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3.1.1 Tasks Options

Task options specify the task a2ps will perform. It will not print, it executes the task and exits successfully.

Option: --version ¶

print version and exit successfully.

Option: --help ¶

Print a short help, and exit successfully.

Option: --copyright ¶

Display Copyright and copying conditions, and exit successfully.

Option: --guess ¶

Act like file does: display the (key of the) type of the Files.

For instance, on a C file, you expect it to answer ‘c’, and upon a PostScript file, ‘ps’.

This can be very useful on broken systems to understand why a file is printed with a bad style sheet (see Style Sheet Files).

Option: --which ¶

Look in the library for the files which names are given as arguments. For instance:

~ % a2ps --which bw.pro gray.pro /usr/local/share/a2ps/ps/bw.pro /usr/local/share/a2ps/ps/gray.pro

If there are several library files matching the name, only the first one is reported: this allows to check which occurrence of a file is used by a2ps.

Option: --glob ¶

Look in the library for the files which names match the patterns given as arguments. For instance:

~ % a2ps --glob 'g*.pro' /usr/local/share/a2ps/ps/gray.pro /usr/local/share/a2ps/ps/gray2.pro

Option: --list=topic ¶

Display a report on a2ps’ status with respect to topic, and exit successfully. topic can be any non-ambiguous abbreviation of:

‘defaults’

‘options’

Give an extensive report on a2ps configuration and installation.

‘features’

Known media, encodings, languages, prologues, printers, variables, delegations and user options are reported. In a word, anything that you may define.

‘delegations’

Detailed list of the delegations. See Your Delegations.

‘encodings’

Detailed list of known encodings. See Some Encodings.

‘media’

Detailed list of known media. See Your Media.

‘prologues’

Detailed list of PostScript prologues. See Designing PostScript Prologues.

‘printers’

Detailed list of printers and named outputs. See Your Printers.

‘style-sheets’

Detailed list of the known style sheets. See Known Style Sheets.

‘user-options’

Detailed list of the user options. See Your Shortcuts.

‘variables’

Detailed list of the variables. See Your Variables.

There are also options meant for the maintainers only, presented for sake of completeness.

‘texinfo-style-sheets’

‘ssh-texi’

Detailed list of known style sheets in Texinfo format. If the sheet verbosity is set, report version numbers, requirements and ancestors.

‘html-style-sheets’

‘ssh-html’

Detailed list of the style sheets in HTML format.

‘texinfo-encodings’

‘edf-texi’

Detailed list of encodings, in Texinfo format.

‘texinfo-prologues’

‘pro-texi’

Detailed list of prologues, in Texinfo format.