efax-gtk.1

linux pritner GUI

.TH EFAX-GTK 1 "25 September 2004" "" ""

.SH NAME

efax-gtk \- GUI front end for efax program

.SH SYNOPSIS

\fBefax-gtk [\fPoptions\fB]\fP [ \fIfile\fP ]
.TP
Options: \fB[-rs]\fP
-r  Start the program in receive standby mode

-s  Start the program hidden in the system tray

.SH COPYRIGHT

Efax-gtk is Copyright (C) Chris Vine, 2001 - 2004.  It is released
under the General Public License, version 2.

.SH DESCRIPTION

\fBefax-gtk\fP is a Gtk+/gtkmm front end for the efax program.  It can
be used to send and receive faxes with a fax modem, and to view, print
and manage faxes received.  It also provides a socket interface to
provide a "virtual printer" for sending faxes from word processors and
similar programs, and can automatically e-mail a received fax to a
designated user.

Any files to be faxed must be in postscript format, which is the
generic printer format for Unix/Linux systems.  The program will use
ghostscript to convert these into the Group 3 fax format which the fax
modem will understand.

The efax-gtk distribution compiles and installs a patched version of
efax-0.9a-001114, so you do not need to separately build and install
efax.  A number of users reported problems sending or printing faxes
when in locales which express their floating point numbers with a
comma as the decimal designator instead of the full-stop (which
applies to most of Europe outside the UK and Ireland): efax and efix
incorrectly use C formatted text functions after calling setlocale().
The patch simply omits the call to setlocale(), so the C locale is
used in all cases.

To avoid name conflicts the patched versions of efax and efix are
installed as efax-0.9a and efix-0.9a.  If you want to use the standard
distributions of efax, delete efax-0.9a and efix-0.9a, and then make a
symbolic link from efax to efax-0.9a and from efix to efix-0.9a so
that efax-gtk can find them.  efax-0.9 or higher is recommended,
although the program will work with older versions of efax - with
older versions, some automatic configuration options will not be
available and the different lock file semantics means that a binary
and not UUCP lock file will be created, which may confuse some other
programs trying to access the same serial port.

Any files to be faxed must be in postscript format, which is the
generic printer format for Unix/Linux systems.  The program will use
ghostscript to convert these into the Group 3 fax format which the fax
modem will understand.

.SH ARGUMENTS

A file may be passed as an argument to the program, in which case that
file will automatically appear in the "File to send" box when the
program starts.

.SH USE

The first time you use the program, you will be asked if you accept
the terms of the General Public Licence, version 2.

.SS Sending faxes

Before sending a fax, the name of the file to be sent must be
specified in the "File to fax" box.  The file specified must be in
postscript format, and will be converted by the program into the
correct tiffg3 fax format.  It can be entered manually in the "Fax to
send" box, or entered by means of the file selection dialog.  If the
file comprises a single postscript file, then you can find it by
pressing the "Single File" button.  It can be more easily found with
this dialog if it is placed in the $HOME/faxout directory.

Where more than one file is specified in the "Fax to send" box, they
will be sent as a single fax appended in the order in which they are
entered in the box.  Such multiple files can be more easily selected
using the file list brought up by pressing the "Multiple Files"
button.  Pressing the "Multiple Files" button enables files to be
found and added to the file list, and they can be reordered by using
the Up or Down arrow buttons, or by dragging and dropping with the
mouse.  (If entering multiple files manually rather than by means of
the "Multiple Files" dialog, use a `,\' or a `;\' as the file name
separator.)

The telephone number to which the fax is to be sent is entered into
the "Tel number" box.  This can be entered directly into the box, or
by using the built-in addressbook.  The addressbook can be invoked by
pressing the "Tel number" button, or from the `File/Address book\'
pull-down menu item.  See "Using the address book" further below.
However, if a telephone connection has already been established with
the remote fax receiver, then the fax can be sent without dialing by
leaving the "Tel number" box blank (a dialog will come up asking if
you would like to send the fax without dialing - this does the same
thing as `fax send -m ...\' using the efax `fax\' script from the
command line).

Successfully sent faxes are copied to a directory in the $HOME/faxsent
directory, which has a name derived from the year, month, day, hour
and seconds when the sending of the fax was completed, and will appear
in the faxes sent list.  They are only included in that list if they
have been sent without error.  The efax message display box will
report on the progress of a fax being sent.  The fax list can be
brought up from the `File/List sent faxes\' pull down menu item.  See
"Using the fax lists" further below.

