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Please, before sending us mail, make sure the problem you have is not known, and explained. Moreover, avoid using the mailing list for asking question about the options, etc. It has been built for announces and suggestions, not to contact the authors.
Error related questions.
I just compiled a2ps, but when I try it, I have weird errors such as:
gargantua $ a2ps --help ld.so.1: a2ps: fatal: relocation error: symbol not found: ps_comment_hook: referenced in a2ps zsh: 7294 killed a2ps --help
This is due to a mix between several versions of the liba2ps. To
fix the problem, make sure to run `make install' in the `lib/'
directory and then in the `src/' directory. Removing the previous
`liba2ps.so' files may help.
a2ps works OK, but the printer prints nothing.
There are two ways that printing can fail: silently, or with a diagnostic.
First, check that the printer received what you sent. a2ps may correctly do its job, but have the printer queue fail to deliver the job. In case of doubt, please check that the printer's leds blink (or whatever is its way to show that something is being processed).
If the printer does receive the job, but prints nothing at all, check that you did not give exotic options to an old printer (typically, avoid printing on two sides on a printer that does not support it). Avoid using `-S', `--setpagedevice' (see section 8.2 Page Device Options) and `--statusdict' (see section 8.3 Statusdict Options).
If the trouble persists, please try again but with the option `--debug' (a PostScript error handler is downloaded), and then send us:
Though I ask a2ps to print Duplex via `--sides', the job is printed simplex.
If your printer is too old, then a2ps will not be able to send it the code it needs when `-s2' is specified. This is because your printer uses an old and not standardized interface for special features.
So you need to
Since this is painful to hit, a User Option (see section 4.6 Your Shortcuts) should help.
When I print text files with a2ps, it prints beyond the frame of the paper.
You are most probably printing with a bad medium, for instance using A4 paper within a2ps, while your printer uses Letter paper. See section 3.1.3 Sheet Options, option `--medium' for more.
What I get on the printer is long and incomprehensible. It does not seem to correspond to what I wanted to print.
You are probably printing a PostScript file or equivalent. Try to print
with `-Z': a2ps will try to do his best to find what is the
program that can help you (see section 4.10 Your Delegations). In case of
doubt, don't hesitate to save into a file, and check the content with
Ghostview, or such:
$ a2ps my_weird_file -Z -o mwf.ps $ Ghostview mwf.ps
If it is not correct, ask for help around you.
a2ps complains that my file is binary though it is not.
There are several reasons that can cause a2ps to consider a file is binary:
file(1) said the type of the file is `data', in
which case a2ps prefers not to print the file. Then you can either:
** data binary
# Load the system's sheets.map *** /usr/local/share/a2ps/sheets/sheets.map # Override the rule for files with type `data' according to file(1) ** data plainBut this is not very good, since then this rule is always the first tested, which means that any file with type `data' according to
file(1) will be printed in `plain' style, even if the file
is called `foo.c'.
# file(1) says it's data, but it's pure text *.txx plain
a2ps does not seem to honor
--font-size(or `--lines-per-page', or `--chars-per-line').
This is probably because you used `-1'..`-9' after the `--font-size'. This is wrong, because the options `-1'..`-9' set the font size (so that there are 80 characters per lines), and many other things (See section 3.1.4 Page Options, option `--font-size').
Hence `a2ps --font-size=12km -4' is exactly the same thing as `a2ps -4', but is different from `a2ps -4 --font-size=12km'. Note that the `pure' options (no side-effects) to specify the number of virtual pages are `--columns' and `--rows'.
The option `--margin[=size]' is meant for this. See section 3.1.3 Sheet Options.
stdin?
a2ps prints the standard input if you give no file name, or if you gave
`-' as file name. Automatic style selection is of course much
weaker: without the file name, a2ps can only get file(1)'s
opinion (see section 5.4 Style Sheet Files). In general it means most
delegations are safe, but there will probably be no pretty-printing.
YOU can supply a name to the standard input (`--stdin=name') with which it could guess the language.
See section 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues, for details. Make sure that all the information a2ps needs is available (see section 5.3 Font Files).
