mp(1)
NAME
mp - text to PDL (Page Description Language) pretty print
filter
SYNOPSIS
mp [-A4] [-C] [-D target_printer_name] [-F] [-L localename]
[-P target_spool_printer] [-PS] [-US] [-a] [-c chars] [-d]
[-e] [-ff] [-fp] [-l] [-ll] [-m] [-M] [-n] [-o] [-
p prologue] [-s subject] [-tm] [-ts] [-u config_file_path]
[-v] [-w words] [-z point_size] [-?] [filename...]
DESCRIPTION
The mp program, when called without the -D or -P option,
reads each filename in sequence and generates a prettified
version of the contents in PostScript format, sent to stan-
dard output. If no filename argument is provided, mp reads
the standard input. If the standard input is a terminal,
input is terminated by an EOF signal, usually Control-d.
The -D and -P options require the target printer name as an
argument and produce the Page Description Language (PDL) of
the target printer. The -D option causes the PDL to output
to stdout and the -P option causes the PDL to be directly
spooled to the printer. In the absence of these options, mp
will product default PostScript output.
The mp program accepts international text files of various
Solaris locales and produces output which is proper for the
specified locale. The output will also contain proper text
layout. For instance, the output will contain bidirectional
text rendering, and also shaping, since the complex text
layout (CTL) is supported in mp.
Mail items, news articles, ordinary ASCII files, complete
mail folders, and digests are all acceptable input formats
for mp. The output format includes grayscale lozenges, or
the outline of the same dimensions as the lozenges, contain-
ing banner information at the top and bottom of every page.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-a Formats the file as a news article. The top banner
contains the text: "Article from newsgroup", where
newsgroup is the first news group found on the "News-
groups:" line.
-A4 Uses A4 paper size (8.26 x 11.69 inches).
-c chars
The maximum number of characters to extract from the
gecos field of the user's /etc/passwd entry. The
default is 18.
-C Instead of using "\nFrom" to denote the start of new
mail messages, mp will look for (and use) the value of
the Content-Length: mail header. If the Content-Length
doesn't take you to the next "\nFrom", then it is
wrong, and mp falls back to looking for the next
"\nFrom" in the mail folder.
-d Formats the file as a digest.
-D target_printer_name
Produces the PDL for the target printer. Requires X
Print Server connection. target_printer_name can be
either printer_name@machine[:display_number] or just
printer_name. In the first form, mp tries to connect
to the X Print Server display machine[:display_number]
with the target printer as printer_name.
-e Assumes the ELM mail frontend intermediate file for-
mat. Used when printing messages from within ELM
(using the "p" command), especially for printing
tagged messages. This option must be specified in your
ELM option setup.
-ff Formats the file for use with a Filofax personal
organizer.
-fp Formats the file for use with a Franklin Planner per-
sonal organizer.
-F Instead of printing who the mail article is for, the
top header will contain who the mail article is from.
A useful option for people with their own personal
printer.
-l Formats output in landscape mode. Two pages of text
will be printed per sheet of paper.
-ll Formats output in landscape mode. One page of text
will be printed per sheet of paper. This is useful for
printing files with longer than normal lines.
-L localename
Provides the locale of the file to be printed. If this
command line option is not present, then mp looks for
the MP_LANG environment variable. If that is not
present, the LANG environment variable is used. If
none of these options are present, mp tries to deter-
mine the locale it is running in. If it cannot deter-
mine the locale, mp assumes it is running in the C
locale.
-m Formats the file as a mail folder, printing multiple
messages.
-M Forces mp to use the mp.conf file for printing output
even if a prolog.ps file exists for that locale. Use-
ful when printing to non-native PostScript printers.
-n Turns off the gray bars and associated information
from header and footer. Used to get output similar to
output of 'lp filename'.
-o Formats the file as an ordinary ASCII file.
-p prologue
Employs the file prologue as the PostScript/Xprt pro-
logue file, overriding any previously defined file
names. This file specifies the format of the print
output. For PostScript output, the prologue file will
have a .ps extension. For Xprt clients (when the -D
option is specified), this file will have an .xpr
extension. These files are defined in the SUPPLIED
PROLOGUE FILES section below.
-P target_spool_printer
Spools the PDL to the target printer. No output is
sent to stdout. Requires X Print Server connection.
target_spool_printer can be either
printer_name@machine[:display_number] or just
printer_name. In the first form, mp tries to connect
to the display machine[:display_number] with the tar-
get printer as printer_name.
-PS If the mail or digest message just has PostScript as
the text of the message, this is normally just passed
straight through. Specifying this option causes
PostScript to be printed as text.
