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 num­
       ber as an additional suffix.   For  example,  running  fax
       make  doc.ps  on the two-page postscript file doc.ps would


       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 command 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 number.  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 wild­
       cards.

       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 con­
       figured  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  com­
       mand  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  the  inittab(5)  or
       ttytab(5) file and is run automatically by init(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 number

          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) resolution.  Almost all fax machines will oper­
       ate 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  messages  are  written to file.  If the fax is suc­
       cessfully sent or received the log file is removed.   Oth­
       erwise  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 direc­
       tory when automatic fax reception is enabled (see the  fax
       script).   DEV represents 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 showing  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.

       Fax  is  copyright  1993  --  1999 by Ed Casas.  It may be
       used, copied and modified under the terms of the GNU  Pub­
       lic 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), ghostscript(1).


BUGS

       See efax(1).


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