sendfax - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

NAME

sendfax - submit a facsimile job for transmission

SYNOPSIS

sendfax [ options ] [ files... ]

DESCRIPTION

sendfax submits one or more facsimile transmission requests to a HylaFAX facsimile server.
Requests are normally processed immediately, although they may also be queued for
transmission at a later time using a syntax identical to the at(1) command. For each job
that is queued, sendfax prints a job identifier and a job group identifier on the standard
output. A job identifier is the token by which jobs are identified within HylaFAX; job
group identifiers are used to reference a set of jobs that have been submitted at the same
time. Job and job group identifiers can be supplied to the faxrm(1) command to remove the
jobs or to the faxalter(1) command to alter job parameters.

Facsimile are made from the concatenation of a cover page (see below) and one or more
files specified on the command line. If no files are supplied on the command line,
sendfax will read data from the standard input unless polling is requested. Cover pages
are distinguished for the purpose of generating ``continuation cover pages'' on the
server; these are makeup cover pages that are automatically generated if a job fails after
sending the original user-specified cover page.

sendfax passes POSTSCRIPT® and TIFF documents directly through to the fax server for
transmission, and attempts to convert other file formats to either POSTSCRIPT or TIFF. In
normal operation sendfax automatically converts ASCII-text, troff(1) output, Portable
Document Format (PDF), and Silicon Graphics format images for transmission. Support for
other file formats can be easily added through an extensible file typing and conversion
facility; see typerules(5). Note that since TIFF Class F documents are processed directly
it is simple to forward a received facsimile.

By default sendfax will generate a cover page for each facsimile that is to be
transmitted. This cover page is created by the ancillary faxcover(1) program using
information deduced by sendfax and by information supplied on the command line. Automatic
cover page generation may be suppressed with the -n option.

In addition to sending documents, sendfax can be used to poll a remote facsimile machine
to retrieve waiting documents. If the -p option is specified, a polling request will be
submitted to each destination. If a poll request is made in conjunction with the
transmission of documents, the poll request will take place after the documents are
transmitted. Documents retrieved by polling are returned to the requestor by electronic
mail and may be viewed with a suitable viewer program.

One or more destinations must be specified on the command line using the -d option. A
destination is the dialing string to use to contact the remote fax machine. Phone numbers
may include non-alphanumeric characters for readability—only alphanumerics, ``+'' (for
denoting a country code), and ``#'' (for denoting a subaddress) are significant in placing
a call. Alphabetic characters are automatically mapped to their numeric key equivalents:
``abcABC'' to ``2'', ``defDEF'' to ``3'', etc. Dialing prefixes, such as ``1'' and
``011'' (for long distance calling in the United States) need not be included if an
unambiguous number is specified. Examples of unambiguous phone numbers are:
+31.77.594.131 to call the Netherlands
+14159657824 to call California
9657824 to make a local call
1-215-356-1666 to call Pennsylvania from within the US
Non-numeric strings, such as ``*70'' (to defeat call waiting), may be included in the
destination phone number. Whether or not they are stripped from the string used to dial
the destination fax machine is dependent on the dialstring rules configured for use on the
server; c.f. hylafax-config(5) and dialrules(5).

A destination may also be specified as user@fax-number. In this case the user string will
be passed to faxcover as the identity of the recipient. Note that multi-word names must
be enclosed in quote marks; for example, ``Sam Leffler@+1.415.555.1212''.

The order of options on the command line is significant. Each fax to be transmitted is
assigned the current value of parameters specified on the command line; e.g. whether or
not to generate a cover page. This means that options that specify parameters for a
particular destination must precede the dialstring specified with the -d option. For
example,

sendfax -n -d 5551212 /etc/passwd

submits a fax to 5551212 that has no cover page while

sendfax -d 5551212 -n /etc/passwd

submits the same fax but with the default cover page handling. Note also that parameter
values persist across -d options so the following

sendfax -n -d 5551212 -d 5551313 /etc/network

submits two facsimile, both of which have no cover page.

