Re: Need help restoring an old feature

["James B. Hiller" <jhiller@xxxxxxxx>]

Note:  A good-new story is coming.

> > I first tried it in /usr/local/etc/apsfilter/apsfilterrc, and the change
> > had no noticeable effect (added a line COLOR="mono".
> 
> This won't change anything, since the entry in the queue
> specific apsfilterrc file will overwrite it.

Ok, wasn't sure where all the rc files were vs where they used to be, so
good to know the baseline in current tense.

> > Without taking that entry out, I found the
> > /usr/local/etc/apsfilter/lp/aspfilterrc instance, with just the few
> > entries that get set by the SETUP script, and I changed COLOR="full" to
> > COLOR="mono".  When I printed then, I got absolutely no pretty-printing
> > at all - just completely uniform text when printing the mail message.
> 
> !?  I think there might be a problem with file type
> recognition here -- maybe elm mangles the mail contents
> in an unpredictable way, causing messages to be taken
> as plain text sometimes. (It might also help to update
> your "file" command.)

Doubt that, since elm was behaving fine with 5.2.0, and then not with
7.2.1/7.2.0.  Haven't changed elm in forever, in comparison.  My file
command is now 3.28, current is 3.37, so I am getting that one.  But
hesitate to agree that this is an issue, since everything else everywhere
on my box works, and the only variable in the equation is the apsfilter
version change.

> > Then, I changed the line in the lower-level file back to "full", and
> > the printing results did NOT go back to the way they were (the undesirable
> > bolding and shading and such).  And then I removed the COLOR="mono" line
> > from the higher-level instance, and still no change - I keep getting
> > absolutely no pretty-printing.

Still don't understand this behavior, unless there is some weird way that
apsfilter reads its rc file.

> > c.  What else could/should I be doing to get the desired effect
> >     (pretty-printing of email headers a la 5.2.0)?
> 
> The easiest would be to find out which a2ps options
> would be producing the correct output. (-> man a2ps)

Well, you more or less gave me that before, so I certainly believe that
what you said should work.

> I don't know what's going wrong on your system, since
> I can't reproduce any of that faulty behaviour.

Is weird, yes.

> > Also, for ref:  the reason I did not choose to use the "lpr -Zmono /
> > -Cmono"
> > approach is that I do not know how to set such a configuration change
> > in elm, my mail reader.

Here is the good-news (to a point) story.  Duh to me that I forgot where
to stick a print command setting in elm - basic options for that one.
Changed the command to /usr/bin/lpr -Zmono, and then again with -Cmono.

The -Zmono did not change anything, but -Cmono FINALLY gave me back
pretty-printing as I once knew it.  :-))

> > I haven't tried doing an alias in my /etc/profile
> > yet for lpr - do you suppose that might help?
> 
> Possibly not, since elm might not even know about that alias,
> since it's only visible in your shell context.

Good point.

Ok - so, now I know how to get the pretty-printing on with 7.2.2, though
seems like a kludge.  The next questions would be:

a.  Why isn't the working by setting "mono" in the printer-specific rc
file?

b.  What is the fundamental diff between -Zmono and -Cmono, such that it's
reasonable for one option to work but not the other?

Thx,
jbh