By the past, a2ps had an option `-b' with which the fonts were bold. Since now the fonts are defined by prologues (see section 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues) this option no longer makes sense. A replacement prologue is provided: `bold'. To use it, give the option `--prologue=bold'.
a2ps is specialized in PostScript generation. Nevertheless many
printers do not understand PostScript, most notably personal Jet
printers. Ghostscript is a true PostScript interpreter which is
able to convert PostScript code into another format (most notably for
X11 or other screen devices, which explains why Ghostscript is
needed by tools such as Ghostview, or gv etc.).
Ghostscript might be the tool you need (see section A Glossary). It
support conversion to many different non PostScript printer.
Here are some tips on how to use a non PostScript printer. If somebody feels like writing a more precise documentation, he really is welcome.
Please refer to the Ghostscript documentation for a precise
description of the tuning you need.
Basically, the first step you need is to achieve to call
Ghostscript in a pipe chain. In other words, try to find out the
right arguments Ghostscript needs in order to print with a
command like this:
$ cat file.ps | gs more arguments
In general it is the same command as for calling Ghostscript with
a filename, except that the file name to use is `-':
$ cat file.ps \ | gs -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=deskjet -sOutputFile=- - -c quit\ | lp -dprinter-name
Once it works, it is then easy to settle the right Printer: line
in your configuration file (see section 4.5 Your Printers). For instance:
Printer: djet \ | gs -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=deskjet -sOutputFile=- - -c quit\ | lp -d djet
Christian Mondrup uses a2ps under Windows with a non PostScript printer. He uses:
DefaultPrinter: | //c/gstools/gs5.10/Gswin32c.exe \ -Ic:\gstools\gs5.10;c:\gstools\gs5.10\fonts \ -sDEVICE=ljet4 -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -dNOPAUSE -r300 -dSAFER \ -sOutputFile="\\spool\HP LaserJet 5L (PCL)" \ -q - -c quit
By the past, when I printed a man page with a2ps, it used underlines, but now it uses italics. I want underlines back!
See section 8.6 Designing PostScript Prologues, for all the details on such wishes. In short, do:
Wondering something?
The famous Y2K(6) problem...
Yes, a2ps is Y2K compliant... provided that you have either a version more recent than 4.10.3, or you did apply the patch which is available as `a2ps-y2k-patch'. To apply the patch onto the source of a2ps run:
$ cd a2ps-version/lib $ patch < a2ps-y2k-patch
and then proceed as usual.
The expansions of the following escapes were broken (giving `100' instead of `00'): `%D', `%W', `$D', `$W'.
Nevertheless, please note that if you required a two digit year, expect to have `Jan 1st, 00' someday. You are responsible of the format you want for the date: See section 3.2 Escapes.
The options of this a2ps are not the same as in the previous versions.
True. But the old scheme (up to version 4.6.1) prevented us from offering more options. We had to drop it, and to fully redesign the options handling.
Since that profound change, we try to change as little as possible between versions. Nevertheless, as the time passes, we discover that some never used options should be renamed, or used for something else. In these cases, compatibility code is left for a long time.
Anywhere you put options but the command line (e.g., in a2ps configuration files or in shell scripts), avoid using short options, since short options are much more likely to be changed (there are not so many, so it is a precious resource). Since there are as many long options as one wants, we can leave compatibility code with the long options.
yacc and suchThere are several reasons why we decided not to use grammars to parse the files. First it would have made the design of the style sheets much more tricky, and today a2ps would know only 4 or 5 languages.
Second, it limits the number of persons who could build a style sheet.
Third, mixing several parsers within one program is not easy. Moreover, its would have been ten times bigger.
Fourth, we did not feel the need for such a powerful tool: handling the keywords and the sequences is just what the users expect.
Fifth, any extension of a2ps would have required to recompile.
And last but not least, using a parser requires that the sources are syntactic bug free, what is too strong a requirement.
Nevertheless, PreScript gives the possibility to have on the one
hand a syntactic parser which would produce PreScript code, and
on the other hand, a2ps, which would make it PostScript. This schema
seems to us a good compromise. If it is still not enough for you, you
can use the library.
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