faxrunqd(1) mgetty+sendfax manual faxrunqd(1)NAMEfaxrunqd - daemon to send fax jobs queued by faxspool(1)SYNOPSISfaxrunqd [-v] [-d] [-l <ttys>] [-u <user>] [-V]
DESCRIPTION
Runs in the background, and regularily checks the fax queue set up by
faxspool(1). Sends all jobs that are due, records results, and takes
appropriate action (notify mails etc).
faxrunqd basically does the same as faxrunq(1), just more so. Please
read the faxrunq(1) man page if you're not already familiar with the
concept.
The advantages of faxrunqd are:
- runs all the time, so you don't have to set up a cron job (but you
have to set up an entry in /etc/inittab or start it from /etc/rc*)
- quicker response to new faxes in queue
- can sensibly handle more than one modem
- can handle prioritized fax jobs
- can do 'policy routing' of faxes depending on the fax number
The disadvantages are:
- needs more system ressources if you have only little fax traffic
- requires Perl 5.004
- more tricky to set up and to debug
SETUPfaxrunqd is started at system boot from /etc/rc.*, or from /etc/init‐
tab. You can also start it from the command line. It does not put
itself in the background, so you have to start it with an "&", or from
a ":respawn:" line in /etc/inittab. Using /etc/inittab has the advan‐
tage that faxrunqd is restarted automatically if something goes wrong
and faxrunqd is stopped.
faxrunqd will first read a global configuration file (see below), then
(optionally) the faxrunqd policy file (see further below). From then
on, it will sit in a loop. It will check the fax queue every 60 seconds
for new jobs, and will then distribute them over all available modems.
If the job is sent, or fails, it will do the same thing faxrunq(1)
would do (send a mail, delete the JOB directory, execute a named pro‐
gram, etc.). Both programs are fully compatible in this respect.
faxrunqd [-v] [-d] [-l <ttys>] [-u <user>] [-V]
OPTIONS-v Tells faxrunqd to write progress information to the log file.
-d Tells faxrunqd to write debugging information to stdout and the
log file (usually used together with -v)
-l <ttyS>
Specifies the list of modem devices to use. Multiple devices
are separated with ':', e.g. '-l ttyS0:ttyS1'.
-u <user>
faxrunqd can now (since 1.1.29) run as unprivileged user. If
you start it as root from /etc/inittab or from one of the
/etc/rc* scripts, it's strongly recommended to use '-u fax' (to
be precise: the user that is owning the outgoing fax spool
directory). This will make faxrunqd drop all its privileges at
startup, and run as the specified user. Running faxrunqd as
root user might lead to security problems - don't do it.
-V print version number and exit
CONFIGURATION FILE
Some aspects of the behaviour of faxrunqd can be controlled by a con‐
figuration file, usually named /etc/mgetty+sendfax/faxrunq.config (this
is the same file that faxrunq(1) uses, but there are additional options
for faxrunqd). In this file, you can use the following options:
success-send-mail [y/n]
A boolean parameter that controls whether a mail will be sent
after successful completition of the fax job.
failure-send-mail [y/n]
A boolean parameter that controls whether a mail will be sent
after the fax job has failed more than the maximum number of
times.
success-call-program <name>
Here, you can specify a program that will be run when the fax
has been successfully sent. It will be passed two command line
parameters. The first is the full path to the fax JOB file (see
faxq(5)), the second is the last exit code from sendfax (for
success-call-program, this is always "0").
failure-call-program <name>
Similar to the "success-call-program", this program will be run
when the fax has been failed too often and faxrunqd gives up.
This script could, for example, print out the fax on a printer
so that it can be sent manually on a paper fax machine.
update-call-program <name>
This is, again, similar to "success-call-program". It will be
called for interim status updates ("we've tried and it was
BUSY"), so that frontend programs can display this information.
"update-call-program" will only be called for jobs that will be
kept in the fax queue for at least one more try.
maxfail-costly <n>
This specifies the number of times that a fax may fail
"fatally", that is, causing telephone costs (explained above).
The default value is 5.
maxfail-total <m>
This is the absolute maximum number of times that faxrunqd will
try to send any given fax. The default value is 10.
delete-sent-jobs [y/n]
Determines whether faxrunqd should delete jobs after sending, or
leave them in the fax queue (while moving the "JOB" file to
"JOB.done") so that they can be seen at by "faxq -o". The
default value is "do not delete sent faxes".
acct-log <path>
Specifies where faxrunqd should protocol success and failure of
each try to send a fax job. The default location is
/var/spool/fax/outgoing/acct.log.
