Frequently Asked Questions for Apsfilter
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Chapter 1. Installation

Q: Why do I get *** missing separator. Stop. when using make?
Q: Error message can't determine the lpd spool directory when calling bin/apsfilter directly.
Q: SETUP: How do I setup a printer thats not included in the driver list ?
Q: Does apsfilter run on Solaris 7 (x86), and how do I set it up?
Q: SETUP: Should I install the ``raw'' printer? What's the deal?

Q: Why do I get *** missing separator. Stop. when using make?

A: The Makefile is only used for installing apsfilter within the environment of the FreeBSD ports collection . Other operating systems have packaging utilities of their own to create ``easy to install'' apsfilter packages.

If you downloaded apsfilter yourself without the help of such a OS specific packaging system, then simply extract the apsfilter tar archive in a destination directory of your choice (typically /usr/local/share/apsfilter) and run ./SETUP to create printers.

    root# cd /usr/local/share
    root# tar xvzf apsfilter-x.y.z.tar.gz
    root# cd apsfilter
    root# ./SETUP

Quite easy, isn't it ? ;-)

Q: Error message can't determine the lpd spool directory when calling bin/apsfilter directly.

A: Don't do that then ;-) The script is just for use as lineprinter input filter as part of the line printer scheduler (lpd or LPRng). You only need to type

    lpr filename

to print a file on printers that have been installed by SETUP and apsfilter is automatically executed by the lineprinter scheduler.

Q: SETUP: How do I setup a printer thats not included in the driver list ?

A: First, install an arbitrary printer. Remember the queue name you enter for the ``auto'' printer during SETUP.

Then edit /etc/apsfilter/QUEUE/apsfilterrc (replace QUEUE by the queue name mentioned above). Change the line PRINTER=... to the gs-device of your printer. For special options you may have to set GS_FEATURES to contain the features you want.

Be sure that gs can handle your device and options!

Q: Does apsfilter run on Solaris 7 (x86), and how do I set it up?

A: Solaris is a SYSVR4 based system, and as such it uses a spooling system that doesn't work with apsfilter (and vice versa).

The solution is to remove Solaris own printer spooler subsystem and then to install LPRng, which is supported by apsfilter.

Since LPRng offers many cool features and is more secure than plain BSD lpr spoolers, this step is ``kind of'' recommended anyway.

Q: SETUP: Should I install the ``raw'' printer? What's the deal?

A: That (virtual) printer passes all input unmodified. If you have some network environment that you want to use the printer in, or you want to access the printer directly for fast ASCII text, you should choose to install that printer.

Since you can run SETUP more than once in order to create multiple printcap entries for the same `` physical'' printer with different defaults (other print resolution, although this is handled more clever by the new `` CLASS support''), its not advisable to install multiple `` raw'' printers.

Therefore you can skip creating raw printer entries for any further ``virtual printer ''.

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