Ubuntu Manpage: faxrunqd - daemon to send fax jobs queued by faxspool(1)

NAME

       faxrunqd - daemon to send fax jobs queued by faxspool(1)

SYNOPSIS

       faxrunqd [-v] [-d] [-D] [-l <ttys>] [-u <user or uid>] [ -g <group or gid> ] [-V]

DESCRIPTION

       Runs  in the background, and regularily checks the fax queue set up by faxspool(1).  Sends
       all jobs that are due, records results, and takes appropriate action (notify mails etc).

       faxrunqd basically does the same as faxrunq(1), just more so.  Please read the  faxrunq(1)
       man page if you're not already familiar with the concept.

       The advantages of faxrunqd are:

       -  runs  all  the  time, so you don't have to set up a cron job (but you have to set up an
       entry in /etc/inittab or start it from /etc/rc*)

       - quicker response to new faxes in queue

       - can sensibly handle more than one modem

       - can handle prioritized fax jobs

       - can do 'policy routing' of faxes depending on the fax number

       The disadvantages are:

       - needs more system ressources if you have only little fax traffic

       - requires Perl 5.004

       - more tricky to set up and to debug

SETUP

       faxrunqd is started at system boot from /etc/rc.*, or from  /etc/inittab.   You  can  also
       start  it  from the command line. It does not put itself in the background, so you have to
       start it with an "&", or from a ":respawn:" line in /etc/inittab.   Using /etc/inittab has
       the  advantage  that  faxrunqd  is  restarted  automatically  if  something goes wrong and
       faxrunqd is stopped.

       faxrunqd will first read a global configuration file (see below),  then  (optionally)  the
       faxrunqd  policy  file  (see further below).  From then on, it will sit in a loop. It will
       check the fax queue every 60 seconds for new jobs, and will then distribute them over  all
       available  modems.   If  the  job  is sent, or fails, it will do the same thing faxrunq(1)
       would do (send a mail, delete the JOB directory, execute a  named  program,  etc.).   Both
       programs are fully compatible in this respect.

       faxrunqd [-v] [-d] [-D] [-l <ttys>] [-u <user or uid>] [ -g <group or gid> ] [-V]

OPTIONS

       -v     Tells faxrunqd to write progress information to the log file.

       -D     Tells faxrunqd to run in the background, as a daemon.

       -d     Tells  faxrunqd  to write debugging information to stdout and the log file (usually
              used together with -v).

       -l <ttyS>
              Specifies the list of modem devices to use.  Multiple devices  are  separated  with
              ':', e.g. '-l ttyS0:ttyS1'.

       -u <user or uid>
              faxrunqd  can now (since 1.1.29) run as unprivileged user.  If you start it as root
              from /etc/inittab or from one of the /etc/rc* scripts, it's strongly recommended to
              use  '-u  uucp'  (to  be  precise:  the  user that is owning the outgoing fax spool
              directory).  This will make faxrunqd drop all its privileges at startup, and run as
              the  specified user.  Running faxrunqd as root user might lead to security problems
              - don't do it. This parameter takes either a uid or a username as argument.

       -g <group or gid>
              Same effect as above but for the group id. Indicates the group which should own the
              fax files. This parameter takes either a gid or a groupname as argument.

       -V     print version number and exit

CONFIGURATION FILE

Some aspects of the behaviour of faxrunqd can be controlled by a configuration file,
usually named /etc/mgetty/faxrunq.config (this is the same file that faxrunq(1) uses, but
there are additional options for faxrunqd). In this file, you can use the following
options:

success-send-mail [y/n]
A boolean parameter that controls whether a mail will be sent after successful
completition of the fax job.

failure-send-mail [y/n]
A boolean parameter that controls whether a mail will be sent after the fax job has
failed more than the maximum number of times.

success-call-program <name>
Here, you can specify a program that will be run when the fax has been successfully
sent. It will be passed two command line parameters. The first is the full path to
the fax JOB file (see faxq(5)), the second is the last exit code from sendfax (for
success-call-program, this is always "0").

failure-call-program <name>
Similar to the "success-call-program", this program will be run when the fax has
been failed too often and faxrunqd gives up. This script could, for example, print
out the fax on a printer so that it can be sent manually on a paper fax machine.

update-call-program <name>
This is, again, similar to "success-call-program". It will be called for interim
status updates ("we've tried and it was BUSY"), so that frontend programs can
display this information. "update-call-program" will only be called for jobs that
will be kept in the fax queue for at least one more try.

maxfail-costly <n>
This specifies the number of times that a fax may fail "fatally", that is, causing
telephone costs (explained above). The default value is 5.

maxfail-total <m>
This is the absolute maximum number of times that faxrunqd will try to send any
given fax. The default value is 10.

delete-sent-jobs [y/n]
Determines whether faxrunqd should delete jobs after sending, or leave them in the
fax queue (while moving the "JOB" file to "JOB.done") so that they can be seen at
by "faxq -o". The default value is "do not delete sent faxes".

acct-log <path>
Specifies where faxrunqd should protocol success and failure of each try to send a
fax job. The default location is /var/spool/fax/outgoing/acct.log.