-s subject
Uses subject as the new subject for the printout. If
you are printing ordinary ASCII files that have been
specified on the command line, the subject will
default to the name of each of these files.
-tm Formats the file for use with the Time Manager per-
sonal organizer.
-ts Formats the file for use with the Time/System Interna-
tional personal organizer.
-US Uses US paper size (8.5 x 11 inches). This is the
default paper size.
-u config_file_path
Specifies an alternate configuration file to the
default file
/usr/lib/lp/locale/locale_name/mp/mp.conf. The abso-
lute file path name must be used.
-v Prints the version number of this release of mp.
-w words
The maximum number of words to extract from the gecos
field of the user's /etc/passwd entry. The default is
3.
-z point_size
Prints the output text in the point size specified by
point_size. The internal default is 12 points for por-
trait printing and 9 points for landscape printing.
-? Prints the usage line for mp. Notice that the ? char-
acter must be escaped if using csh(1).
OPERANDS
The following operand is supported:
filename
The name of the file to be read.
EXAMPLES
The mp print filter can be used to print files in any locale
that is installed in the user's machine.
Example 1: Printing Japanese text files
Japanese text files encoded in the euc codeset can be
printed in any non-Japanese PostScript printers by entering:
example% mp -L ja_JP.eucJP -M ja_JP_eucJP.txt | lp
Here, the -L option specifies the locale and the -M option
invokes the mp.conf configuration file instead of the
default prolog.ps file. In the case of ja_JP.eucJP, both
/usr/lib/lp/locale/ja_JP.eucJP/mp/mp.conf and
/usr/openwin/lib/locale/ja_JP.eucJP/print/prolog.ps files
are present. Therefore, the -M option is used to override
the precedence of the default prolog.ps file. Using mp.conf
as the configuration file makes it possible to print to any
PostScript printer.
The encoding of the locale specifed by the -L option and
that of the text file to be printed have to be the same. In
the above Japanese file example, if the text file is encoded
in Shift-JIS, use the following command, since the locale
ja_JP.PCK is encoded in SJIS:
example% mp -L ja_JP.PCK -M SJIS.txt | lp
Example 2: Running in Xprt mode
If an X Print Server daemon (/usr/openwin/bin/Xprt) is run-
ning in any system in the network, mp can be invoked as fol-
lows, enabling it to output in any Page Description Language
supported by Xprt (the default value of display_number is
2100):
example% setenv XPSERVERLIST "machine1[:display_number1] \
machine2[:display_number2] machine3[:display_number3]"
or
example% setenv XPDISPLAY machine_name[:display_number]
Using the options -D printer_name[@machine[:display_number]]
or -P printer_name[@machine[:display_number]] gives the
greatest precedence and mp tries to connect to Xprt running
on machine[:display_number] with printer_name. When not
specified, the default display_number value is 2100. If this
fails, printer_name is tried with an Xprt display obtained
from the following logic. The following is also valid if you
enter only -D printer_name or -P printer_name on the command
line.
mp checks XPSERVERLIST for a list of space-separated Xprt
servers until it finds one which supports the printer_name
argument. If none is found, mp checks the XPDISPLAY environ-
ment variable, which is of the form
machine[:display_number]. If that is also not set or not
valid, mp tries to connect to the default display, :2100. If
that is also not successful, mp exits with an error message.
To pipe the data to the target printer when XPSERVERLIST or
XPDISPLAY is set, enter:
example% mp -D printer_name -L ja_JP.eucJP \
-M ja_JP_eucJP.txt | lp -d printer_name
For direct spooling when working in Xprt client mode, use
the -P option:
example% mp -P printer_name -L ja_JP.eucJP -M ja_JP_eucJP.txt
Example 3: Turning off the header and footer
Use the -n option to turn off the mp header and footer:
example% mp -n mytext.txt | lp
Example 4: Printing long text lines
Use the -ll option to print text files with longer than 80
column lines in landscape mode:
example% mp -ll mytext.txt | lp
Example 5: Specifying print point size
Use the -z option to specify any point size, in this case,
20 points:
example% mp -z 20 mytext.txt | lp
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
XPSERVERLIST
If the arguments to -D or -P is of the form
printer_name@machine[:display_number], XPSERVERLIST is
used only if the machine[:display_number] does not
support printer_name.
XPSERVERLIST contains a space-separated list of Xprt
displays to which to connect the printer. mp goes
through the list sequentially to get an Xprt server
that can support the given printer, exiting at the
first instance where mp finds a display to which to
connect. If this is not set, the environment variable
XPDISPLAY is used instead.
