Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers

From	"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.os.linux.misc
Subject	Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers
Date	2026-04-22 21:48 +0200
Message-ID	<p9lnbmx7q7.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> (permalink)
References	<10s453n$5uph$1@dont-email.me> <8tjnbmxas1.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <10sb89u$29ko5$4@dont-email.me>

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On 2026-04-22 21:41, Lew Pitcher wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:24:56 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> 
>> On 2026-04-20 05:04, Lew Pitcher wrote:
>>> Recently, I acquired a Brother MFC printer (Brother MFC-L8610CDW), and have
>>> installed the appropriate Brother "driver" packages to use it under CUPS.
>>>
>>> One of the packages (the brmfcfaxdrv-2.0.2 "Fax" driver package) includes
>>> a commandline user script ("brpcfax")to "print to fax", that seems to have
>>> been written by someone with only a rudimentary concept of what users would
>>> use it for. Written not in POSIX shell, but in bash, it queues documents to
>>> a fixed-name print queue ("BRFAX") to be faxed by the printer attached to
>>> this queue.
>>>
>>> The script, while serviceable, seemed to me to be only just barely adequate
>>> to it's task, and I have endeavoured to rewrite it so as to provide a few
>>> more features and a fair bit more flexibility.
>>>
>>> I have tested this rewrite on my own systems, to my own satisfaction. However,
>>> I'm not so vain as to think that what I've coded is universal. So, I'd like
>>> to ask if anyone is interested in testing this script for me.
>>
>> I don't have a brother printer, sorry.
>>
>> But I wonder what is the issue if the script is written for bash. So
>> what? I assume that the SHEBANG specifies bash, not posix. I have
>> scripts in my system that specify a different shell. That's not a
>> problem, each script uses the shell it was designed for, and I have all
>> of them installed, space is not a problem anymore.
> 
> Bash supports a superset of POSIX shell. Ash supports a different superset
> of POSIX shell. Korn Shell supports a superset of POSIX shell that's different
> from both the Bash and Ash supersets.
> 
> What's common to all these is the POSIX shell subset, which works the same
> way in all three shells.
> 
> Brother released it's script in Bash, with bash-isms all around. That
> makes using this script on a system /that lacks bash/ difficult, as
> someone has to go through the script and change all those bash-isms to
> something else.

Linux machines without bash do not exist, unless you hate bash and 
remove it.

> 
> The systems I use have /bin/sh linked to /bin/ash. Yours might have
> /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash. In any case, I prefer that the utility
> be written in the /common/ subset (as set by POSIX) so that, when
> distributed, it doesn't require additional site-specific modifications
> just to work.


A script that starts with #!/bin/bash will just work anywhere.

> 
>>
>>
>>>
>>> It replaces /only/ the /usr/bin/brpcfax script (symlinked to
>>> /opt/brother/fax/brmfcfax/command/brpcfax), and, in addition to being a
>>> drop in replacement for brpcfax, is
>>> a) written entirely as a POSIX shell script
>>> b) written to allow user selection of the fax printer queue
>>>      (where the sysadmin has configured CUPS or LPR(NG) to use a different
>>>       queue name for the Brother FAX driver),
>>> c) handles multiple documents (recognizing restrictions of the Brother
>>>      Fax driver),
>>> d) properly handles commandline arguments (including file paths) that
>>>      include embedded spaces, and
>>> e) returns the exit code of the underlying lpr command, rather than
>>>      a fixed 0 returncode
>>>
>>> If there's interest, please respond, and I will send (or post) the
>>> man page, the script, and the GPL v2 licence that goes with it.
>>
>> I hope they answer and accept your contribution :-)
> 
> Brother answered all right:
>   "Thanks for reaching Brother Canada and for that piece of information.
>    Do feel free to share this with the community.
>    Please contact us if we can be of any further help or if you have any other questions."
> 
> :-)

:-)

-- 
Cheers, Carlos.
ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;

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Thread

CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2026-04-20 03:04 +0000
  Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers 🇵🇱Jacek Marcin Jaworski🇵🇱 <jmj@energokod.gda.pl> - 2026-04-20 13:09 +0200
    Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2026-04-20 13:07 +0000
      Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2026-04-20 15:07 +0000
  CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers, source code and manual (pt 1) Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2026-04-22 14:25 +0000
    Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers, source code and manual (pt 1) Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2026-04-22 14:27 +0000
      Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers, source code and manual (pt 1) Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-04-23 08:22 +0000
    Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers, source code and manual (pt 1) "J.O. Aho" <user@example.net> - 2026-04-23 10:09 +0200
  Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-22 21:24 +0200
    Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2026-04-22 19:41 +0000
      Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-22 21:48 +0200
        Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2026-04-23 01:14 +0000
        Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Allodoxaphobia <trepidation@example.net> - 2026-04-23 18:35 +0000
          Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2026-04-23 20:05 +0000
            Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2026-04-25 09:39 +0000
          Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-23 22:30 +0200
            Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2026-04-23 20:53 +0000
              Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-23 23:05 +0200
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2026-04-23 22:13 +0000
                On the sensibility of portable scripts Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2026-04-27 06:19 +0000
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-04-27 08:12 +0000
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-27 12:42 +0200
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts Ian <gay@sfuu.ca> - 2026-04-27 09:43 -0700
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-04-27 18:11 +0000
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-27 23:24 +0200
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-04-27 22:37 +0000
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-04-27 22:26 -0400
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam2616@zugschl.us> - 2026-04-28 07:52 +0200
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-04-27 18:08 +0000
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-27 23:36 +0200
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-04-27 18:06 +0000
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-27 13:07 +0200
                Re: On the sensibility of portable scripts Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-27 21:00 +0100
              Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-04-24 04:39 +0000
            Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2026-04-25 09:41 +0000
              Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-25 13:57 +0200
          Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-04-24 04:38 +0000
            Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-24 08:45 +0100
              Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2026-04-25 09:51 +0000
            Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-24 10:57 +0200
              Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-24 10:31 +0100
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-24 11:43 +0200
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-24 11:11 +0100
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-24 12:50 +0200
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-24 11:45 +0200
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-24 11:11 +0100
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-24 12:51 +0200
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-24 13:42 +0100
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2026-04-24 18:53 -0700
          Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers jayjwa <jayjwa@atr2.ath.cx.invalid> - 2026-04-25 12:01 -0400
            Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-04-25 22:05 +0200
            Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-04-26 01:18 +0000
              Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam2616@zugschl.us> - 2026-04-26 09:46 +0200
              Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers jayjwa <jayjwa@atr2.ath.cx.invalid> - 2026-04-26 11:31 -0400
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers John Bokma <contact@johnbokma.com> - 2026-04-26 19:31 +0200
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-04-26 20:18 +0100
                Re: CUPS print to FAX for Brother MFC printers Lars Poulsen <lars@beagle-ears.com> - 2026-04-27 15:56 -0700

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