%general-entities; ]> $LastChangedBy$ $Date$ a2ps-&a2ps-version; a2ps Introduction to a2ps a2ps is a filter utilized mainly in the background and primarily by printing scripts to convert almost every input format into PostScript output. The application's name expands appropriately to all to PostScript. &lfs91_checked; a2ps cannot convert UTF-8 encoded text to PostScript. The issue is discussed in detail in the section of the page. The solution is to use instead of a2ps for converting UTF-8 encoded text to PostScript. Package Information Download (HTTP): Download (FTP): Download MD5 sum: &a2ps-md5sum; Download size: &a2ps-size; Estimated disk space required: &a2ps-buildsize; Estimated build time: &a2ps-time; Additional Downloads International fonts: a2ps Dependencies Recommended , and (otherwise, a2ps will use the cat >/dev/lp0 command instead of lpr for sending its output to the printer) Optional , , (or ) , Adobe Reader, and Ghostview User Notes: Installation of a2ps Install a2ps by running the following commands: autoconf && sed -i -e "s/GPERF --version |/& head -n 1 |/" \ -e "s|/usr/local/share|/usr/share|" configure && ./configure --prefix=/usr \ --sysconfdir=/etc/a2ps \ --enable-shared \ --with-medium=letter && make && touch doc/*.info To test the results, issue: make check. The printers.tst test will fail, as there is no default test printer. The styles.tst may also fail, as the tests report some inconsistencies between the generated postscript and the reference sets. This is caused by version number differences between the postscript test files and those generated by the tests — these do not affect the operation of the program and can be ignored. Now, as the root user: make install If desired, install the downloaded i18n-fonts by running the following commands as the root user: tar -xf ../i18n-fonts-&i18n-fonts-version;.tar.bz2 && cp -v i18n-fonts-&i18n-fonts-version;/fonts/* /usr/share/a2ps/fonts && cp -v i18n-fonts-&i18n-fonts-version;/afm/* /usr/share/a2ps/afm && pushd /usr/share/a2ps/afm && ./make_fonts_map.sh && mv fonts.map.new fonts.map && popd Command Explanations autoconf: This command is used to recreate the configure script. This is required because there is an issue in the mktime test which causes the configure script to hang for 60 seconds and then report that there is no working mktime function. sed -i "s/GPERF --version |/& head -n 1 |/" configure: This fixes a bug in the handling of the version output of gperf. sed -i "s|/usr/local/share|/usr/share|" configure: This command modifies the configure script to search for Ghostscript fonts at the location where they were installed by the BLFS instructions. --sysconfdir=/etc/a2ps: Configuration data is installed in /etc/a2ps instead of /usr/etc. --enable-shared: This switch enables building the dynamic liba2ps library. --with-medium=letter: This switch changes the default paper format to US letter. It can either be given here or set in /etc/a2ps/a2ps-site.cfg after installation. The default is A4, but there are several other options, in particular: A4dj or letterdj are good settings for HP Deskjet and other printers that need wider paper-handling margins. See /etc/a2ps/a2ps.cfg after installation. touch doc/*.info: This command avoids trying to regenerate the info files. This is an older package and the current .texi files will produce errors preventing make install from working properly. Configuring a2ps Config Files /etc/a2ps/a2ps.cfg and /etc/a2ps/a2ps-site.cfg /etc/a2ps/a2ps.cfg /etc/a2ps/a2ps-site.cfg Configuration Information Information about configuring a2ps can be found in the comments contained in the above files, and also by running info a2ps. Contents Installed Programs Installed Libraries Installed Directories a2ps, card, composeglyphs, fixnt, fixps, ogonkify, pdiff, psmandup, psset, and texi2dvi4a2ps liba2ps.{so,a} and filter data /etc/a2ps and /usr/share/a2ps Short Descriptions a2ps is a filter, utilized primarily by printing scripts, that converts standard input or supported files to PostScript. a2ps card prints a reference card of a given program's options. card composeglyphs creates a composite font program. composeglyphs fixnt is supposed to fix the problems in the PostScript files generated by the Microsoft PostScript driver under Windows NT (3.5 and 4.0). fixnt fixps tries to fix common PostScript problems that break postprocessing. fixps ogonkify provides international support for Postscript by performing various munging of PostScript files related to printing in different languages. ogonkify pdiff produces a pretty comparison between files. pdiff psmandup tries to produce a version of a given PostScript file to print in manual duplex. psmandup psset produces a version of a given PostScript file with a protected call to the PostScript operator 'setpagedevice'. Typical use is making a file print duplex, or on the manual tray, etc. psset texi2dvi4a2ps compiles Texinfo and LaTeX files to DVI or PDF. texi2dvi4a2ps