2.11BSD/src/local/mp/mp.man.text
MP(1) USER COMMANDS MP(1)
NAME
mp - POSTSCRIPT pretty printer
SYNOPSIS
mp [-A4] [-C] [-F] [-PS] [-US] [-a] [-d] [-e] [-ff] [-fp]
[-l] [-m] [-o] [-p prologue] [-s subject] [-tm] [-ts] [-v]
[-?] [filename...]
DESCRIPTION
The mp program reads each filename in sequence and generates
a prettified version of the contents in POSTSCRIPT format,
sent to standard output. If no filename argument is pro-
vided, mp reads the standard input. If the standard input
is a terminal, input is terminated by an EOF signal, usually
Ctrl-D.
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 con-
taining banner information at the top and bottom of every
page.
The program is conveniently used in conjunction with the
print button of the SunView/xnews(1) mailtool(1) programs,
or the pipe command provided by mail(1). Add the following
two lines to your .mailrc file:
set printmail='mp | lpr'
set cmd="mp | lpr &"
Source the .mailrc file, and you are ready to use mp. For
printing ordinary ASCII files, the following alias (to be
placed in your .cshrc file) may also prove useful:
alias print 'mp -o -s "\!*" <\!* | lpr'
OPTIONS
-A4 Use A4 paper size (8.5 x 11.4 inches).
-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's wrong,
and mp falls back to looking for the next "\nFrom" in
the mail folder.
-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.
-PS If the mail or digest message just has PostScript as
the text of the message, then this is normally just
passed straight through. Specifying this option, causes
Sun Release 4.1 Last change: 17 February 1992 1
MP(1) USER COMMANDS MP(1)
PostScript to be printed as text.
-US Use US paper size (8.5 x 11 inches).
-a Format the file as a news article. The top banner con-
tains the text: "Article from newsgroup ", where news-
group is the first news group found on the Newsgroups:
line.
-d Format the file as a digest.
-e Assume the ELM mail frontend intermediate file format.
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 Format the file for use with a Filofax personal
organiser.
-fp Format the file for use with a Franklin Planner per-
sonal organiser.
-l Format output in landscape mode. Two pages of text
will be printed per sheet of paper.
-m Format the file as a mail folder, printing multiple
messages.
-o Format the file as an ordinary ASCII file.
-p prologue
Employ the file prologue as the POSTSCRIPT prologue
file, overriding any previously defined file names.
-s subject
Use subject as the new subject for the printout. If
you are printing ordinary ASCII files which have been
specified on the command line, the the subject will
default to the name of each of these files.
-tm Format the file for use with the Time Manager personal
organiser.
-ts format the file for use with the Time/System Interna-
tional personal organiser.
-v Print the version number of this release of mp.
-? Print the usage line for mp (note that the ? character
must be escaped if using csh(1)).
Sun Release 4.1 Last change: 17 February 1992 2
MP(1) USER COMMANDS MP(1)
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The mp prologue file is determined by first looking for the
environment variable MP_PROLOGUE, which specifies the direc-
tory where mp prologue files are to be found. If
MP_PROLOGUE is not found, then the default directory is
assumed (LIBDIR/mp.pro.ps).
SUPPLIED PROLOGUE FILES
The following prologue files are provided:
mp.pro.ps
Used by default
mp.pro.l.ps
Used by the -l landscape mode option
mp.pro.ff.ps
Used if the -ff option is in effect
mp.pro.fp.ps
Used if the -fp option is in effect
mp.pro.tm.ps
Used if the -tm option is in effect
mp.pro.ts.ps
Used if the -ts option is in effect
mp.pro.alt.ps
An alternative modification of the default prolo-
gue file which outputs the page number in the
right corner of the bottom banner.
mp.pro.altl.ps
An alternative landscape option mode prologue
file.
FILES
.cshrc
initialization file for csh(1)
.mailrc
initialization file for mail(1)
BINDIR/mp
executable
LIBDIR/mp.pro.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for mail printing
LIBDIR/mp.pro.l.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for landscape format
Sun Release 4.1 Last change: 17 February 1992 3
MP(1) USER COMMANDS MP(1)
LIBDIR/mp.pro.alt.ps
alternative "default" POSTSCRIPT prologue, inserts page
numbers in the bottom right corner of each page
LIBDIR/mp.pro.altl.ps
alternative "landscape" POSTSCRIPT prologue.
LIBDIR/mp.pro.ff.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for Filofax format
LIBDIR/mp.pro.fp.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for Franklin Planner format.
LIBDIR/mp.pro.tm.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for Time Manager format
LIBDIR/mp.pro.ts.ps
POSTSCRIPT prologue for Time/System International for-
mat.
SEE ALSO
mail(1), mailtool(1), xnews(1)
AUTHORS
Original version by Steve Holden.
Converted to C, modified and maintained by Rich Burridge,
Sun Microsystems, Australia.
Original modified to handle net news articles and MH mail by
Bruno Pillard, Chorus Systemes, France.
Handling of mail digests added by Dave Glowacki of Public
Works Computer Services, St Paul, MN.
Manual page revised by Rick Rodgers, UCSF School of Phar-
macy, San Francicso.
Support for Personal Organiser printing style added by Doug-
las Buchanan, Sun Microsystems Europe.
Substantial modifications to header parsing by Jeremy
Webber, Computer Science Department, University of Adelaide,
Australia.
Support for printing multiple files and subject line
filename print for ordinary ASCII files added by Sam
Manoharan, Edinburgh University.
Support for landscape mode written by Michael Tuchiarone.
Sun Release 4.1 Last change: 17 February 1992 4
MP(1) USER COMMANDS MP(1)
Revision of the POSTSCRIPT structuring and the way that the
prologue files are handled was included by Johan Vromans.
New style POSTSCRIPT prologue files by John Macdonald.
Support for the ISO8859 character set by Bertrand DeCouty.
Rich Burridge. PHONE: +61 2 413 2666 MAIL: richb@Aus.Sun.COM
Sun Release 4.1 Last change: 17 February 1992 5