bionic (8) sendfax.8.gz

NAME

       sendfax - send group 3 fax files (G3 files) with a class 2 faxmodem

SYNOPSIS

       sendfax [-p] [-x<debuglevel>] [-v] [-l<modemlines>] [-m<initstring>] [-d<polldirectory>] [-C<modemclass>]
       [-S] [-n] [-r] [-D<dialprefix>] phone-number [g3file(s)]

DESCRIPTION

       Send the named g3 fax files to the fax machine at "phone number".  The  g3  files  can  be  created  with
       pbm2g3(1) or GNU's GhostScript with the "digifax" driver.

OPTIONS

       -p     Tells  sendfax to try fax polling, that is, get any documents queued in the remote fax machine for
              you (used for weather maps and the like)

       -x <debug level>
              Use the given level of verbosity for logging - 0 means no logging, 5 is really noisy.

       -v     Give some progress report on stdout.

       -l <modem lines>
              Use the given modem  lines.  Multiple  lines  can  be  separated  by  ":".   Example:  sendfax  -l
              tty1a:tty2a

       -m <initstring>
              Send an additional init string. This string is sent right after initializing the modem and setting
              it into class 2 mode. You can  use  this  to  set  the  speaker  value,  some  special  registers,
              whatsoever. The modem must return "OK". If it returns "ERROR", sendfax prints an error message and
              aborts.  You do not have to prepend the "AT" prefix, but it won't do harm either.

       -d <directory>
              Specify the directory where polled fax files should go  to.  Defaults  to  "."   for  the  current
              directory. Unused if not polling a fax.

       -C <class>
              Tells sendfax how to treat the modem. Possible values for <class> are "auto" (default, try to find
              out which fax command set the modem supports), "cls2" (use the class 2 fax command  set,  even  if
              the  modem claims to support class 2.0) and "c2.0" (use the class 2.0 fax command set). Obviously,
              "data" (which is valid for "mgetty -C ...") is not of much use here.

       -S     Assume modem connection on stdin, do not try to lock or initialize anything. To take over existing
              connection  (for  interworking  with  vgetty  et.al.) use with a dial string of "T1" (just a short
              beep, no phone number at all would confuse many modems, a pulse  dialed  number  may  confuse  the
              telco switch) and "-m ATX1" (do not wait for dial tone).

       -n     Tells  sendfax  to  send  the  fax pages in ``normal'' (204x98 dpi) mode. Default is ``fine'' mode
              (204x196 dpi).

       -r     If this option is given, sendfax will rename all the fax G3  files  to  ``<filename>.done''  after
              successfully  sending  this.  This  is  intended  to be used from ``faxrunq'', to make sure that a
              partially-sended fax isn't retransmitted as a whole every time.

              If this option is set, sendfax will not (!) complain if not all files named on  the  command  line
              exist.

       -D <dial prefix>
              Override  the  default  (set by sendfax.config or in policy.h) for the 'ATxxx' command to dial the
              remote number.  This is rarely used from the command line,  but  you  might  want  to  use  it  in
              combination with faxrunqd's policy routing option (see example in faxrunqd.policy(5)).

       -M <max speed>
              Sets  the  maximum  transmission  (modem to modem) speed.  This is only needed in very rare cases,
              because normally the modems negotiate the correct speed automatically.  Example: "-M 7200".

       -R <max tries>
              Sets the maximum number of attempts to transmit a given page, before  sendfax  gives  up  on  this
              page.   Normally  it's not needed to change this - the default is "(up to) 3 tries" and that works
              quite well for most environments.

CONFIG FILE

       If compiled accordingly, sendfax can read all its configuration from at run-time  from  a  file,  usually
       called /etc/mgetty/sendfax.config. See the documentation in the mgetty.info manual for details.

DIAGNOSTICS

       sendfax  returns  an  error code, according to the reason why the program terminated.  If everything went
       OK, sendfax returns 0. If ``harmless'' errors (didn't cost money) occured, an  error  code  below  10  is
       returned.  If a dial attempt failed after the remote end picked up (it will cost money), a return code of
       10 or higher is returned.

       In Detail, the return codes are as follows:

              0      all pages have been transmitted successfully

              1      error on the sendfax command line

              2      cannot open fax device (e.g. due to locked modem)

              3      cannot initialize modem (e.g. modem switched off)

              4      dialup failed with BUSY

              5      dialup failed with NO DIALTONE

              10     dialup failed with ERROR or NO CARRIER (modem handshake failed)

              11     waiting for XON failed (rarely seen)

              12     transmitting or polling page(s) failed (connection dropped)

       Very  detailed  debug   information   is   written   to   the   log   file.    It   can   be   found   in
       "/var/log/mgetty/fax/sendfax.log".  If  it doesn't contain enough details, enhance the log level with the
       "-x" option to sendfax, e.g. "-x 5".

       Many of the common problems and solutions are discussed in the mgetty manual and the FAQ.  Please see the
       WWW page at http://alpha.greenie.net/mgetty/ for both.

REFERENCES

       The standard for Group 3 fax is defined in CCITT Recommendation T.4.

BUGS

       sendfax should be able to put a header on the page.

       sendfax should be able to read TIFF g3 input files.

SEE ALSO

       g3cat(1), pbm2g3(1), mgetty(1), faxspool(1), faxrunq(1), faxrunqd(8)

AUTHOR

       sendfax is Copyright (C) 1993 by Gert Doering, <gert@greenie.muc.de>.