OPTIONS

-1 Transmit facsimile documents using 1-D MH compression. By default HylaFAX
will use the optimal compression scheme supported by the transmitting modem
and receiving facsimile device.

-2 Transmit facsimile documents using 2-D MR compression, if possible. By
default HylaFAX will use the optimal compression scheme supported by the
transmitting modem and receiving facsimile device.

-3 Transmit facsimile documents using 2-D MMR compression, if possible. By
default HylaFAX will use the optimal compression scheme supported by the
transmitting modem and receiving facsimile device.

-a time Schedule transmission up to one year in advance at the indicated time. Time
is specified in the format: ``HH:MM [AM|PM] | now [+ N period | month DD |
dayofweek ]´´ where month can be Jan(uary), Feb(ruary), Mar(ch), Apr(il), May,
Jun(e), Jul(y), Aug(ust), Sep(tember), Oct(ober), Nov(ember), or Dec(ember);
period can be minute(s), hour(s), day(s), week(s), or month(s); dayofweek can
be Mon(day), Tue(sday), Wed(nesday), Thu(rsday), Fri(day), Sat(urday),
Sun(day); e.g. ``now + 30 minutes´´ to schedule transmission 30 minutes in the
future. Trailing information in the time field (such as YYYY) is ignored. By
default, sendfax schedules facsimile for immediate delivery. Time should be
given in the user's local time.

-A Archive the job on the server according to the bin/archive script when the job
is done.

-b speed Transmit facsimile documents using a signalling rate that is constrained to be
at least speed bits/second. If the specified speed is greater than the
transmitting modem or receiver is capable of, it is reduced to the highest
possible speed both devices support. If a negotiated signalling rate greater
than or equal to speed cannot be negotiated then the job is aborted. Possible
speeds are: 2400, 4800, 7200, 9600, 12000, 14400, 16800, 19200, 21600, 24000,
26400, 28800, 31200, and 33600. By default HylaFAX will use the fastest
possible rate supported by the transmitting modem and receiving facsimile
device.

-B speed Try to transmit facsimile documents using the desired signalling rate.
Possible speeds are: 2400, 4800, 7200, 9600, 12000, 14400, 16800, 19200,
21600, 24000, 26400, 28800, 31200, and 33600. If the specified speed is
greater than the transmitting modem or receiver is capable of, it is reduced
to the highest possible speed both devices support. By default HylaFAX will
use the fastest possible rate supported by the transmitting modem and
receiving facsimile device (unless restricted by other server configuration);
this option can be used to reduce the speed. Note that international calls
are frequently more reliable when transmissions are restricted to 9600
bits/second. For Class 1/1.0 devices, if the specified speed is not greater
than 14400 then V.34 will not be attempted, and if the specified speed is 9600
or 7200 then V.29 will be assumed in lieu of V.17.

-c comments Pass comments to the faxcover(1) program for inclusion in the comments field
of any generated cover page.

-C file Pass file to the faxcover(1) program for use as the cover page template.

-D Enable notification by electronic mail when the facsimile has been delivered.
By default HylaFAX will notify the submitter only if there is a problem with a
job.

-d destination
Create a job to transmit the supplied documents to a facsimile machine at the
indicated destination. If the destination is of the form ``user@phone-
number#subaddress'' then any cover page will show user as the intended
recipient, and the remote system will be supplied the subaddress value (i.e.
for routing) provided that the sending modem and the receiving system support
it.

-E Disable use of the Error Correction Mode (ECM) when transmitting page data.
Setting ECM to false will limit the maximum speed to 14400 bps. By default
HylaFAX will attempt to use ECM when both the transmitting modem and receiving
device support it. Note that international calls are sometimes faster when
ECM is disabled. Beware also that some modems and/or facsimile devices do not
properly implement ECM causing transmission failures.

