sendfax - Man Page

sendfax [ options ] [ files... ]

sendfax submits one or more facsimile transmission requests to a HylaFAX facsimile server. sendfax may prompt the user for a password and admin password depending on the invocation and server configuration. 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(5F). 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:

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(5F) and dialrules(5F).

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.

-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 ] [ @ timeofday ]´´ 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. Conversely, the timeofday field restricts the job from sending at various times relative to the server.  The syntax for timeofday is identical to the TimeOfDay syntax found in hylafax-config(5F).

-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.

-e name

Use name as the name value in the outbound call identification.

-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 full-blown “From:” line, e.g. e.g. “Joe Blow <joe@foo.com>” and “joe@foo.com (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(5F) 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. IPv6 addresses are given in “[xx:xx::x]:port” format. 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 login

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.  The login password may also be provided by separating it from the owner login name with a colon, like “owner:pass”.

-O option:value

Submit option with the indicated value as a job parameter in the client-server protocol for the job. Multiple instances of this command-line option may be used. The following options are currently supported:

Option       Value Type        Description
ignoremodembusy boolean           whether or not to ignore modem busy status (requires server configuration to allow)
nocountcover    integer           don't include this number of initial pages in the page counting
serverdocover   boolean           whether or not the server should generate the cover-page, if configured
skippages       integer           assume this number of pages in the first document have already been sent
skippedpages    integer           assume this number of pages in unsubmitted documents were previously sent
usecolor        string            whether or not to use color ("yes"/"no") and only color ("only")
usesslfax       string            whether or not to use SSL Fax ("yes"/"no")
config          string            override configuration with this setting
timezone        string            time zone locale setting to use in tagline formatting
probeonly       integer           "1" terminates once a fax call is established, "2" when handshaking received

-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(5F) 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.  (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.)   Without specifying a "tries" value to the server HylaFAX will, with some  exceptions, make an unlimited number of attempts to completely send the facsimile before the kill time expires.  (The exceptions are that HylaFAX will terminate a job if 3  consecutive attempts to send a particular page fail, or if it appears  the receiver is not a facsimile machine.)  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.

-u number

Use number as the number value in the outbound call identification and in tagline generation.

-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.

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 :

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(5F) 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.)

TSI

The sender identification to use when transmitting facsimile. (Equivalent to the -S option.)

TypeRules

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

Timeout

The timeout, in seconds, to wait for a server response.

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.)

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.

at(1), hylafax-client(1), faxalter(1), faxcover(1), faxmail(1), faxrm(1), faxstat(1), sgi2fax(1), textfmt(1), hfaxd(8C), hylafax-server(5F), typerules(5F)

configuration.nix(5), dialrules.5f(5), doneq.5f(5), faxalter(1), faxcover(1), faxmail(1), faxrm(1), faxstat(1), hfaxd.8c(8), hylafax.8c(8), jobcontrol.8c(8), pagesizes.5f(5), pdf2fax.8c(8), ps2fax.8c(8), sendq.5f(5), sgi2fax(1), textfmt(1), tiff2fax.8c(8), typerules.5f(5).