FAXGETTY(8)

👑 FAXGETTY(8) — like, the system manager's manual edition 💅

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're about to talk about faxgetty, the HylaFAX front-door process. yes it's section 8. yes it's a big deal. let's go 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

faxgetty — the HylaFAX front-door process 🚪🌸

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

/usr/sbin/faxgetty [ -D ] [ -p ] [ -q queue-dir ] device

that's it. that's the whole vibe check. moving on 💖

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so faxgetty is the HylaFAX server program that literally just sits there and listens for incoming phone calls 📞 and then either handles each call directly itself or hands it off to whatever program is appropriate for the job. no cap. it's the doorman of your modem.

and that's not all — faxgetty also monitors modem usage and pings the HylaFAX scheduler process whenever a modem's status changes. like, for example, when a modem is busy with an outbound call. she's keeping everyone in the loop, as she should 💅

you run one faxgetty for each facsimile modem on the machine. one modem, one getty. that's the rule. periodt.

faxgetty is typically started by init(8). and fun fact — you can also use it with data-only modems! which lowkey slaps if some of the non-facsimile features matter to you, like the support for screening calls according to Caller-ID information. yes she does caller ID. iconic.

here's the tea on how she listens: faxgetty listens to its facsimile modem for incoming calls and to a FIFO special file, on which it accepts command directives from administrative commands such as faxanswer(8) and faxabort(8). she also catches SIGTERM and SIGINT signals — cleaning up any necessary resources before exiting. tidy queen 🧹✨

a lot of how faxgetty behaves is controlled through a configuration file. and this part matters, so listen up:

• for faxgetty to automatically invoke the getty(8) program to handle incoming data connections, the GettyArgs parameter must be set up in the configuration file.

the config file lives in the spooler hierarchy, inside the etc subdirectory, and it's named config.devid — where devid is an identifier derived from the name of the modem's device file. examples so you don't have to guess:

• ttym2 for /dev/ttym2
• term_10 for /dev/term/10

and if you want the full detailed rundown on what goes in configuration files, go consult hylafax-config(5). she's got the lore 📚💜

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -D — this option forces faxgetty to detach itself from the controlling tty from which it was invoked. in normal operation faxgetty will not disassociate itself from the controlling tty. so like, this is the "go be independent" flag 🦋
• -p — do not change the process priority when receiving facsimile. normally faxgetty will raise its priority to reduce i/o latency. this option is useful for debugging 🔍
• -q dir — the specified directory is treated as the spooling area. the default spooling area, /var/spool/hylafax, is defined at the time the software is built 🎀

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✨ FILES ✨

• /var/spool/hylafax/FIFO.device — FIFO special file for submitting commands 📨
• /var/spool/hylafax/etc/config.device — device-specific configuration file 📝

and if you want a complete discussion of the structure and content of the spooling area, go consult hylafax-server(5). she explains the whole layout, no crumbs left behind 🍓

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

faxabort(8), faxlock(8), faxanswer(8), faxconfig(8), faxstate(8), faxq(8), getty(8), hylafax-server(5), hylafax-config(5)

the whole friend group, honestly 🌈💖

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and that's the page, bestie!! this one's from the System Manager's Manual, dated July 31, 1995, and yes she's still serving FAXGETTY(8) energy all these years later. stan a fax daemon that knows what she wants. mwah 💅✨🫶