INFO

Section: Protocol Families (4F)
Updated: March 14, 1994
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NAME

info - remote facsimile machine capability database  

DESCRIPTION

The info subdirectory in the FlexFAX spooling area holds information about the capabilities and status of facsimile machines that have been called. One file exists for each machine, with the filename created from the remote machine's fully-qualified phone number. Files have a simple ASCII format. Each line is of the form


      [&]tag: value

where a tag identifies a capability and a value is either a string, number, or boolean value. An optional ``&'' at the front of the line indicates that the tag's value is locked down and should not be updated by the server. This facility is useful for restricting the capabilities used with a particular machine.

The following items are recorded:

Tag                   Type       Description
calledBefore          boolean    fax machine has previously answered at this number
dialFailures          number     count of consecutive failed dial operations
lastDialFailure       string     reason for last failed dial operation
lastSendFailure       string     reason for last failed send attempt
maxPageWidth          number     maximum page width in pixels
maxPageLength         number     maximum page length in millimeters
maxSignallingRate     string     maximum signalling rate (bits/sec) to use
minScanlineTime       string     minimum scanline time
jobInProgress         string     current job sending to remote machine
rejectNotice          string     reject outgoing jobs and return notice string
remoteCSI             string     remote machine Called Subscriber Identification
sendFailures          number     count of consecutive failed send attempts
supportsHighRes       boolean    accepts 196 line/inch images
supports2DEncoding    boolean    accepts Group 2D encoding
supportsPostScript    boolean    accepts Adobe PostScript transfer protocol

The facsimile server, faxd(1M), uses the information stored in this directory when deciding if a call should be placed and when preparing documents for transmission. If multiple jobs are queued for the same destination, the jobs will be serialized to avoid contention. Also, if a call fails in such a way that subsequent calls should not be attempted, the server will install a rejectNotice that will cause subsequent attempts to send to that destination to be aborted (note that this is similar to the rejectNotice item that may be manually placed in the parallel cinfo(4F) file). If a remote machine's capabilities are known, then documents are prepared according to the capabilities. Otherwise, documents are prepared using only the minimum capabilities required by the Group 3 standard--- 1D encoding, 98 lines/inch, and ISO A4 page dimensions.

The calledBefore item is used by the facsimile server is used in deciding whether or not to redial a phone number when encountering certain errors. For example, if a dialing command results in a ``NO CARRIER'' result, then the number will not be retried unless the number has previously been dialed successfully.

The minScanlineTime item indicates the minimum scanline time parameter used for facsimile transmissions. Acceptable values are: 0ms, 5ms, 10ms/5ms, 10ms, 20ms/10ms, 20ms, 40ms/20ms, and 40ms. (Values of the form X/Y mean to use X for 98 lpi images and Y for 196 lpi images.)  

NOTES

Faxd automatically creates and updates entries in the info directory, as required.

The data in this directory is simply a cache of remote capabilities and, except for locked down items, can be safely purged at any time.  

SEE ALSO

faxd(1M), cinfo(4F)


 

Index

NAME
DESCRIPTION
NOTES
SEE ALSO

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