NAME¶
fm2ps - Batch Processing Utility
PURPOSE¶
sdfbatch is a preprocessor for
fmbatch,
FrameMaker's
command-line driven batch processing utility.
USAGE¶
usage : fm2ps [-h[help]] [-f fmt_file]
[-F fmt_what] [-u] [-p[print_doc]]
[-P paper_size] [-s[save_ext]]
[-S save_fmt] [-n] [-t timeout]
frame_file ...
purpose: convert Frame files to PostScript
version: 2.000 (SDF 2.001)
The options are:
Option Description
-h display help on options
-f formats file
-F formats to import
-u update documents
-p print documents
-P paper size name
-s save extension
-S save file format
-n output the batch file (instead of calling fmbatch)
-t timeout for printer driver to generate ps
DESCRIPTION¶
Given a set of
FrameMaker documents,
sdfbatch can be used to:
- •
- change the formatting of the documents (ala Use Formats
From)
- •
- update the documents (i.e. cross-references, etc.)
- •
- print the documents
- •
- save the documents in a nominated file format
The -h option provides help. If it is specified without a parameter, a brief
description of each option is displayed. To display the attributes for an
option, specify the option letter as a parameter.
To change formatting, use the -f option to specify the file to import the
formats from. The -F option can be used to specify what formats are imported.
The argument to the -F option is a set of the characters in the table below.
Character Meaning
p Paragraph formats
f Font formats
l Page layouts
c Cross references
v Variables
r Reference page contents
t Table formats
x Conditional text
k Color
m math
B Preserve manual page breaks
O Preserve other formatting overrides
By default, all formats are imported.
To update documents, use the -u option.
To print documents, use the -p option. If a parameter is not provided, the file
will be printed to the default printer. To print to a
PostScript file,
specify the "file" keyword as the parameter. Alternatively, the
parameter is the name of a
print settings file.
When generating a
PostScript file, the paper size can be specified using
the -P option. The default value is
global. The paper size name is
actually mapped to a
print settings file called
paper_size.
fmver in the
stdlib library directory.
fmver is typically either fm4 or fm5, depending on which version of
FrameMaker you are using.
To save documents, use the -s option. By default, this saves each file. To
change the extension, supply an argument to the -s option.
To specify a different format, use the -S option. Possible values are:
- •
- m - MIF
- •
- a - line-oriented ASCII
- •
- t - paragraph-oriented ASCII
- •
- d - Frame document
- •
- l - View-Only Frame document
- •
- - - file's current format [default]
Take care with the file extension - any existing files will be replaced without
warning.
The -n option causes the generated
fmbatch file to be output. i.e.
fmbatch is not called. This option is useful for debugging.
The -t option enables the user to tune the time-out used when waiting for the
print driver to generate a PostScript file. The default value is 300 seconds
(i.e. 5 minutes).
A combination of the f, u, p and s options can be supplied if more that one
operation is required per file. For example, you may wish to import formats
and then save the resultant file. For each file, the operations are always
done in the following order:
- 1.
- formatting
- 2.
- updating
- 3.
- printing
- 4.
- saving
Note: Not all of the values documented for the -F and -S options may be
supported in Frame versions before 4.0 and additional values may be supported
in future versions. As such, the values supplied to these options are simply
embedded in the generated
sdfbatch file. i.e. no checking is done on
the value. This behaviour is considered a feature.
EXAMPLES¶
To format and print a set of files:
sdfbatch -fmyfmts.doc -p *.doc
To convert mif files to binary files:
sdfbatch -sdoc -Sd *.mif
To copy Frame variables from a file to a set of files:
sdfbatch -fvariable.mif -Fv -s *.doc