CUPS Passthrough Printer?

[mwray]

Is it possible to setup a "printer" that really takes a printjob and passes it to a process which will forward to another printer?

Here is the scenario: Brother does not make a "Print to Fax" driver, although it handles faxes as print jobs. I cannot just "Print" to the BRFAX printer though. I must currently first save my file as a PS or a PDF, then call brpcfax -P BRFAX -o PAPER=LETTER $filename.

This will then fax the appropriate file.


I would like to create a printer that automates this process. Is this possible? If so, what's the easiest way.:)

[mwray]

Here's what I've tried so far.

Create /var/spool/brp2fax owned by root:lp w 555 privileges. Enabled FileDevice in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

Setting up BRFAX per instructions on forums (For brother printers). Creating a script (ala lpadmin type script) then issueing:
sudo lpadmin -P PRINT2FAX -v /var/spool/br2fax/ -i brp2f

This creates a printer, but complains about copying the script saying it doesn't exist. (I've even tried giving full path to the new script after the -i command)

Any suggestions? The printer gets created and "finishes" jobs, but brpcfax is not popping up.
(Called as bcpcfax -P BRFAX -o PAPER=LETTER $file from in the script)
Jobs are spooled, and "processed" but not being passed to brpcfax.
script is as follows:


#/bin/sh
#
# Copyright (c) 1997, by Sun Microsystems Inc.
# All Rights Reserved
#
#pragma ident "@(#)interface.html 1.2 98/05/22 SM"
#
# This is an example interface script to help you get an idea of how
# to integrate support for your printer under lp. This is by no means the
# definitive source for information. You should look at included interface
# scripts as examples and at the Solaris System Administrators Answerbook.
#
# This script is run as 'lp' on the print server if the job came in via the
# network. It runs as the submitting user if the job is local. You should
# also note that the data files are owned by the user running the script.
#
# Command Line Arguments:
# $0 - .../{printer}
# $1 - request-id
# $2 - user
# $3 - title
# $4 - copies
# $5 - options (lp -o)
# $6+ - file list
# Environment Variables:
# CHARSET - the character set to use
# FILTER - fast filter to inline on the way to the printer
# LC_COLLATE - I18n
# LC_CTYPE - I18n
# LC_MESSAGES - I18n
# LC_MONETARY - I18n
# LC_NUMERIC - I18n
# LC_TIME - I18n
# PATH - default path (/usr/sbin:/usr/bin)
# SPOOLER_KEY - used by lp.tell for backchannel to lpsched
# TERM - printer type
# TZ - our timezone
# File Descriptors:
# 0 - don't recall
# 1 - printer device (use /dev/null for network attached
# printers)
# 2 - backchannel to lpsched
# Signals:
#
# Exit Codes:
# 0 - success
# 1 - 127 - failure, don't restart
# 128 - don't use
# >128 - failure, wait or restart
#

if [ $# -lt 5 ] ; then
echo "wrong number of arguments to interface program" 1>&2
exit 1
fi


printer=`basename $0`
request_id=$1
user_name=$2
title=$3
copies=$4
option_list=$5

shift 5
files="$*"

stty=

parse () {
echo "`expr \"$1\" : \"^[^=]*=\(.*\)\"`"
}

nobanner="no"
nofilebreak="no"
inlist=
for i in ${option_list}
do
case "${inlist}${i}" in

nobanner )
nobanner="yes"
;;

nofilebreak )
nofilebreak="yes"
;;

# lp -o key
# key )
# key="whatever"
# ;;

# lp -o key=value
# key=* )
# key=`parse ${i}`
# ;;

# lp -o key='list ...'
# stty=* )
# inlist=`expr "${inlist}${i}" : "^\([^=]*=\)"`
# case "${i}" in
# ${inlist}\'*\' )
# item=`expr "${i}" : "^[^=]*='*\(.*\)'\$"`
# ;;
# ${inlist}\' )
# continue
# ;;
# ${inlist}\'* )
# item=`expr "${i}" : "^[^=]*='*\(.*\)\$"`
# ;;
# ${inlist}* )
# item=`expr "${i}" : "^[^=]*=\(.*\)\$"`
# ;;
# *\' )
# item=`expr "${i}" : "^\(.*\)'\$"`
# ;;
# * )
# item="${i}"
# ;;
# esac
#
# #####
# #
# # We don't dare use "eval" because a clever user could
# # put something in an option value that we'd end up
# # exec'ing.
# #####
# case "${inlist}" in
# key= )
# key="${key} ${item}"
# ;;
# esac
#
# case "${i}" in
# ${inlist}\'*\' )
# inlist=
# ;;
# ${inlist}\'* )
# ;;
# *\' | ${inlist}* )
# inlist=
# ;;
# esac
# ;;
* )
echo "unrecognized \"-o ${i}\" option check the option,
resubmit if necessary printing continues" 1>&2
;;
esac
done

#
# should create a banner
#

#
# process the files
#

i=1
while [ $i -le $copies ]
do
for file in $files
do
brpc2fax -P BRFAX -o Paper=Letter $file
done
i=`expr $i + 1`
done