-f from Use from as the identity of the facsimile sender. Otherwise the sender is the
user that invoked sendfax. The sender is an account name to which the HylaFAX
software should direct notification messages. The from identity may be a
fullblown ``From:'' line, e.g. e.g. ``Joe Blow <[email protected]>'' and
``[email protected] (Joe Blow)'' are acceptable. If no host-part is specified in
the from string the local hostname is used. This option is useful when
sendfax is invoked on behalf of another user, such as in the implementation of
an electronic mail to fax gateway.

-F format Use the specified format when imaging tag lines on outgoing pages. Consult
the description of the TagLineFormat parameter in hylafax-config(5) for an
explanation of how to construct a format string.

Note that many locales require that proper identification appear on all
transmitted facsimile; when using this facility one should always include
proper identification (e.g. a phone number) in the imaged taglines.

-G Enable usage of any extended resolutions supported by the receiver. -G
supersedes the usage of any -l or -m options. Beware that increased
resolution will increase transmission time.

-h [modem@]host[:port]
Force the jobs to be processed on a specific host and, optionally, using a
particular modem. The host may be either a symbolic name or a network
address. If no -h option is supplied, sendfax uses the FAXSERVER environment
variable to identify the HylaFAX server to which the jobs should be directed.
If no server is specified then sendfax attempts to contact a server on the
local host. If no modem is specified, the job will be submitted to any
available modem.

-i identifier
Use the identifier string in any notification messages instead of the usual
job identifier number. This option is useful for applications that cross
reference notification messages against job submissions.

-I time If a job must be requeued because of a communication failure schedule the
retry according to the specified time. Times are given in seconds. Minutes,
hours, and days can be specified with ``min'', ``hour'', and ``day'' suffixes,
respectively. By default HylaFAX reschedules jobs using retry times that
depend on the manner in which the job failed; this interface permits a user to
override this algorithm and specify a single fixed retry time for all
communication failures.

-k time Kill the job if it does not complete in the indicated time. The time is
specified using notation identical to the -a option. Note that the time is
relative to the time of the initial time-to-send. The default kill time is
``now + 3 hours'' (three hours from the time the job is first processed). To
retry for an hour, ``now +1 hour'' could be used.

-l Transmit the facsimile at a vertical resolution of 98 lines/inch; otherwise
known as low resolution.

-m Transmit the facsimile at a vertical resolution of 196 lines/inch; otherwise
known as medium resolution or fine mode.

-M mst Transmit facsimile documents using the specified minimum scanline time.
Possible times are: 0ms, 5ms, 10ms2, 10ms, 20ms2, 20ms, 40ms2, and 40ms. If
the specified time is less than the transmitting modem or receiver is capable
of, it is increased to the lowest possible time both devices support. By
default HylaFAX will use the lowest possible time supported by the
transmitting modem and receiving facsimile device (unless restricted by other
server configuration). This option is mostly useful for debugging.

-n Suppress the automatic generation of a cover page for subsequent facsimile.
Note that polling requests do not receive a cover page unless they are
combined with the transmission of one or more files.

-N Do not notify the sender by electronic mail when the facsimile has been
delivered or requeued.

-o owner Specify the fax owner login name, replacing any FAXUSER environment variable
that may be set for the same purpose. If neither is specified, the user's
current login name is used.

-p Poll each destination for any available documents. If a poll request is made
together with document transmission, the poll operation is done after the
documents are transmitted. Documents received by polling are returned to the
sender by electronic mail.

-P priority Assign the specified scheduling priority to subsequent jobs. A priority is an
integer value in the range [0-255]. Lower values result in higher priority
processing. By default, each job is assigned 127 for an initial scheduling
priority. If a job's priority is greater than bulk faxes then the job's
priority is raised (numerically lowered) for each failed attempt to transmit
so that retransmit attempts are done ahead of newly submitted jobs. In the
case of bulk faxes (numerically higher than 190), then the job's priority is
lowered (numerically raised) for each failed attempt to transmit so that the
whole of the bulk-queued jobs will be attempted before any are retried. The
priority may also be specified as one of the following symbolic names: default
or normal (127), bulk or junk (191), low (190), or high (63).

