(a2ps.info)Predefined Delegations

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4.10.3 Predefined Delegations
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The purpose of this section is not to document all the predefined
delegations, for this you should read the comments in the system
configuration file 'a2ps.cfg'.  We just want to explain some choices,
and give hints on how to make the best use of these delegations.

 -- Delegation: dvips (DVI to PostScript)
     There is a problem when you use a naive implementation of this
     delegation: landscape jobs are not recognized, and therefore
     n-upping generally fails miserably.  Therefore, a2ps tries to guess
     if the file is landscape by looking for the keyword 'landscape' in
     it, using 'strings(1)':
          Delegation: dvips dvi:ps\
           if strings $f | sed 3q | fgrep landscape > /dev/null 2>&1; then \
             #{d.dvips} -T#hpt,#wpt $f -o #f0 && #?o|cat|#{d.psnup} -r| #f0;\
           else \
             #{d.dvips} $f -o #f0 && #{d.psnup} #f0; \
           fi

     In order to have that rule work correctly, it is expected from the
     TeX, or LaTeX file to include something like:

          \renewcommand{\printlandscape}{\special{landscape}}
          \printlandscape

     in the preamble.

     We don't use a pipe because dvips always outputs data (its
     prologue) even if it fails, what prevents error detection.

 -- Delegation: LaTeX (LaTeX to DVI)
     We use a modern version of the shell script 'texi2dvi', from the
     package 'Texinfo', which runs 'makeindex', 'bibtex' and 'latex' as
     many times as needed.  You should be aware that if the file
     includes files from *other* directories, it may miss some
     compilation steps.  Other cases (most typical) are well handled.