XFERFAXLOG(5)

💖 XFERFAXLOG(5) — the HylaFAX activity log, bestie edition 💖

okay so this is xferfaxlog, section 5 of the manual (file formats, iykyk), and it's literally the diary of your fax machine. let's get into it 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

xferfaxlog — the HylaFAX activity log 🫶

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so the file etc/xferfaxlog is where all the tea lives — it's got info about inbound and outbound activities. one line per inbound or outbound call, okay? except for facsimile documents retrieved by polling, in which case multiple entries may be present for a single call (yeah she's extra like that 💅).

also! if the modem config setting LogCalls is set to true, then the file also contains one line per received call. and every single one of these lines is a fixed-format, tab-separated ASCII string. no cap.

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📠 each record of a facsimile transmission is of the form:

date SEND commid modem jobid jobtag sender ``dest-number'' ``CSI'' params #pages jobtime conntime ``reason'' <null> <null> <null> ``owner'' ``dcs''

📥 a facsimile reception record is of the form:

date RECV commid modem fax.tif <null> fax ``local-number'' ``TSI'' params #pages jobtime conntime ``reason'' ``CallID1'' ``CallID2'' ``CallID3...CallIDn'' <null> ``dcs''

☎️ each inbound call record is of the form:

date CALL commid modem <null> <null> fax ``local-number'' <null> 0 0 jobtime conntime ``reason'' ``CallID1'' ``CallID2'' ``CallID3..CallIDn'' <null> ``dcs''

🔄 each facsimile document retrieved by polling has a record of the form:

date POLL commid modem jobid jobtag sender ``dest-number'' ``TSI'' params #pages jobtime conntime ``reason'' <null> <null> <null>

📟 an alphanumeric pager request has a record of the form:

date PAGE commid modem jobid jobtag sender ``dest-number'' ``<null>'' 0 0 jobtime conntime ``reason'' <null> <null> ``owner''

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🧚 the following describes the fields in the above records:

• date — the date and time of the transaction, formatted like MM/DD/YY HH:MM. here MM is the numeric month, DD is the numeric day, YY is the last two digits of the year, and HH:MM is the time in 24-hour format. ⏰
• commid — the communication identifier for the call.
• modem — the device identifier for the modem that was used to do the send or receive.
• jobid — the job number for outbound calls.
• jobtag — the client-specified job tag for outbound calls.
• fax.tif — the associated recvq fax TIFF file for the event.
• sender — the sender/receiver's electronic mailing address. heads up: facsimile receptions are always attributed to the fax user.
• dest-number — the phone number dialed for outgoing calls.
• TSI — the Transmitter Subscriber Identification string, as received, for incoming calls.
• CSI — the Caller Subscriber Identification string of the remote machine, as reported, for outgoing calls.
• local-number — the local phone number on which the data was received.
• params — the negotiated facsimile session parameters used for transferring data, encoded as described below. 🔥
• #pages — the total number of pages transferred.
• jobtime — the duration of the session, in the format HH:MM:SS. this time includes setup overhead and any time spent cleaning up after a call.
• conntime — the time spent on the phone, in the format HH:MM:SS. this should be the time used by the PTT to calculate usage charges.
• reason — a string that indicates if any problem occurred during the session.
• CIDName — the received CIDName value for the session.
• CIDNumber — the received CIDNumber value for the session.
• owner — the login name of the job owner.
• dcs — the T.30 DCS string that was used in the facsimile communication.

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quick vibe check: fields may have embedded blanks, so don't come for me. session parameters are encoded as a decimal number that contains a packed set of Class 2 session parameter values. the format is: 2 bits for vertical resolution, 3 bits for signalling rate, 3 bits for page width, 2 bits for page length, 2 bits for data format, 1 bit for ECM use, 1 bit of BF use, and 3 bits for the min scanline time. the page counts are always integral numbers. and partial pages that are to be retransmitted are not included in the page count. 🫡

the simple ASCII format was designed to be easy to process with programs like awk(1). it's giving accessible icon behavior ✨

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🫶 NOTES 🫶

the sender field does not necessarily represent the submitter's actual identity. for example, it reflects the value given by the sendfax(8) -f option. so like, be cautious — this field is not to be utilized for auditing if the fax user base is not trusted. ⚠️

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💀 BUGS 💀

not the year 2000... the date format will "break" in the year 2000 😭 lowkey a problem. information should be recorded on a per-page basis for facsimile communications.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

faxq(8) faxsend(8) faxgetty(8)

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and that's the whole thing bestie, slay 💅 this page came from the File Formats Manual and it's dated June 5, 1996 — yeah, she's an icon, she's a legend, and she's XFERFAXLOG(5). periodt. 🎀💖