-R Enable notification by electronic mail when the facsimile has been delivered
and when it is requeued for retransmission. By default HylaFAX will notify
the submitter only if there is a problem with a job.

-r regarding
Pass regarding to the faxcover(1) program as the value of the ``Re:'' field of
any generated cover page.

-s size Set the page size to use for the transmitted facsimile. Facsimile are
normally imaged with a system-default page size (usually letter-size pages,
8.5" by 11", for sites in North America). Alternate page sizes are specified
symbolically using either the name or abbreviation of an entry in the
pagesizes(5) database; e.g. a3 (ISO A3), a4 (ISO A4), a5 (ISO A5), a6 (ISO
A6), b4 (ISO B4), na-let (North American Letter), us-leg (American Legal), us-
led (American Ledger), us-exe (American Executive), jp-let (Japanese Letter),
and jp-leg (Japanese Legal). Comparisons are case-insensitive and any match
of a substring of the full page-size name is sufficient; e.g. ``legal'' would
match ``American Legal''.

Note that it may not be permissible to image into the full page area; the
guaranteed reproducible area for a page is typically inset. Also, note that
while arbitrary page sizes can be specified through the page size database,
only a limited set of page dimensions are supported by the Group 3 facsimile
protocol. Thus if an odd-size facsimile is submitted for transmission it may
not be possible to determine if it can be sent until the fax server
establishes communication with the remote facsimile machine.

-S tsi Pass tsi to the server as the suggested sender identification to be used, for
example, in tagline imaging and fax protocol.

-t tries Make no more than tries attempts to send the facsimile. By default, HylaFAX
will terminate a job if 3 consecutive attempts to send a particular page fail,
or it appears the receiver is not a facsimile machine. Otherwise HylaFAX
places no limit on the number of attempts to send a facsimile, instead
terminating a job if it is not completed within a kill time timeout interval.
Note that a try is a call in which carrier is established and the facsimile
protocol is commenced; this is contrasted with a call attempt that might have
failed because the line was busy. Use ``-1'' to indicate that no tries value
should be specified to the server.

-T maxdials Make no more than maxdials calls in attempting to send the facsimile. By
default, HylaFAX will redial 12 times before killing a job. Use ``-1'' to
indicate that no maxdials value should be specified to the server.

-U voice-no Pass voice-no to the faxcover(1) program as the sender's voice number.

-V voice-no Pass voice-no to the faxcover(1) program as the destination person's voice
number.

-w Wait for the job to complete before ending the sendfax session. If this
option is used, the sendfax process will not terminate until the job is
completed.

-W fax-no Pass fax-no to the faxcover(1) program as the sender's fax number.

-x company Pass company to the faxcover(1) program as the destination company name.

-X company Pass company to the faxcover(1) program as the sender's company name.

-y location Pass location to the faxcover(1) program as the destination company's
location.

-Y location Pass location to the faxcover(1) program as the sender's company location.

-z filename Read destinations from filename which contains a list of the destinations
formatted identically as destinations for the -d option, one per line. Usage
of this option is similar to the -d option and may be done in conjunction with
other -d and -z options.

-v Print information on the standard output about each conversion and cover sheet
generation operation it does. If -v is specified twice, the protocol between
sendfax and the hfaxd server process that does the submission work on the
remote machine is also displayed.

-Z range Specify that only certain pages of the fax should actually be transmitted.
The range is in a comma-seperated list of ranges in the form of A[-B][,....].
The range is specified agains the resulting document to be faxed, excluding
any cover pages. So if you have more than one document, make sure to account
for them, and exclude the cover pages in the range specification. Cover pages
will always be faxed, so a fax with a coverpage and 2 5 page documents with a
range specified of of 1,3,10 will fax the cover page, and pages 1, 3, and 10
of the combined documents (page 1 and 3 from the first document, and page 5 of
the second document).

CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS

sendfax reads configuration information from the files /etc/hylafax/hfaxd.conf,
/etc/hylafax/hyla.conf, /etc/hylafax/sendfax.conf, and ~/.hylarc; in that order, with
later-read settings superseding any that may have been previously read. Configuration
files follow the conventions described in hylafax-client(1). The following configuration
parameters are recognized. Parameters marked with ¹ are not available in
/etc/hylafax/hfaxd.conf :
Tag Type Default Description
AutoCoverPage boolean Yes automatically generate cover page
ChopThreshold float 3.0 page chopping threshold
CoverCmd string see below pathname of cover sheet program
Cover-Comments string - cover page comments string
Cover-Company¹ string - cover page to-company name string
Cover-Location¹ string - cover page to-company location string
Cover-Regarding string - cover page regarding string
Cover-Template string - cover page template filename
Cover-Voice¹ string - cover page to-voice number string
Cover-From-Company¹ string -cover page from-company string
Cover-From-Location¹ string -cover page from-location string
Cover-From-Voice¹ string -cover page from-voice number string
Cover-From-Fax¹ string - cover page from-fax number string
DateFormat string - cover page date format string
DesiredEC integer 2 desired type of ECM
DesiredMST string - desired minimum scanling time to use
DesiredSpeed integer - desired signalling rate to use
DialRules string see below file containing dialstring rules
From string - sender's identity
HRes float 204. horizontal resolution
Host string localhost host to contact for service
KillTime string - time to expire job
MailAddr string - mail address for notification messages
MaxDials integer 12 times to retry dialing
MaxTries integer 3 times to retry transmission
MinSpeed integer - minimum acceptable signalling rate
Modem string - modem to use on server
Notify string none control email notification
PageChop string default control page chop handling
PageLength float - page length in millimeters
PageSize string default page size by name
PageWidth float - page width in millimeters
PassiveMode boolean false whether or not to use passive mode
Port integer 4559 port to use in contacting server
Priority string default job scheduling priority
Protocol string tcp protocol to use in contacting server
RetryTime string - delay between failed attempts to send
SendTime string - time to send job
TagLine string - tagline format string
TypeRules string see below file containing file typing rules
VRes float 98. vertical resolution
Verbose boolean No whether or not to enable protocol tracing

The configuration parameters are explained below. Certain configuration parameters,
notably those for setting strings on automatically generated cover pages, are defined
mainly for use by other HylaFAX programs that share common code used by sendfax.

AutoCoverPage Control whether or not a cover page is automatically generated for each
job. (Equivalent to the -n option.)

ChopThreshold The amount of white space, in inches, that must be present at the bottom
of a page before HylaFAX will attempt to truncate the page transmission.

CoverCmd The absolute pathname of the program to use to generate cover pages. The
default cover sheet program is /usr/bin/faxcover.

Cover-Comments The comments string to pass to the cover sheet program when auto-
generating cover pages.

Cover-Company The to-company name string to pass to the cover sheet program when auto-
generating cover pages.

Cover-Location The to-company location string to pass to the cover sheet program when
auto-generating cover pages.

Cover-Regarding The regarding string to pass to the cover sheet program when auto-
generating cover pages.

Cover-Template The absolute pathname of a cover sheet template file to use in auto-
generating cover pages.

Cover-Voice The to-voice number string to pass to the cover sheet program when auto-
generating cover pages.

Cover-From-Company
The from-company name string to pass to the cover sheet program when auto-
generating cover pages.

Cover-From-Location
The from-location string to pass to the cover sheet program when auto-
generating cover pages.

Cover-From-Voice
The from-voice number string to pass to the cover sheet program when auto-
generating cover pages.

Cover-From-Fax The from-fax number string to pass to the cover sheet program when auto-
generating cover pages.

DateFormat The strftime(3) format string to pass to the cover page command when auto-
generating cover pages.