The options that are specific to faxrunqd are:
fax-devices [tty(s)]
Specifies which ttys should be used for sending jobs. faxrunqd
will always explicitely tell sendfax which modem to use, so the
settings in sendfax.config are ignored. If you use policy rout‐
ing (see below), this applies only to fax jobs that do not have
a tty set by faxrunqd.policy.
faxrunqd-log [filename]
Specifies where logging information is written to. This is only
used if faxrunqd is called with the -v or -d option.
policy-config [filename]
Specifies a file containing rules for "policy routing", see
below. Default is "no file".
faxrunqd-max-pages [n]
If this is set to something greater 1 (default is 10), faxrunqd
will combine multiple jobs to the same receipient telephone num‐
ber into one telephone call. The maximum number of pages that
the resulting job may have is specified here. Usually it makes
no sense to increase this, but in some surroundings it might
make sense to turn off this feature by setting it to 1.
sendfax-tty-map [tty] [program path] [args]
Some special cases might require running a non-default sendfax
binary for specific ttys (like "testing new version" or "some
other call-compatible sendfax applications for non-class-2
modems"). If you want mappings for more than one "special" tty
devices, just use the option multiple times. Example:
sendfax-tty-map capi0 /usr/sbin/sendfax.capi
POLICY ROUTINGfaxrunqd can do some things differently, depending on the phone number
where the fax is supposed to be sent to. For example, this might be
useful to:
- send in-house faxes over a specific modem connected to a PABX (to
avoid paying telco charges)
- send long-distance faxes to the US over a special LD provider, that
is, use a specific dial-prefix for those
- use extra high debugging when sending to a known-to-be problematic
receipient
etc.
This feature is controlled by a file, containing match / substitute
rules. The name of the file is specified with the "policy-config"
option in faxrunq.config.
The file is read from top to bottom. Each line starting with a "#"
sign is a comment, and is skipped. In every other line, the first
field of the line is interpreted as a "match" clause, and compared to
the telefone number of an to-be-sent fax job. Regular expressions can
be used (see perlre(1)).
If the telefone number is matched, the second field is used to substi‐
tute parts of the telefone number, for example, cut off a local prefix,
or change a digit, or whatever. If you do not want any substitutions,
put a "-" in that field.
The third field specifies the tty lines to use for faxes matched by
this line (for example, you might have one modem connected to a long-
distance provider, and others for local use or so). Put a "-" in this
field if you want to use the default fax modems.
The remaining part of the line are appended to the sendfax command
line. With those, you can set a different dial-string ("-D ATD"), or a
higher debug level ("-x 9"), or whatever else you can imagine. Do NOT
set a tty to use here ("-l ttyS1"), because that would confuse the
internal tty handling of faxrunqd, leading to weird effects processing
the fax queue!!
Examples:
# 12345-nnn is sent to "nnn" over a local PABX, modem on tty2
^12345 s/12345// tty2
# fax to 56789 (exact match) is sent with higher debugging
^56789$ - - -x 8
FILES
/var/spool/fax/outgoing/stop
if this file exists, faxrunqd will stop whatever it's doing at
the moment, wait for all outstanding jobs, and then fall asleep
until the file is removed. You can use this to stop queue pro‐
cessing while testing something, or if you know that the
modem(s) are unavailable and do not want to run into any error
messages, etc.
/var/spool/fax/outgoing/faxqueue_done
Every time faxrunqd runs the fax queue, a time stamp is written
into that file. It is used by faxspool to display a warning if
the queue hasn't been run recently (so faxes may get stuck).
SIGNALS
To control faxrunqd's behaviour, you can send it the following signals:
SIGINT
SIGTERM
remove lock file, remove pid file, terminate immediately.
SIGHUP finish all fax jobs that are currently being sent, then termi‐
nate (this is used to signal faxrunqd "I want you to terminate"
without disturbing the normal flow of operation - SIGINT/TERM
etc. can lead to some faxes being sent twice).
SIGUSR1
close, roll, and re-open log file.
SIGUSR2
dump current modem success/failure statistics to log file.
BUGSfaxrunqd does not report if a modem goes bad - instead it will just
stop using it (which is good for reliable faxing, but bad for error
recovery).
SEE ALSOfaxspool(1), sendfax(8), faxq(1), faxrunq(1), faxqueue(5)AUTHORfaxrunqd is Copyright (C) 1997-2004 by Gert Doering, <gert@gree‐
nie.muc.de>. It was inspired by Bodo Bauer's initial faxrunqd, but
completely rewritten.
greenie 23 Nov 02 faxrunqd(1)
