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PICPACK(1)                       User Commands                      PICPACK(1)

NAME
       picpack - PostScript picture packing preprocessor

SYNOPSIS
       picpack [-k list] [-q] [file] ...

DESCRIPTION
       picpack 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
       following 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
       efficient 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
       reliably passed through other important troff postprocessors like
       proof.  At present picpack is only guaranteed to work with dpost.

SEE ALSO
       dpost(1), troff(1)

Heirloom Documentation Tools        2/2/07                          PICPACK(1)