NAME
sendpage - submit a pager job for transmission
SYNOPSIS
sendpage [ options ] [
message... ]
DESCRIPTION
sendpage submits a pager transmission
request to a server using the Simple Network Paging Protocol
(SNPP) described in RFC 1861. Pager requests specified with sendpage
are normally processed immediately, although they may also be
queued for transmission at a later time using a syntax identical to
the at(1) command.
For each job that is queued, sendpage prints a job
identifier on the standard output. A job identifier is the
token by which jobs are identified within HylaFAX. Job identifiers can be supplied to the
faxrm(1)
command to remove the jobs or to the faxalter(1)
command to alter job parameters.
Pages may be sent to one or more destination paging terminals
and, optionally, include a text message (depending on the
capability of the receiving device). Each destination is identified
by a Pager Identification Number (PIN)
specified with the -p option; for example, sendpage -p 12345
``Help, the fax machine is on fire!''. A PIN
is typically a numeric string though it may also be an
alpha-numeric alias depending on the capabilities of the
SNPP server.
Text messages can be specified on the command line or taken from
standard input. The -n option must be used if no text
message is to be supplied with the page request---as for a
numeric-only pager. Text supplied to the paging system is sent
exactly as submitted including any newline, carriage return, or
non-ASCII data. Message preparation including filtering and
formatting must be done prior to submitting the data to
sendpage. Note that text supplied on the command line does
not include a trailing newline character.
The order of options on the command line is significant. Each
page to be transmitted is assigned the current value of parameters
specified on the command line; e.g. whether or not to queue the
request. This means that options that specify parameters for a
particular destination must precede the pager ID specified with the
-p option. For example,
- sendpage -l 2 -p sam Your network is hosed
submits a page to ``sam'' that has service level 2 while
- sendpage -p sam -l 2 Your network is hosed
submits the same page but with the default service level (1).
Note also that parameter values persist across -p options so
the following
- sendpage -l 0 -p sam -p 5551212 Your network is hosed
submits two pages, both of which have service level 0.
OPTIONS
- -a time
- Schedule transmission at the indicated time. Times are
specified using the syntax of the at(1) command;
e.g. ``now + 30 minutes'' to schedule transmission 30 minutes in
the future. By default, sendpage schedules pages for
``now''. (In SNPP parlance this option
specifies the ``hold time'' for the page; and may result in the
page being delivered to the paging terminal but not delivered to
the user until the specified time.)
- -D
- Enable notification by electronic mail when the page has been
delivered to the service provider. This option is meaningful only
when communicating with a HylaFAX server.
- -f from
- Use from as the identity of the message sender.
Otherwise the sender is the user that invoked sendpage. The
sender is an account name to which the HylaFAX software should direct email notification
messages. The from identity may be a fullblown ``From:''
line, e.g. e.g. ``Joe Blow <joe@foo.com (Joe Blow)'' are acceptable.
If no host-part is specified in the from string the local
hostname is used. This option is useful when sendpage is
invoked on behalf of another user, such as in the implementation of
an electronic mail to pager gateway.
- -h [modem@]host[:port]
- Force the jobs to be processed on a specific host and,
optionally, using a particular modem. The host may be
either a symbolic name or a network address. If no -h option
is supplied, sendpage uses the SNPPSERVER environment variable to identify the
SNPP server to which the pages should be
directed. If no server is specified then sendpage attempts
to contact a server on the local host. If no modem is specified,
the job will be submitted to any available modem.
- -I time
- If a job must be requeued because of a communication failure
schedule the retry according to the specified time. Times
are given in seconds. Minutes, hours, and days can be specified
with ``min'', ``hour'', and ``day'' suffixes,
respectively. By default HylaFAX reschedules jobs using retry times that
depend on the manner in which the job failed; this interface
permits a user to override this algorithm and specify a single
fixed retry time for all communication failures. This option is
meaningful only when communicating with a HylaFAX server.
- -l level
- Specify a particular service level to use in delivering
a page. A service level defines both a scheduling priority and the
time that a client is willing to wait to find out if delivery is
successful or not. Normal delivery is obtained with level 1
(default). The specification identifies level 0 as the highest
priority service level with levels 1-7 lower priority and levels
8-11 vendor/server-specific. For HylaFAX server machines the mapping between service
level and scheduling priority is defined by the configuration of
the SNPP server process; see the
PriorityMap parameter in (8C)
- -n
- Send to a numeric-only paging device; i.e. do not send a text
message in the paging request.
- -N
- Do not notify the sender by electronic mail when the page has
been delivered to the service provider (default). This option is
meaningful only when communicating with a HylaFAX server.
- -p PIN
- The Pager Identification Number (PIN)
for a terminal that is to receive the message. A message can be
sent to multiple destinations by specifiying multiple -p
options.
- -q
- Mark pages to be queued on the server and do not wait for their
delivery. By default sendpage conforms to the SNPP spec by synchronously waiting for each page to be
delivered. This option instructs sendpage to submit one or
pages and then terminate immediately without waiting for their
completion. When pages are queued it is advisable to enable email
notification with the -D or -R options. Job queueing
is a non-standard function of the SNPP
implementation in HylaFAX and
is not available when submitting pages to
non-HylaFAX servers.
