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foomatic-rip - Universal print filter/RIP wrapper
SYNOPSIS
General Options:
foomatic-rip [-v] [-q] [-d] <filter specific options>
Spooler-less printing/CPS (older versions) filter:
foomatic-rip [-P <printer> | --ppd <ppdfile> ] [-J <jobtitle> ] [-o <option>=<value> [...]] [<files>]
CUPS filter:
foomatic-rip <jobid> <user> <jobtitle> <numcopies> <options> [<file>]
LPRng filter:
foomatic-rip --lprng [-J<jobtitle>][-Z<option>=<value>[,<option>=<value>[, ...]] <ppdfile>
foomatic-rip [-J<jobtitle>][-Z<option>=<value>[,<option>=<value>[, ...]]
(printcap :pdd=<ppdfile>)
foomatic-rip --ppd <ppdfile>[-J<jobtitle>] [-Z<option>=<value>[,<option>=<value>[, ...]]
LPD/GNUlpr filter:
foomatic-rip [-w <number>] [-l <number>] [-x <number>] [-y <number>] [-i <num-
ber>] [-c] [-n <string>] [-h <string>] [-j|-J <jobtitle>|<options>] <ppdfile>
PPR RIP:
foomatic-rip [<option>=<value> [...]]
PPR interface:
foomatic-rip <queue> <destaddress> <options> <jobbreak> <feedback> <codes> <jobname> <routing> <for> <file-
type> [<file>]
PDQ driver file generation:
foomatic-rip [--ppd <ppdfile>] [-o <option>=<value> [...]] --genpdq|--appendpdq|--genrawpdq|--appendrawpdq
PDQ filter:
foomatic-rip --pdq --ppd <ppdfile>] [-o <option>=<value> [...]] <file>
CPS (newer versions) filter:
foomatic-rip --cps -P <printer> [-J <jobtitle>] [-o <option>=<value> [...]] [<files>]
DESCRIPTION
foomatic-rip is a universal print filter which works with every known free software printer spooler. It has the
following features:
It translates PostScript (and also other file formats) from standard input to the printer's native language (usu-
ally put to standard output).
The translation is done with an external renderer, usually GhostScript (gs(1)). If no translation is needed
(PostScript printer) the renderer's command line reduces to cat(1). The way how this translation is done is
described in a PPD file.
Printer capabilities, how to handle user options, and how to build the renderer command line is always described
by PPD files, these PPD files can come from Foomatic or can be the ones supplied by the manufacturers of
PostScript printers. The PPD files are the same for all spoolers.
foomatic-rip works with every known spooler (CUPS, LPRng, LPD, GNUlpr, PPR, PDQ, CPS, and without spooler). It
auto-detects the spooler from which it was called by the command line options and environment variables which
were supplied by the spooler.
Non-PostScript files are translated to PostScript before they are passed to the renderer. This is usually done by
a2ps(1), enscript(1), or mpage(1). foomatic-rip auto-detects which program is installed, but manual configuration
is also possible.
foomatic-rip does not only apply option settings supplied by the user through the command line of the printing
command, but also searches the entire job for embedded option settings (only PostScript jobs). Here not only set-
tings affectimg the whole job are taken into account, but also settings in the page headers, which are only valid
for the page where they were found, so applications which produce PostScript code with page-specific printer
option settings are fully supported.
SPOOLER-LESS PRINTING
Options
-v verbose mode for debugging. WARNING: This will create a file in /tmp that contains the debugging
information. This opens a security loophole and should not be used in production.
-q quiet mode - minimal information output
-d identical to the 'opts' option, but option information is left in text format. This is useful for run-
ning foomatic-rip from the command line to determine what the printer option are. The PPD file will
need to be specified using the --ppd option.
-P <printer>
<printer> is the configured printer which should be used for this job.
--ppd <ppdfile>
The PPD file <ppdfile> should be applied for processing this job.
-J <jobtitle>
The <jobtitle> will be printed in the head line of every page of a plain text job.
-o <option>=<value>
Option settings for this job, do
foomatic-rip -P <printer> -o docs <file>
(<file> can be an arbitrary existing file, as .bashrc, will not be printed) to print a list of avail-
able options for the specified <printer>.
<files> The file(s) to be printed.
foomatic-rip will print from standard input unless a file to print is specified on the command line. If your
printer PPD file is stored as /etc/direct/<printer>.ppd or ~/.foomatic/direct/<printer>.ppd you can use it by
simply specifying "-P <printer>".
Put a line
*FoomaticRIPPostPipe: "| <command>"
into the PPD file, right after *PPD-Adobe: "4.3", where <command> is a command into which you wnat to re-direct
the output data. Due to the restictions of PPD files <, >, and " are not allowed in the <command>, replace them
as follows:
Character Replacement
---------------------
< <
> >
" "
'' ''
& &
This way you can print directly to your printer, use
*FoomaticRIPPostPipe: "| cat > /dev/lp0"
or
*FoomaticRIPPostPipe: "| cat > /dev/usb/lp0"
for local parallel or USB printers. To make normal users able to print this way add them to the group lp and make
sure that the appropriate printer device file /dev/... is group-writable for the lp group.
for a TCP/Socket/JetDirect printer with the host name printer listening on port 9100 you need this:
*FoomaticRIPPostPipe: "| /usr/bin/nc -w 1 printer 9100"
Note the "-w 1" in the "nc" command line, it makes "nc" exiting immediately after the data is tranferred to the
printer.
*FoomaticRIPPostPipe: "| rlpr -Plp@printserver"
directs your jobs to the LPD printer queue lp on the machine named printserver.
See also http://www.linuxprinting.org/direct-doc.html
PRINTING WITH SPOOLER
See the documentation on the Linux Printing Web site: http://www.linuxprinting.org
FILES
/etc/cups/<printer>.ppd
/etc/lpd/<printer>.ppd
/etc/ppr/<printer>.ppd
/etc/pdq/<printer>.ppd
/etc/direct/<printer>.ppd
The PPD files of the currently defined printers
EXIT STATUS
foomatic-rip returns 0 unless something unexpected happens.
BUGS
None so far.
Please send bug reports to foomatic-devel@linuxprinting.org.
CATEGORY