Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!ukc!acorn!moncam!deep
From: deep@moncam.co.uk (The Darkness Visible)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: How to get more out of lpr.
Keywords: flags,-w,-i,-l,printcap,filter,ooh-la-la!
Message-ID: <157@marvin.moncam.co.uk>
Date: 24 May 89 16:57:00 GMT
Organization: Monotype ADG, Cambridge, UK
Lines: 22

Anyone writing filtas for lpr will have noticed that the flag info
for -w, -i and -l in the call to lpr are inherited by the filter
specified (default lp); -l becomes -c, and -w<number> -i<number>
get passed unchanged.  However, because of the way lpr uses
/etc/printcap, the <number> in each case is actually passed as
a string, and so can be anything.  I have used this feature,
somewhat nortily I admit, as a means to pass extra information
on to the filter.  I use the width flag, with a `/' to introduce
the nortie flags, vis, -w<number>/<nortie flags> or -w/<nortie flags>.

I will gladly change all this when (?) I get some lpr-ish software
which will pass unrecognised flags on to the filter, much as cc seems
to pass things it doesn't understand on to the linker.
--
I hear Her Voice
Calling my name,
The sound is deep
In the Dark.
I hear Her Voice
And start to run,
Into the Trees...
Into the Trees...