PICPACK(1) User Commands PICPACK(1)NAMEpicpack - PostScript picture packing preprocessor
SYNOPSISpicpack [-k list] [-q] [file] ...
DESCRIPTIONpicpack copies files to stdout, expanding picture inclusion requests
(marked by the .BP or .PI macros) into an in-line format that can be
passed through troff and handled by dpost. If no files are specified
or if - is one of the input files standard input is read. The follow‐
ing options are understood:
-k list list is a comma- or space-separated string of words used to
locate picture inclusion requests. The start of every line
in the input files is compared with each word in list . If
there is a match, the second string on the line is taken as
the pathname of a picture file that is added to the output
file. The default list is ``.BP .PI''.
-q Suppress ``missing picture file'' error messages.
picpack is a trivial preprocessor that, in a sense, duplicates some of
the picture inclusion capabilities already available in dpost. picpack
should not be used if your formatting command line includes a call to
dpost. Its only purpose is to combine picture files with text in a
single file that can be passed through troff and unpacked, at some
later time, by dpost. The original picture inclusion mechanism, with
files are pulled in by dpost, is the preferred approach.
EXAMPLES
A typical application might be in a distributed printing environment
where everything up to troff is run by the user and everything after
troff is handled by a spooling daemon (perhaps lp). In that case the
command line would be,
pic file | tbl | eqn | picpack | troff -mm -Tpost | lp
A poor example, although one that should still work, would be,
pic file | tbl | eqn | picpack | troff -mm | dpost >file.ps
In this case picture inclusion requests could (and should) be handled
by dpost. Running picpack is not needed or even recommended. It
should be dropped from any pipeline that includes a call to dpost.
DIAGNOSTICS
A 0 exit status is returned if files were successfully processed.
WARNINGS
Combining pictures and text using the capabilities available in dpost
is the recommended approach and is always guaranteed to be more effi‐
cient than picpack. Running picpack and dpost in the same pipeline
makes little sense.
Using picpack will likely result in files that can no longer be reli‐
ably passed through other important troff postprocessors like proof.
At present picpack is only guaranteed to work with dpost.
SEE ALSOdpost(1), troff(1)Heirloom Documentation Tools 2/2/07 PICPACK(1)
