Hpmodeset Users Guide

To Contents

3 Usage

hpmodeset generates encapsulated printer files to its standard output. To determine the switches available in your local configuration run hpmodeset with the -help switch. This will list all available command line switches along with the valid values for each switch.

The user can redirect the output of hpmodeset to a file, pipe it directly to a print command (like lpr), or to another filter for further processing.

hpmodeset file1 < file2

hpmodeset -draft=on file1 | lpr

The first example above encapsulates file1 within printer control commands (in this case none) and redirects the output to file2. The second example pipes the output (encapsulated in a draft command) to the lpr command.

To read standard input use the file marker -, as in the following example:

cat file1 | hpmodeset -draft=on - | lpr

To Contents

4 Configuration

hpmodeset is configured through a text file that defines the available printer control switches, their command syntax and valid options. The configuration file is composed of a number of sections. Each section has the following form:

Section SectionName
    SectionEntry
EndSection

The valid SectionNames are globals, languages, and variables. Each SectionEntry has a different format depending on the section it is contained within.

To Contents

4.1 Globals Section

The globals section is mandatory. It contains a number of global settings for hpmodeset to function correctly. The syntax for SectionEntry in the globals section is as follows:

GlobalVariableName VariableValue

The GlobalVariableName may be one of job_header, job_trailer, reset_command, end_of_command or white_space.

The VariableValue for each of these settings must be a string of characters surrounded by double quotes. Entries for every GlobalVariableName must appear in the config file.

The globals section typically looks like:

Section globals
    job_header        "%/27/%%-12345X@PJL COMMENT (C) 1995/1996 Glenn Maughan" 
    job_trailer	      "%/27/%%-12345X@PJL COMMENT end of job"
    reset_command     "@PJL RESET%N%/27/%%-12345X"
    end_of_command    "%N"
    white_space       " "		
EndSection

To Contents

5 Languages Section

The languages section defines the languages supported by the printer and the magic numbers to search for to determine the language used in a print file. This section should define the languages that your printer supports. The syntax for a SectionEntry in the languages section is as follows:

Language EnterCommand LeaveCommand Offset MagicString

The Language is an arbitrary name used for the language. For example postscript and pcl are valid language names.

The EnterCommand is the printer control command to enter the language in question. This command should be complete. ie., the printer should expect a stream of code in the language specified immediately after the EnterCommand.

The LeaveCommand specifies a command to use when leaving the language. For example, PostScript expects a Control-D character after every PostScript file. This can be specified in the LeaveCommand.

The Offset specifies the byte to start searching for the MagicString. One (1) is the first byte in the file, not zero (0). The MagicString is an arbitrary string of characters that will uniquely determine the type of code in the print file. For example, PostScript code can be recognised by the magic string "%!" starting at byte one (1) of a print file.

A typical languages section that supports both PostScript and PCL for the PJL language would look like the following:

Section languages
    postscript	"@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = POSTSCRIPT"    "%/3/"    1    "%%!"
    pcl		"@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = PCL"	      ""        1    "%/27/E%/27/"
EndSection

To Contents

5.1 Variables Section

The final, and most important section in the config file is the variables section. This section defines the available command line switches, their valid options, the default option and the printer command to set the variable. The syntax for SectionEntry in the variables section is as follows:

Switch Variable Options Default

The Switch defines the command line syntax for each switch. This must be a word preceeded by a hyphen (-) character. The Variable is the printer command used to set the variable. This must be a string of characters surrounded by double quotes ("). The Options is a comma separated list of valid options in the form of either a word, a number (optionally signed) or a numeric interval (in the form "lower-upper"). The Default option is the option that will be used if the user specifies the switch with no value.

Any number of variables may be specified. The Switch should not include the equals sign (=). This is added automatically by the hpmodeset utility when parsing the command line.

The following listing is a sample of a variables section:

Section variables		
    -autocont		"@PJL SET AUTOCONT ="		ON,OFF,on,off		OFF	
    -autoselect		"@PJL SET AUTOSELECT ="		ON,OFF,on,off		ON
    -binding		"@PJL SET BINDING ="		LONGEDGE,SHORTEDGE,
							longedge,shortedge	LONGEDGE
    -clearablewarnings	"@PJL SET CLEARABLEWARNINGS ="	JOB,ON,job,on		ON
    -contextswitch	"@PJL SET CONTEXTSWITCH ="	ON,OFF,on,off		ON	
    -copies		"@PJL SET COPIES ="		1-999			1
    -cplock		"@PJL SET CPLOCK ="		OFF,ON,off,on		OFF
    -density		"@PJL SET DENSITY ="		1-5			3	
EndSection

To Contents

5.2 Config Syntax

The syntax for a configuration file is described in the following concrete syntax. There are four basic terminal types: number, word, string and switch and interval. Each is defined as follows:

number

An optionally signed integer or real number. For example, 1, 1.0, -1 and -1.0 are valid numbers.

word

A word is a single token of characters starting with an letter (a-z or A-Z).

switch

a word with a leading hyphen character (-).

interval

two numbers separated by a hyphen character (-).

string

A string is an arbitrary number of characters surrounded by double quotes ("). Control characters and unprintable characters can be embeded within a string using the Eiffel syntax for special characters.

Hp_Config 		::= 	Section_list;
Section_list		::=	{Section [";"] ...};
Section			::=	"Section" Section_body "EndSection";
Section_body		::= 	Variables | Globals | Languages;

Variables 		::= 	"variables" Variable_list;
Variable_list		::= 	{Printer_variable [";"] ...};
Printer_variable	::= 	Switch_type Variable_syntax Options Default;	
Variable_syntax		::= 	String_type;
Options			::= 	{Setting "," ...};
Setting			::= 	Alpha_type | Numeric_type | String_type | Interval_type;
Default			::= 	Setting;

Globals			::=	"globals" Globals_list;
Globals_list		::= 	{Global [";"] ...};
Global			::= 	Alpha_type String_type;

Languages		::= 	Language_list;
Language_list		::=	{Language [";"] ...};
Language		::=	Alpha_type Language_command Numeric_type 
				Language_magic_string;
Language_command	::=	String_type;
Language_magic_string 	::= 	String_type;

Switch_type		::=	"'-' ('a'..'z') *(~('a'..'z') | '_' | ('0'..'9'))";
Alpha_type		::=	"~('a'..'z') *(~('a'..'z') | '_' | ('0'..'9'))";
Numeric_type		::=	"$Z";
Interval_type		::=	"$N '-' $N";
String_type		::=	"'%"' *($. - '%"') '%"'";