- -R
- Enable notification by electronic mail when the message has
been delivered and when it is requeued for retransmission.
HylaFAX will always notify the
sender by electronic mail if there is problem delivering a page
(irregardless of the email notification setting). This option is
meaningful only when communicating with a HylaFAX server.
- -s subject
- Set the ``subject'' for the specified pages according to
subject. For HylaFAX
subject is used as the identifier string returned in any
email notification messages (instead of the usual job identifier
number). This option is useful for applications that cross
reference notification messages against job submissions.
- -t tries
- Make no more than tries attempts to send the page. By
default, HylaFAX will
terminate a job if: 3 consecutive attempts to send a particular
message fail, or it appears the receiver is not a service provider.
Otherwise HylaFAX places no
limit on the number of attempts to send a page, instead
terminating a job if it is not completed within a fixed period of
time specified by the service level. Note that a try is a phone
call in which carrier is established and the IXO/TAP or UCP protocol is
commenced; this is contrasted with a call attempt that might have
failed because the line was busy. This option is meaningful only
when communicating with a HylaFAX server.
- -T dials
- Make no more than dials phone calls when attempting to
send a page. By default, HylaFAX will terminate a job if: 12 attempts to
reach a service provider fail, or it appears the receiver is not a
service provider. Otherwise HylaFAX terminates a job if it is not completed
within a fixed period of time specified by the service
level. This option is meaningful only when communicating with a
HylaFAX server.
- -v
- Trace the protocol between sendpage and the SNPP server process that does the delivery work on the
remote machine. This information is directed to the standard
output.
CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
sendpage reads
configuration information from the files
/etc/hylafax/hyla.conf, /etc/hylafax/sendpage.conf,
and ~/.hylarc; in that order. Configuration files follow the
conventions described in hylafax-client(1).
The following configuration parameters are recognized:
Tag Type Default Description
HoldTime string - hold time to assign to pages
Host string localhost host to contact for service
MailAddr string - mail address for notification messages
MaxDials integer 12 times to retry dialing
MaxTries integer 3 times to retry transmission
Notify string none control email notification
Port integer 444 port to use in contacting server
Protocol string tcp protocol to use in contacting server
QueueSend boolean No whether or not to queue pages
RetryTime string - delay between failed attempts to send
ServiceLevel integer SNPP service level for pages
Verbose boolean No whether or not to enable protocol tracing
The configuration parameters are explained below:
- HoldTime
- The hold time to assign to pages. (Equivalent to the -a
option.)
- Host
- The host to contact for service. (Equivalent to the -h
option.)
- MailAddr
- The electronic mail address to direct notification messages
from the server. If this string is specified without an
``@hostname'' part then the local hostname will automatically be
appended. (Equivalent to the -f option.)
- MaxDials
- The maximum number of times to dial the phone for each job.
(Equivalent to the -T option.)
- MaxTries
- The maximum number of times to retry sending a job. (Equivalent
to the -t option.)
- Notify
- Control the email notification messages from the server. This
string may be one of ``done'', ``none'', ``requeued'' or
``default'' with an optionally preceding ``when '' (e.g. ``when
done''). Note that ``when requeued'' implies ``when done''.
(Equivalent to the -D, -R, and -N options.)
- Port
- The network port to contact for service. (Eqvuialent to the
-h option.)
- Protocol
- The name of the communication protocol to use when contacting a
server. (Equivalent to the SNPPSERVICE environment
variable.)
- QueueSend
- Control whether or not to wait for the pages to be delivered.
(Equivalent to the -q option.)
- RetryTime
- The time to delay between job retries due to a communication
failure. (Equivalent to the -I option.)
- ServiceLevel
- The SNPP service level to assign to each
page. (Equivalent to the -l option.)
- Verbose
- Control protocol tracing. (Equivalent to the -v
option.)
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables are used by
sendpage:
- SNPPSERVER
- The identity of the SNPP server to
contact for service. This value is specified as
``[modem@]host[:port]'' where host is
either a host name or the Internet ``.'' (dot) address of the host;
port is the TCP port number or
service name to use (default is ``snpp'' or 444); and modem
is an optional modem name or class on the server machine to use in
processing the requests (this is meaningful only when the server is
running HylaFAX).
- SNPPSERVICE
- The communication service specification for communicating with
the SNPP server. This value is specified as
``port[/protocol]''; by default
``444/tcp''.
FILES
/var/spool/hylafax/tmp/sndpageXXXXXX temporary files
NOTES
The phone number of the pager service provider is
stored on the server machine and is not specified by the user; this
is a departure from pager support that was supplied with
HylaFAX version 3.0.
HylaFAX version 3.0 used to
recognize a null text message and assume the destination paging
device was numeric-only. This is no longer true; if a null text
message is submitted then a null message will be included in the
paging request. This may cause paging requests submitted to ``real
SNPP'' servers to be rejected if the paging device is in fact
numeric-only. When sending to a numeric-only paging device the
-n option should be used.
BUGS
It is not possible to page text- and non-text devices
together; sendpage must be run twice, once to send to
text-capable devices and once to send to non-text devices.
SEE ALSO
at(1),
hylafax-client(1),
faxalter(1),
faxrm(1),
faxstat(1),
(8C),
(8C),