RECVQ(5F)

💌 RECVQ(5F) — ok bestie, let's talk about received faxes

So this is the man page for RECVQ(5F), and it's literally all about the recvq/fax* received facsimile document format. Buckle up 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

recvq/fax* — the received facsimile document format, iykyk

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Okay so here's the tea: every facsimile that HylaFAX receives gets dropped into the recvq subdirectory. And each one of those facsimile documents is stored as a single Class F Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) file. One file. That's it. Slay. 💅

And that format is carrying so much info, not just the picture. It includes:

• page width and length
• horizontal and vertical resolution
• page orientation
• phone number of the sender
• date and time document was received
• number of scanlines received with errors
• maximum number of consecutive scanlines received with errors
• whether or not bad scanlines were regenerated by the receiver
• make and model of the modem used to receive the document
• name of the host computer on which the document was received

Like, it's giving ✨full context✨. Not just a vibe, the whole lore.

Now, the image data itself gets written using either CCITT T.4 or CCITT T.6 compression. By default, the data is written using the compression scheme/data format negotiated by the sender and receiver — so they basically agreed on it together, cute 🫶.

BUT — and this is the plot twist — if faxgetty(8C) is configured to do copy quality checking, then the data is written using the compression scheme defined by the RecvDataFormat configuration parameter. Go look at hylafax-config(5F) for the deets. 👑

Also quick note on scanlines: a scanline that is regenerated by the receiver because of an error is typically just a copy of the previous good scanline. Like, it said "not me inventing new data" and just copy-pasted the last good one. Iconic behaviour honestly. 😭

⚠️ Permissions check, bestie, don't skip this one:

The files in the recvq directory are created with the protection mode specified in the server configuration file(s). By default, files are created with mode 0600 and owned by the fax user, which means that they are accessible only to the fax user. So like, lowkey locked down. Not for everyone's eyes. 🔒

Oh and if you wanna print a facsimile on a POSTSCRIPT® printer, the fax2ps(1) program can be used. That's your girl for that job. 🖨️✨

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• viewfax(1)
• faxview(1)
• fax2ps(1)
• faxgetty(8C)
• libtiff(3)
• hylafax-config(5F)

ok that's the whole page, mwah 💖 this one's dated October 3, 1995, and yeah it's the RECVQ(5F) page through and through — vintage but still serving. periodt. 💅🎀