The program can send a fax when it is in receive standby mode.  If
sending a fax from receive standby mode, when the fax has been sent
(or there is an error in sending the fax), the program will return to
receive standby mode.

To make sending faxes from word processors easy, a socket server is
provided interfacing directly with the print system.  See below for
further details.

Ordinary ascii text files can be converted into postscript if required
using a number of programs, of which probably the easiest to use are
nenscript or GNU enscript (`man enscript\').

.SS Receiving faxes

Three ways of receiving faxes are provided for.

First, the program can be set to answer a fax call which is ringing
but has not been answered, by pressing the "Answer call" button.

Secondly, the program can take over a call which has already been
answered (say, by a telephone hand set) by pressing the "Take over
call" button.

Thirdly, the program can be placed in standby mode by pressing the
"Standby" button.  This will automatically answer any call after the
number of rings specified in the efax-gtkrc file, and receive the fax.
The program will keep on receiving faxes until the "Stop" button is
pressed.  A fax can also be sent when the program is in receive
standby mode.

Received faxes in tiffg3 format (one file for each page) are placed in
a directory in the $HOME/faxin directory, which has a name derived
from the year, month, day, hour and seconds when the relevant "Answer
call", "Take over call" or "Standby" button was pressed.  (Where in
standby mode after a fax has been received, any further fax will
derive its name from the time when receipt of the last received fax
has been completed and the program goes back into standby mode.)

Received faxes can be printed, viewed, described and managed using the
built in fax list facility.  This can be brought up from the
`File/List received faxes\' pull down menu item.  See "Using the fax
lists" further below.

When a fax is received, a pop-up dialog can also be set to appear (go
to the Settings dialog to do this).  In the settings dialog you can
also specify a program to be executed when a fax is received.  The
number of the fax is passed as the first (and only) argument to the
program, which enables the program to find the fax in $HOME/faxin.
The distribution contains two executable scripts, mail_fax and
print_fax, which can be used to e-mail a fax or print a fax to a user
automatically when it is received.  (These scripts are not installed
by `make install\' - if you want to use them, make them executable with
`chmod +x\' and copy them to a directory which is in the system path,
such as /usr/local/bin, and then specify the script name in the
settings dialog).

.SS Using the address book

To pick a telephone number from the address book, highlight the
relevant address by pressing the left mouse button over it, and then
press the "OK" button.

Addresses can be added to the address book by pressing the add button,
and then completing the relevant dialog which will appear.  To delete
an address from the address book, highlight the relevant address and
press the delete (trashcan) button.  The addressbook can be sorted by
using the up and down arrow buttons on a highlighted address.

Addresses are stored in file `$HOME/.efax-gtk_addressbook\'.

.SS Using the fax lists

To bring up the fax lists, go to the the `File\' menu and pick the
`List received faxes\' or `List sent faxes\' menu item.  Highlight the
fax to printed or viewed by pressing the left mouse button.  The
programs to be used to print and view the fax are specifed in the
efax-gtkrc configuration file, or if none are specified, the program
will print using lpr (which will work for most Unix systems) and view
with gv.

To print faxes, a PRINT_SHRINK parameter can be specifed in efax-gtkrc
to enable the fax page to fit within the printer margins.  A parameter
of 98 will work with most printers.  This can be changed while the
program is running by bringing up the `Settings\' dialog and entering
it into the `Print/Print Shrink\' box.

A fax can be deleted from a fax list by pressing the delete (trashcan)
button.  This will place the deleted fax in the $HOME/faxin/oldfax
or $HOME/faxsent/oldfax directory.

NB: link()/unlink() are used to move a fax, so $HOME/faxin/oldfax must
be on the same file system as $HOME/faxin, and $HOME/faxsent/oldfax
must be on the same file system as $HOME/faxsent.  If they are not,
the fax will remain in $HOME/faxin or $HOME/faxsent.

A description can be added to a received fax when appearing in a fax
list (or subsequently amended) by pressing the relevant button -- this
will enable faxes to be more easily identified.

To refresh a fax list (say, to update with any faxes received or sent
since the fax list was brought up), press the refresh button.

.SS Settings