Facsimile documents are made from the concatenation of one or more files specified on the command line. If no files are supplied, sendfax reads data from the standard input unless polling is requested (see below). Sendfax passes PostScripttm and TIFF Class F documents directly through to the fax server for transmission, and attempts to convert other file formats to either PostScript or TIFF. In normal operation sendfax automatically converts ASCII-text, troff(1) output, and Silicon Graphics format images for transmission. Support for other file formats can be easily added through an extensible file typing and conversion facility; see typerules(4F). Note that since TIFF Class F documents are processed directly it is simple to forward a received facsimile.
By default, sendfax will generate a cover page for each facsimile that is to be transmitted. This cover page is created by the ancillary faxcover(1) program using information deduced by sendfax and by information supplied on the command line: the -x option is used to specify the receiver's company, the -y option is used to specify the receiver's geographical location, the -c option is used to specify a comments field, the -r option is used to specifiy a ``Re:'' subject, and, if a destination is specified as user@fax-number, the user string will be passed to faxcover as the identity of the recipient. Note that the above options must precede the -d option on the command line. Note also, that multi-word names must be enclosed in quote marks; for example, ``Sam Leffler@+1.415.555.1212''. See faxcover for more information about how cover pages are created. If no cover page is desired, for example because it is already included in the document, the -n option should be specified.
In addition to sending documents, sendfax can be used to effect polling of a remote facsimile machine. If the -p option is specified, a polling request will be submitted. If a poll request is made in conjunction with the transmission of documents, the poll request will take place after the documents are transmitted. Documents retrieved by polling are returned to the requestor by electronic mail and may be viewed with a suitable viewer program.
A destination is the dialing string to use to contact the remote fax machine. Phone numbers may include non-numeric characters for readability--- only digits and ``+'' (for denoting a country code) are significant in placing a call. Dialing prefixes, such as ``1'' and ``011'' (for long distance calling in the United States) need not be included if an unambigous number is specified. Examples of unambiguous phone numbers are:
+31.77.594.131 to call the Netherlands +14159657824 to call California 9657824 to make a local call 1-215-356-1666 to call Pennsylvania from within the USNon-numeric strings, such as ``*70'' (to defeat call waiting), may be included in the destination phone number. Whether or not they are stripped from the string used to dial the destination fax machine is configuration-specific.
By default, a facsimile is sent at low resolution (98 lines/inch). Medium resolution (196 lines/inch), often called fine mode, can be requested with the -m option. Low resolution can also be explicitly requested with the -l option.
Facsimile are normally imaged in system-default page size (usually letter-size pages, 8.5" by 11", for sites in North America). Alternate page sizes can be specified with the -s option. Well known page sizes include: ISO A3, ISO A4, ISO A5, ISO A6, ISO B4, North American Letter, American Legal, American Ledger, American Executive, Japanese Letter, and Japanese Legal. Note that it may not be permissible to image into the full page area; the guaranteed reproduceable area for a page is typically smaller. Also, note that while arbitrary page sizes can be specified to sendfax, only a limited number of page dimensions are supported by the Group 3 facsimile protocol. Thus if an odd-size facsimile is submitted for transmission it may not be possible to determine if it can be sent until the fax server establishes communication with the remote facsimile machine.
By default, sendfax uses the FAXSERVER environment variable to identify the facsimile server to which the job should be directed. This can be overridden with a -h option. The server specified with the -h option and by the environment variable is a host name or address and, optionally, a modem identifier (if a specific modem is to be used). To syntax for the latter is either host:modem or modem@host; e.g. ``ttym2@oxford.berkeley.edu''. If no modem is specified, the job will be submitted to any available modem.
If the first attempt to send a facsimile is unsuccessful, FlexFAX will periodically try to resend the facsimile. By default, FlexFAX will try to transmit the facsimile for one day from the time of the initial transmission. The -k option can be used to specified an alternate time for killing the job. This time is specified using notation compatible with at(1) and as a time relative to the time of the initial transmission attempt. Thus, for example, the default kill time is specified as ``now +1 day'' (one day from the current time). To retry for an hour, ``now +1 hour'' could be used. The -t option can also be used to specify a maximum number of times that the facsimile system should try to send the job.
If an error is encountered while processing a job, the facsimile server will send an electronic mail message to the account that submitted the job. If the -D option is specified, FlexFAX will also notify the account by mail when the job is completed. In addition, if the -R option is specified, notification will also be returned any time the job must be requeued for retransmission. Notification messages identify a job by its job identifier. An arbitary identification string can be specified instead with the -i option.
If the -v option is specified, sendfax will print information on the standard output about each conversion and cover sheet generation operation it does. If this option is specified twice, the protocol between sendfax and the faxd.recv server processes that do the submission work on the remote machines will also be displayed.
In normal operation the sender's identity for submitted jobs is set according to the user that invoked sendfax. In some instances, however, it is useful to override this procedure and explicitly specify the sender's identity. The -f option can be used to explicitly specify a sender's identity if sendfax is invoked by the root, daemon, or uucp user. The information specified with the -f option can be a full ``From::'' line; e.g. ``Joe Blow <joe@foo.com>'' and ``joe@foo.com (Joe Blow)'' are acceptable.
Could not call server. The facsimile server on the remote machine did not respond.
No input data; tranmission aborted. No data was supplied (typically on the standard input). No facsimile will be sent.
Error converting data; command was %s. A data conversion operation failed; the shell command that was used is printed.
Can not convert %s. Data needed to be converted for transmission, but the required conversion rule was not located. This may indicate that the FlexFAX software was incorrectly installed; or perhaps that an NFS-mounted directory is temporarily unavailable.
%s: Can not determine file type. sendfax was unable to deduce the type of the file.
%s: Not a regular file. The file is something other than a regular file; for example, a directory.
The following messages may be printed by sendfax. These messages describe problems encountered by the server process on the remote machine. This list is incomplete; other messages may be generated by the server under unusual circumstances--- consult faxd.recv(1M) for the complete list.
Warning, no server appears to be running. This is an information message that indicates the job was queued for processing, but that no facsimile server(s) appear to be running.
Write error. faxd.recv encountered an I/O error while receiving a document to transmit.
Can not get your network address. faxd.recv was unable to get the client's machine name in order to verify the client is allowed to submit a job.
The server does not have a permissions file. The facsimile server is missing the file etc/hosts. This file must be present and contain a list of the hosts that are allowed to submit jobs.
Your host does not have permission to use the fax server. The client's host is not permitted to submit jobs to this server. Only those hosts listed in the file etc/hosts on the server machine are permitted to submit jobs.
${LIBDATA}/typerules file type and conversion rules
${LIBDATA}/pagesizes page size database
${LIBDATA}/dialrules optional client dialstring rules
${BIN}/faxcover for generating cover sheets
/usr/tmp/sndfaxXXXXXX temporary files