[comp.mail.mush] mp -m and mush

crehta@tasu77.UUCP (Ran Ever-Hadani) (11/20/89)

A request from mush.Gods:

Is it possible to add an option to disable the pagefeeds
mush inserts between messages in a multi-message lpr?

In my print_cmd, I use mp 2.3, which has a -m option to deal
with multi-message printing.  When fed to mp -m, The added 
pagefeeds cause a blank page to be inserted between each
two messages in the output.

My ugly solution was

set print_cmd="sed 's/^^LFrom/From/' | mp -m | laser_printer"

A nice solution might be adding a variable called, say,
intra_message_string, which will default to '^L' (Control L);
the value of this variable will be inserted between messages
in a multi-message printing, enabling the user to customise
multi-message output.

-- Ran

P.S. mp is a program which produces output for mail messages
and news articles, in a neat postscript format.  mp 2.3
was just posted to alt.sources and you can probably still
catch it before it expires.  The Subject header confusingly 
says "mp part 2" but don't be discouraged: it's all there in
tar-compress-uuencode format.
-----------------------------------------------
Reply-To: crehta@taux01.nsc.com (Ran Ever-Hadani)
Disclaimer: The above is to be attributed to me only, not to any organization.
Apology: Bad English.  E-mailed spelling and style corrections are welcome.

schaefer@ogccse.ogc.edu (Barton E. Schaefer) (11/21/89)

In article <2909@taux01.UUCP> crehta@taux01.nsc.com (Ran Ever-Hadani) writes:
} A request from mush.Gods:
} 
} Is it possible to add an option to disable the pagefeeds
} mush inserts between messages in a multi-message lpr?

No.

However, we do plan to eliminate the formfeeds and add an option to
put them back. :-)

} In my print_cmd, I use mp 2.3, which has a -m option to deal
} with multi-message printing.  When fed to mp -m, The added 
} pagefeeds cause a blank page to be inserted between each
} two messages in the output.

Use the cmd facility to change "lpr" so it uses "pipe".  The "pipe"
command writes multiple messages in the same way that lpr does, but
without inserting the form feeds.  Hence you might do

    cmd lpr 'pipe \!* "$print_cmd"'

which will enable you to use a much simpler $print_cmd.  (BTW, the
"lpr" command and $print_cmd variable may actually go away in future
releases, because the "pipe" command offers a much more general way
to access lpr and other unix software tools.)
-- 
Bart Schaefer          "Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life
                        exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has
schaefer@cse.ogi.edu        tried to contact us."                     -- Calvin
(used to be cse.ogc.edu)