fax(1)

📦
version 1.2.1 · 2 versions
, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

✨ fax — the manual, but make it cute ✨

okay bestie, this is fax(1) from the mgetty+sendfax manual, and it's basically the group-chat summary of the whole mgetty+sendfax fax/modem software suite 💖

🌸 NAME 🌸

fax — sending and receiving faxes with mgetty+sendfax, fr fr

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

faxspool [options] phone-number file

faxrm job-id

faxq [options]

faxrunq [options]

faxrunqd [options]

sendfax [options] phone-number file

mgetty [options] tty

pbm2g3 [options] [pbm-file]

g32pbm [options] [pbm-file]

g3cat [options] [g3-file(s)]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so this manpage is like the very brief lil tour of every program in the mgetty+sendfax fax/modem software suite 👑 for the actual deets, go read each program's own manpage, okay?

  • faxspool — this one queues up jobs to be transmitted by fax later. it takes a bunch of different input formats, converts them into the exact format sendfax needs, and drops the jobs into the outgoing spool directory. it's giving ✨prep work✨
  • faxq — displays the current FAX work queue. that's it, that's the vibe 👀
  • faxrm — removes one or more jobs from the current fax work queue. you gotta give it the job id on the command line (the one faxq handed you). no id, no removal, periodt.
  • faxrunq — processes every fax sitting in the fax work queue and sends them one-by-one. if transmission isn't possible, the job gets retried later. it's meant to be run from cron, but honestly it can be started from the shell too — except you must have access to the fax queue and the modems, which means you must be 'root' or 'uucp' 😭
  • faxrunqd — a replacement for faxrunq, for environments that send a high number of faxes per day, or that need more flexibility. main character energy only 💅
  • sendfax — the backend that faxrunq uses to actually send the fax. it is not meant to ever be called directly, but it can be used in your own applications 🫶
  • faxq-helper — a helper program used by faxspool, faxq and faxrm to access the fax spool directory (which, heads up, is not world-writeable since mgetty version 1.1.29) 🙈
  • mgetty — the part of the suite that handles incoming calls. data calls get handled the way getty does it (login, shell), while fax calls get handled internally. received faxes are stored in /var/spool/fax/incoming. see the mgetty(8) manpage for details. also: mgetty can not be called directly, it must be called by /etc/init ⭐
  • pbm2g3 — converts portable bitmaps to G3 fax data (for sendfax). > bestie, do not use the pbmtog3 program from the pbmplus or netpbm toolkit — it will create broken G3 data 💀
  • g32pbm — converts received faxes (which are stored in G3 format) to portable bitmap format. PBM can then be converted to other formats with the named pbmplus toolkit 🌈
  • g3cat — concats multiple G3 files, exactly like cat does with text files. iconic behaviour honestly 🐱

🦋 FILES 🦋

  • /var/spool/fax/outgoing/ — outgoing fax spool directory 📤
  • /var/spool/fax/incoming/ — incoming faxes 📥
  • /usr/lib/mgetty-fax/ — the cover page program, faxq-helper, and a few font files live here 🎀
  • /etc/mgetty/ — most configuration files for mgetty and sendfax live here ⚙️
  • /usr/sbin — mgetty, sendfax and faxrunqd live here 👑
  • /usr/bin — all the other programs ✨
  • /etc/mgetty/faxaliases — global fax alias file 🌍
  • $HOME/.faxnrs — private fax alias file 🤫
  • /etc/mgetty/fax.allow — list of allowed users ✅
  • /etc/mgetty/fax.deny — list of denied users 🚫
  • /etc/mgetty/faxheader — fax page header 📄
  • /usr/lib/mgetty-fax/make.coverpg — program to create fax cover page (see coverpg(1)) 💌
  • /etc/mgetty/login.config — login configuration file for mgetty 🔑
  • /etc/mgetty/dialin.config — caller ID setup file for mgetty (optional) 📞
  • /etc/mgetty/mgetty.config — runtime configuration file for mgetty (not implemented yet) 😭
  • /etc/mgetty/sendfax.config — runtime configuration file for sendfax (optional) 📠

💀 BUGS 💀

Look into the responding man pages.

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

faxspool(1), faxq(1), faxrunq(1), faxrunqd(8), sendfax(8), faxrm(1), mgetty(8), pbm2g3(1), g32pbm(1), g3cat(1), faxqueue(5), mgettydefs(4), coverpg(1)

mgetty.info

👑 AUTHOR 👑

The mgetty+sendfax program suite is Copyright (C) 1993-2010 by Gert Doering, <gert@greenie.muc.de>. Parts of the programs kindly donated by Chris Lewis, Paul Sutcliffe, Klaus Weidner, and numerous others. 🫶 absolute legends, every single one

okay that's the whole thing bestie, no cap 💖 this was the mgetty+sendfax manual page fax(1), version from greenie, dated 23 Nov 02 — go send some faxes, slay 🎀✨💅

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