TH PICPACK 1
SH NAME
B picpack
\- PostScript picture packing preprocessor
SH SYNOPSIS
\*(mBpicpack\f1
OP "" options []
OP "" files []
SH DESCRIPTION
B picpack
copies
I files
to stdout, expanding picture inclusion requests
(marked by the
MW .BP
or
MW .PI
macros) into an in-line
format that can be passed through
B troff
and handled by
BR dpost .
If no
I files
are specified
or if
OP \-
is one of the input
I files
standard input is read.
The following
I options
are understood:
TP 0.75i
OP \-k list
I list
is a comma- or space-separated string of words used to locate
picture inclusion requests.
The start of every line in the input
I files
is compared with each word in
I 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
I list
is
RM `` ".BP .PI ''.
TP
OP \-q
Suppress ``missing picture file'' error messages.
PP
B picpack
is a trivial preprocessor that, in a sense, duplicates some of the
picture inclusion capabilities already available in
BR dpost .
B picpack
should not be used if your formatting command line includes
a call to
BR dpost .
Its only purpose is to combine picture files with text in a single
file that can be passed through
B troff
and unpacked, at some later time, by
BR dpost .
The original picture inclusion mechanism, with files are pulled in by
BR dpost ,
is the preferred approach.
SH EXAMPLES
A typical application might be in a distributed printing environment
where everything up to
B troff
is run by the user and everything after
B troff
is handled by a spooling daemon (perhaps
BR lp ).
In that case the command line would be,
EX
pic  \f2file\fP | tbl | eqn | picpack | troff -mm -Tpost | lp
EE
A poor example, although one that should still work, would be,
EX
pic  \f2file\fP | tbl | eqn | picpack | troff -mm -Tpost | dpost >\f2file\fP.ps
EE
In this case picture inclusion requests could (and should) be handled by
BR dpost .
Running
B picpack
is not needed or even recommended.
It should be dropped from any pipeline that includes a call to
BR dpost .
SH DIAGNOSTICS
A 0 exit status is returned if
I files
were successfully processed.
SH WARNINGS
PP
Combining pictures and text using the capabilities available in
B dpost
is the recommended approach and is always guaranteed to be more
efficient than
BR picpack .
Running
B picpack
and
B dpost
in the same pipeline makes little sense.
PP
Using
B picpack
will likely result in files that can no longer be reliably passed
through other important
B troff
postprocessors like
BR proof .
At present
B picpack
is only guaranteed to work with
BR dpost .
SH SEE ALSO
BR dpost (1),
BR troff (1)

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