DesiredEC Which type of the optional Error Correct Mode (ECM) to use when
transmitting facsimile. 0 to disable, 1 for 64-byte ECM, and 2 for
256-byte ECM (default).

DesiredMST The desired minimum scanline time to use when transmitting facsimile.
(Equivalent to the -M option.)

DesiredSpeed The desired signalling rate to the use when transmitting facsimile.
(Equivalent to the -B option.)

DialRules The name of the file containing the dialstring processing rules to when
preparing an externally visible representation of the dialstring (e.g. to
strip credit card numbers). By default this is /etc/hylafax/dialrules.

From The sender's identity. (Equivalent to the -f option.)

Host The host to contact for service. (Equivalent to the -h option.)

HRes The horizontal resolution to use when transmitting facsimile. (NB: this
currently has no effect.)

KillTime The expiration time to assign to each job. (Equivalent to the -k option.)

MailAddr The electronic mail address to direct notification messages from the
server. If this string is specified without an ``@hostname'' part then
the local hostname will automatically be appended. (Equivalent to the -f
option.)

MaxDials The maximum number of times to dial the phone for each job. (Equivalent
to the -T option.)

MaxTries The maximum number of times to retry sending a job. (Equivalent to the -t
option.)

MinSpeed The minimum acceptable signalling rate to use when transmitting facsimile.
(Equivalent to the -b option.)

Modem The modem to use on the server. (Equivalent to the -h option.)

Notify Control the email notification messages from the server. This string may
be one of ``done'', ``none'', ``requeued'' or ``default'' with an
optionally preceding ``when '' (e.g. ``when done''). Note that ``when
requeued'' implies ``when done''. (Equivalent to the -D, -R, and -N
options.)

PageChop Control page chop handling when transmitting facsimile. This string may
be one of ``none'', ``all'', or ``last' to have no pages chopped, all
pages chopped, or only the last page chopped; respectively. Page chopping
is controlled by the ChopThreshold parameter.

PageLength Set the transmitted page length in millimeters.

PageSize Set the page dimensions according to an entry in the pagesizes(5)
database. (Equivalent to the -s option.)

PageWidth Set the transmitted page width in millimeters.

PassiveMode Whether or not to use passive mode in communication with the server.

Port The network port to contact for service. (Equivalent to the -h option.)

Priority The scheduling priority to assign to each job. (Equivalent to the -P
option.)

Protocol The name of the communication protocol to use when contacting a server.
(Equivalent to the FAXSERVICE environment variable.)

RetryTime The time to delay between job retries due to a communication failure.
(Equivalent to the -I option.)

SendTime The time to send jobs. (Equivalent to the -a option.)

TagLine The tagline format string to use when transmitting facsimile. (Equivalent
to the -F option.)

TypeRules The name of the file containing file type conversion rules. By default
this is /etc/hylafax/typerules.

Verbose Control protocol tracing. (Equivalent to the -vv option.)

VRes Set the vertical resolution in lines/inch to use when transmitting
facsimile. (Equivalent to the -m and -l options.)

DIAGNOSTICS

The following messages are generated because of problems encountered on the local machine.

Could not call server. The facsimile server on the remote machine did not respond.

No input data; transmission aborted. No data was supplied (typically on the standard
input). No facsimile will be sent.

Error converting data; command was %s." A data conversion operation failed; the shell
command that was used is printed.

Can not convert %s. Data needed to be converted for transmission, but the required
conversion rule was not located. This may indicate that the HylaFAX software was
incorrectly installed; or perhaps that an NFS-mounted directory is temporarily
unavailable.

%s: Can not determine file type. sendfax was unable to deduce the type of the file.

%s: Not a regular file. The file is something other than a regular file; for example, a
directory.

The following messages may be printed by sendfax. These messages describe problems
encountered by the server process on the remote machine. This list is incomplete; other
messages may be generated by the server under unusual circumstances.

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