XPDISPLAY
If the -D or -P option is specified in the command
line with just the printer_name argument and no XPSER-
VERLIST variable is set in the environment, the
XPDISPLAY variable is used to determine the
machine[:display_number] running the X Print Server to
connect the client. If XPDISPLAY is also not set, the
print server startup script starts an Xprt server at
port 2100 of the machine in which the client is run-
ning. The script terminates the print server once the
job is over. If XPDISPLAY is set, the mp client tries
to contact the print server running at XPDISPLAY. In
this case, no attempt is made to start the server if
it is not running.
MP_PROLOGUE
Used to determine the directory where the page format-
ting files (.xpr or .ps) are kept. These files deter-
mine page decorations, number of logical pages per
physical page, landscape or portrait format, and so
forth. In the absence of MP_PROLOGUE, the default
location of the directory is /usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp.
MP_LANG
LANG If neither of the -D or -P options is specified, a
prologue file is prepended to the output to be
printed. The prologue file is called
/usr/openwin/lib/locale/localename/print/prolog.ps or
/usr/lib/lp/locale/localename/mp/prolog.ps, where
localename is the value of the MP_LANG or LANG
environment variable, if present. If both variables
are present, the file
/usr/openwin/lib/locale/localename/print/prolog.ps is
given preference due to backward compatibility rea-
sons. If either of these files are not present, and
the -D option is not specified, a configuration file
of the locale called
/usr/lib/lp/locale/localename/mp/mp.conf is used as
the source of the configuration information that sub-
stitutes the prologue information for printing. The
presence of prolog.ps disables mp.conf for backward
compatibility.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
1 An error occurred.
SUPPLIED PROLOGUE FILES
The following prologue files are provided. Files with .ps
extensions are for the PostScript output. Files with .xpr
extensions are for the Print Server client. .xpr files are
created for 300dpi printers and will scale to other resolu-
tion values.
mp.common.ps
Common prologue file for all other .ps files in this
directory.
mp.pro.ps
mp.pro.xpr
Used by default.
mp.pro.ff.ps
mp.pro.ff.xpr
Used if the -ff option is in effect.
mp.pro.fp.ps
mp.pro.fp.xpr
Used if the -fp option is in effect.
mp.pro.tm.ps
mp.pro.tm.xpr
Used if the -tm option is in effect.
mp.pro.ts.ps
mp.pro.ts.xpr
Used if the -ts option is in effect.
mp.pro.alt.ps
mp.pro.alt.xpr
An alternative modification of the default prologue
file which outputs the page number in the right corner
of the bottom banner.
mp.pro.l.ps
mp.pro.l.xpr
Prologue file used for landscape outputs.
mp.pro.ll.ps
mp.pro.ll.xpr
Prologue file used for landscape outputs, when print-
ing files with longer than normal lines.
mp.pro.altl.ps
mp.pro.altl.xpr
Alternate prologue file used for landscape outputs.
FILES
.cshrc
Initialization file for csh(1).
.mailrc
Initialization file for mail(1).
/usr/bin/mp
Executable.
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.conf
Default configuration file.
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.common.ps
Common prologue file for all other .ps files in this
directory. Not for .xpr files.
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.ps
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.xpr
Default prologue files for mail printing.
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.l.ps
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.l.xpr
Default prologue files for landscape format.
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.ll.ps
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.ll.xpr
Default prologue files for landscape format with one
column per page. Useful when printing files with long
lines.
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.altl.ps
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.altl.xpr
Alternate prologue files for landscape format.
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.alt.ps
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.alt.xpr
Alternative "default" prologue files. Insert page
numbers in the bottom right corner of each page.
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.ff.ps
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.ff.xpr
Default prologue files for Filofax format.
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.fp.ps
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.fp.xpr
Default prologue files for Franklin Planner format.
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.tm.ps
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.tm.xpr
Default prologue files for Time Manager format.
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.ts.ps
/usr/lib/lp/locale/C/mp/mp.pro.ts.xpr
Default prologue files for Time/System International
format.
/usr/openwin/lib/locale/localename/print/prolog.ps
/usr/lib/lp/locale/localename/mp/prolog.ps
Default locale-specific prologued file as an alterna-
tive to the mp.conf file. See ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
for more detail on the relationship.
The structure and format for mp.conf and .xpr files are
documented in the International Language Environments Guide.
Refer to this document if you need to use alternate fonts,
including Printer Resident Fonts, or if you want to make
changes to output format.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWmp |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
csh(1), mail(1), mailtool(1), attributes(5)
International Language Environments Guide
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