The options that are specific to faxrunqd are:

fax-devices [tty(s)]
Specifies which ttys should be used for sending jobs. faxrunqd will always
explicitely tell sendfax which modem to use, so the settings in sendfax.config are
ignored. If you use policy routing (see below), this applies only to fax jobs that
do not have a tty set by faxrunqd.policy.

faxrunqd-log [filename]
Specifies where logging information is written to. This is only used if faxrunqd
is called with the -v or -d option.

policy-config [filename]
Specifies a file containing rules for "policy routing", see below. Default is "no
file".

faxrunqd-max-pages [n]
If this is set to something greater 1 (default is 10), faxrunqd will combine
multiple jobs to the same receipient telephone number into one telephone call. The
maximum number of pages that the resulting job may have is specified here. Usually
it makes no sense to increase this, but in some surroundings it might make sense to
turn off this feature by setting it to 1.

sendfax-tty-map [tty] [program path] [args]
Some special cases might require running a non-default sendfax binary for specific
ttys (like "testing new version" or "some other call-compatible sendfax
applications for non-class-2 modems"). If you want mappings for more than one
"special" tty devices, just use the option multiple times. Example:

sendfax-tty-map capi0 /usr/sbin/sendfax.capi

queue-length-high [number] [program path] [args]
run the specified command when the number of jobs in the fax queue exceeds number
(this could be used to send out a warning by syslog or e-mail when too many modems
fail on a busy system, and faxes get stuck). The script will be run only once,
unless the queue length falls below the ``low water mark'' threshold and rises
again later on.

queue-length-low [number] [program path] [args]
run the specified command when the queue length has been over the ``high water''
threshold, and is back below this number. This can be used to send ``everything is
back to normal'' e-mails, or just to reset the alarm threshold.

modem-error-threshold [number] [program path] [args]
this script is called whenever a given modem has more than number consecutive
errors. Every successfully sent fax always resets the counter for a given modem to
0. This can be used to notify the sysadmin when a modem breaks (by default,
faxrunqd just phases out a problematic modem, but will not report the problem).

delay-rule [errcode] [delay1] [delay2] [...]
fine-tune how long faxrunqd waits before re-sending a failed job after sendfax
returned with error code "errcode". "delay1" is used after the first try, "delay2"
after the second try, and so on. If faxrunqd needs more tries than delay values
are specified, the last one will be re-used. The values given are interpreted as
seconds, unless postfixed with 'm' (e.g. "60m"), in which case they are interpreted
as minutes.

POLICY ROUTING

faxrunqd can do some things differently, depending on the phone number where the fax is
supposed to be sent to. For example, this might be useful to:

- send in-house faxes over a specific modem connected to a PABX (to avoid paying telco
charges)

- send long-distance faxes to the US over a special LD provider, that is, use a specific
dial-prefix for those

- use extra high debugging when sending to a known-to-be problematic receipient

etc.

This feature is controlled by a file, containing match / substitute rules. The name of
the file is specified with the "policy-config" option in faxrunq.config.

The file is read from top to bottom. Each line starting with a "#" sign is a comment, and
is skipped. In every other line, the first field of the line is interpreted as a "match"
clause, and compared to the telefone number of an to-be-sent fax job. Regular expressions
can be used (see perlre(1)).

If the telefone number is matched, the second field is used to substitute parts of the
telefone number, for example, cut off a local prefix, or change a digit, or whatever. If
you do not want any substitutions, put a "-" in that field.

The third field specifies the tty lines to use for faxes matched by this line (for
example, you might have one modem connected to a long-distance provider, and others for
local use or so). Put a "-" in this field if you want to use the default fax modems.

The remaining part of the line are appended to the sendfax command line. With those, you
can set a different dial-string ("-D ATD"), or a higher debug level ("-x 9"), or whatever
else you can imagine. Do NOT set a tty to use here ("-l ttyS1"), because that would
confuse the internal tty handling of faxrunqd, leading to weird effects processing the fax
queue!!

Examples:

# 12345-nnn is sent to "nnn" over a local PABX, modem on tty2

^12345 s/12345// tty2

# fax to 56789 (exact match) is sent with higher debugging

^56789$ - - -x 8

FILES

       /var/spool/fax/outgoing/stop
              if this file exists, faxrunqd will stop whatever it's doing at the moment, wait for
              all  outstanding jobs, and then fall asleep until the file is removed.  You can use
              this to stop queue processing while testing something, or  if  you  know  that  the
              modem(s) are unavailable and do not want to run into any error messages, etc.

       /var/spool/fax/outgoing/faxqueue_done
              Every time faxrunqd runs the fax queue, a time stamp is written into that file.  It
              is used by faxspool to display a warning if the queue hasn't been run recently  (so
              faxes may get stuck).

SIGNALS

       To control faxrunqd's behaviour, you can send it the following signals:

       SIGINT

       SIGTERM
              remove lock file, remove pid file, terminate immediately.

       SIGHUP finish all fax jobs that are currently being sent, then terminate  (this is used to
              signal faxrunqd "I want you to terminate" without disturbing  the  normal  flow  of
              operation - SIGINT/TERM etc. can lead to some faxes being sent twice).

       SIGUSR1
              close, roll, and re-open log file.

       SIGUSR2
              dump current modem success/failure statistics to log file.

BUGS

       faxrunqd  does  not report if a modem goes bad - instead it will just stop using it (which
       is good for reliable faxing, but bad for error recovery).

AUTHOR

       faxrunqd is Copyright (C)  1997-2004  by  Gert  Doering,  <gert@greenie.muc.de>.   It  was
       inspired by Bodo Bauer's initial faxrunqd, but completely rewritten.