HYLAFAX-INFO(5)

💖 HYLAFAX-INFO(5) 💖

okay bestie, this is the File Formats Manual page for HYLAFAX-INFO(5) and honestly? it's giving the little black book of fax machines. let's get into it 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

info — the remote device capability database 🌸

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so there's this info subdirectory inside the HylaFAX spooling area, right? it's where all the ~tea~ about devices that have been called gets stored: their capabilities, their status, everything. one file per device, and the filename is literally made out of the remote device's fully-qualified phone number. iconic. no cap.

the files themselves are plain ASCII. simple. every line looks like this:

[&]tag: value

where a tag names some capability and a value is a string, a number, or a boolean. and here's the cute part — if you slap an optional `&' at the front of the line, that tag's value is locked down and the server will not update it. this is so useful for restricting which capabilities get used with a particular machine. 💅

here's everything that gets recorded:

• calledBefore — boolean — device has previously answered at this number
• dialFailures — number — count of consecutive failed dial operations
• hasV34Trouble — boolean — there is difficulty sending to this destination with V.34
• hasV17Trouble — boolean — there is difficulty sending to this destination with V.17
• lastDialFailure — string — reason for last failed dial operation
• lastSendFailure — string — reason for last failed send attempt
• maxPageWidth — number — maximum page width in pixels in normal resolution
• maxPageLength — number — maximum page length in millimeters
• maxSignallingRate — string — maximum signalling rate (bits/sec) to use
• minScanlineTime — string — minimum scanline time
• pagerMaxMsgLength — number — length of longest allowed text message
• pagerPassword — string — password string send to service provider
• pagerSetupCmds — string — commands for setting up modem for a specific service provider
• pagerTTYParity — string — parity & # bits configuration for IXO/TAP communication
• pageSource — string — parameter to tell the paging central who we are
• pagingProtocol — string — protocol (IXO or UCP) for this provider
• remoteCSI — string — remote device Called Subscriber Identification
• remoteNSF — string — remote equipment Non-Standard Facilities information
• remoteDIS — string — remote Digital Identification Signal: capabilities
• sendFailures — number — count of consecutive failed send attempts
• supportsBatching — boolean — accepts batching protocol
• supportsHighRes — boolean — accepts 196 line/inch images (obsolete)
• supportsVRes — number — vertical resolution support bitmask
• supports2DEncoding — boolean — accepts Group 3 2D encoding
• supportsMMR — boolean — accepts Group 4 encoding
• supportsPostScript — boolean — accepts Adobe POSTSCRIPT transfer protocol

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the HylaFAX scheduler, faxq(8), reads all this when it's deciding whether a call should even happen and when it's prepping documents to send. if the remote device's capabilities are known, document prep gets constrained and/or optimized to match them. if they're not known? documents get prepared with zero regard for the remote's capabilities, and if a capability mismatch shows up, the session gets terminated and the documents get reformatted using whatever capabilities were just discovered. messy but it works 💀

the calledBefore item is what faxsend checks to decide whether to redial a number when it hits certain errors. like — if a dialing command comes back with a `NO CARRIER' result, the number won't be retried unless it's been dialed successfully before. so basically, don't expect a retry on a stranger ✨

the minScanlineTime item is the minimum scanline time parameter used for facsimile transmissions. acceptable values are: `0ms', `5ms', `10ms/5ms', `10ms', `20ms/10ms', `20ms', `40ms/20ms', and `40ms'. (and if you see a value shaped like X/Y, that means use X for 98 lpi images and Y for 196 lpi images. iykyk 💫)

the pagerTTYParity item sets the communication parameters for talking to the IXO/TAP service provider. acceptable values: `even' (7 bits, even parity), `odd' (7 bits, odd parity), and `none' (8 bits, no parity). specify nothing at all and you get `even', per the standard. default behavior, we love her 👑

the pagerMaxMsgLength, pagerPassword, and pagerTTYParity items can be set up to match whatever a pager service provider requires — and they typically get locked down so their values don't get lost during updates. protect the info, bestie 🫶

pagerSetupCmds lets you define AT commands for setting up the modem for a specific service provider. heads up though: this value overwrites the settings defined in hylafax-config(5). it does not play nice, it just wins 🔥

pageSource can be used to tell the paging central who we are. it usually holds a SMS answerable mobile number. it's only used for the UCP part of sendpage(8). Note: this parameter should be used from user-land sendpage(1) and will be removed later. (rip, she's on her way out 😭)

pagingProtocol defines which protocol — UCP or IXO — gets used to send the message to the service provider. it defaults to `ixo'; for UCP, set `ucp'.

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🌈 NOTES 🌈

faxsend, pagesend, and faxq automatically create and update entries in the info directory as required. no manual labor, they just do it 💅

the data in this directory is simply a cache of remote capabilities, and — except for locked down items — it can be safely purged at any time. the faxcron(8) script, for example, periodically purges unlocked entries in this directory that have not been accessed in 30 days. spring cleaning, scheduled ✨

when the first batching attempt fails, supportsBatching gets set to false. it must be manually altered to re-enable batching to the destination. no take-backs, you have to do it yourself 😤

⚠️ restricting the capabilities used with a particular machine to a value other than those that are mandatory can cause documents to be sent outside of an acceptable range for the receiver. like, for real for real — be careful with this one.

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

• faxcron(8)
• faxq(8)
• faxsend(8)
• pagesend(8)
• hylafax-config(5)

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this version dropped February 10, 1996 and lives in the HYLAFAX-INFO(5) manual — go forth and fax responsibly, you absolute icon 🎀💜🦋