fax(1)

📦 version 1.2.1, in fedora 43, fedora 44

✨ fax — bestie edition ✨

okay so this is the mgetty+sendfax manual, page fax(1) 💖 it's basically the group-chat recap of the WHOLE fax/modem software suite, and it's giving "here's everyone in the friend group, go read their individual lore for the deep tea." let's go 🦋

💅 NAME 💅

fax — sending and receiving faxes with mgetty+sendfax, no cap 🌸

🎀 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 🌈

ok so this manpage is the quick lil tour of every program in the mgetty+sendfax fax/modem software suite. it's literally the cliffnotes version — for the full story you gotta go read each program's own manpage, iykyk 📖✨

faxspool is the one who queues up jobs for later transmission by fax. she accepts different input formats, converts them into the proper format that sendfax needs, and drops the jobs into the outgoing spool directory. she's the planner of the group 🗂️💖

faxq displays the current FAX work queue. that's it, that's the vibe — she shows you what's pending 👑

faxrm removes one or more jobs from the current fax work queue. you HAVE to specify the job id (the one faxq gave you) on the command line, bestie, no skipping that step 🗑️

faxrunq processes all the faxes in the fax work queue and sends them one-by-one. if transmission isn't possible, the job will be retried later — she's persistent like that 💪 while she's meant to be run from cron, faxrunq can also be started from the shell. BUT — and this is important — you must have access to the fax queue and the modems, which means you must be 'root' or 'fax'. periodt 🔐

faxrunqd is a replacement for faxrunq, meant for environments that send a high number of faxes per day, or that need more flexibility. she's the upgrade arc ✨

sendfax is the backend that faxrunq uses to actually send the fax. she is not meant to be ever called directly, but you can use her in your own applications if you're feeling brave 🫶

faxq-helper is a helper program used by faxspool, faxq and faxrm to access the fax spool directory — which is not world-writeable since mgetty version 1.1.29. she's the bouncer at the door 🚪💅

mgetty is 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. the received faxes are stored in /var/spool/fax/incoming. go read the mgetty(8) manpage for details. also — mgetty can not be called directly, it must be called by /etc/init. she doesn't take walk-ins, she has an appointment system 📞

pbm2g3 converts portable bitmaps to G3 fax data (for sendfax). and bestie, listen: do not use the pbmtog3 program from the pbmplus or netpbm toolkit — it will create broken G3 data. i'm serious. don't do it 😭

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 concatenates multiple G3 files, exactly like cat does with text files. cat but make it fax 🐱

🦋 FILES 🦋

  • /var/spool/fax/outgoing/ — outgoing fax spool directory 📤
  • /var/spool/fax/incoming/ — incoming faxes 📥
  • /usr/lib64/mgetty+sendfax/ — the cover page program, faxq-helper, and a few font files live here 🏠
  • /etc/mgetty+sendfax/ — most configuration files for mgetty and sendfax live here ⚙️
  • /usr/bin — mgetty, sendfax and faxrunqd live here 🌟
  • /usr/bin — all the other programs 🫶
  • /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxaliases — global fax alias file 📇
  • $HOME/.faxnrs — private fax alias file 🙈
  • /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.allow — list of allowed users ✅
  • /etc/mgetty+sendfax/fax.deny — list of denied users 🚫
  • /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxheader — fax page header 🎀
  • /usr/lib64/mgetty+sendfax/make.coverpg — program to create fax cover page (see coverpg(1)). 💌
  • /etc/mgetty+sendfax/login.config — login configuration file for mgetty. 🔑
  • /etc/mgetty+sendfax/dialin.config — caller ID setup file for mgetty (optional). ☎️
  • /etc/mgetty+sendfax/mgetty.config — runtime configuration file for mgetty (not implemented yet). 🚧
  • /etc/mgetty+sendfax/sendfax.config — runtime configuration file for sendfax (optional). 📝

💀 BUGS 💀

Look into the responding man pages. that's the whole note bestie, she said "go read the other ones" and honestly? fair 🙈

🔥 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 🫶🌈

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was fax(1) from the mgetty+sendfax manual, page put together by greenie, dated 23 Nov 02 — mwah, slay, go send a fax or something ✨🎀💅

📦 where this page comes from