

		    a2ps README


Please send problems and feedback to bug-a2ps@gnu.org.

Please send happiness messages to both Akim & Miguel
(demaille@inf.enst.fr, Miguel.Santana@st.com)

See the file ANNOUNCE for a presentation of a2ps.


Contents:
=========
	 1. Installation
	 2. Upgrading from versions prior to 4.10
	 2. Upgrading from versions prior to 4.12
	 3. Distribution content
	 4. More?


1. Installation
===============

Some notes on the distribution:

    Most of the work for the installation is done by ./configure.

    =======================================================
    Reading INSTALL is mandatory to understand the process.
    =======================================================

    Some choices are to make, and to give to ./configure
	--disable-nls
		if you do not want to use Native Language Support
		(i.e. the ability to speak another tongue than English)
	--with-gnu-gettext
		if you want to use the GNU gettext library for
		NLS, instead of available NLS services.  I recommend it.
        --without-extensions
		Fewer files will get installed.  a2ps is still usable
		for Western Europe and American.  You should avoid unless
		you are really short on disk.  This does not imply
		--disable-nls, you have to add it yourself.

    The following choices *are not irreversible*.  They just
    correspond to settings in the file etc/a2ps-site.cfg:
	--with-medium=MEDIUM
		define the default medium used by a2ps (A4, Letter etc.)
		There is a special medium name: `libpaper', which means
		that you have libpaper installed, and that a2ps should
		use the medium specified by it.  If you don't know,
		just let configure decide for you.  You can change it later.
	--with-encoding=ENCODING
		define the default encoding (ascii, latin1..., latin6,
		hp, mac, ibmpc, pcg, cp1250).

    Note (for novices). If you are not root, you should give
    ./configure the option --prefix=$HOME to be able to install.

||   ============================================================
||   Setting correctly the top of etc/a2ps-site.cfg is MANDATORY
||   ============================================================
||
||   There are several things a2ps needs to know about your system in
||   order to work properly.  Running configure should be enough to have
||   apropriate values, nevertheless, it sure is better if you good check
||   the following items:
||
||   1. At the end of etc/a2ps_cfg, the lines
||     a. FileCommand:
||     b. Variable: lp.default
||     c. Variable: lp
||
||   2. At the top of etc/a2ps-site.cfg, the lines
||     a. Options: --encoding=
||     b. Options: --medium=
||
||   ============================================================
||   Setting correctly the top of etc/a2ps-site.cfg is MANDATORY
||   ============================================================

    There are some architectures, typically Solaris, that will fail
    saying that symbols `bindtextdomain' etc. are missing.  Then
    re-configure but specifying --with-included-gettext.

    Remember that << make install >> is mandatory for a2ps to work
    correctly.  Once the << make install >> done, you may remove the
    current directory (the one which has been extracted from the .gz).

    If you encounter problems while configuring or running, it is
    likely that somebody already fell on the same problems.  Hence
    please read

         http://www.inf.enst.fr/~demaille/a2ps/bugs.html

    which lists the known problems, and the fixes.  If the trouble cannot
    be solved, send a bug report (i.e. something precise about the problem
    and your configuration :-) to

	mailto:bug-a2ps@gnu.org




2. Upgrading from previous versions (pre-4.10)
==============================================

   Because the organization of the library files is different,
   it is strongly suggested to get rid of your old library files
   (usually rm -rf .../share/a2ps is enough).

   There _will_be_ problems if you don't remove them, because the new
   a2ps may use files meant for the old versions.  If you don't want
   to remove these files, at least make sure they won't be installed
   in the same place.

   There can be strange things happening with `make check'.  This
   is due to a painful behavior of some shared library handlers:
   they use an old a2ps library with the new a2ps executable.

   Doing `make install' _before_ make check solves the problem.




3. Upgrading from previous versions (pre-4.12)
================================================

   The most sensitive changes in the interface are that -D no longer
   means --setpagedevice, but --define, and -S no longer means
   --statusdict, but --setpagedevice.




4. Distribution content
=======================

Some interesting files/directories you might want to look at are:

	README		This message
	INSTALL		Information on the installation process
	ABOUT_NLS	A presentation of GNU's Native Language Support
			project
	TODO		Some things to be done
	afm/		Files that describe the width of the chars of a font
	arch/		Files to help to port a2ps to non Unix OSes
	doc/		The whole documentation
	encoding/	Description of the encodings.
	etc/a2ps_cfg	The default configuration (after configure/make)
	po/		Files for the translation
	sheets/		Style sheets for pretty printing support
	contrib/emacs/	Useful emacs files for a2ps
	contrib/sample/	A sample on using liba2ps
	ogonkify/	The full distribution of the fantastic
			ogonkify package, that fixes a font designed for
			Latin1 so that other Latin encodings are supported.



5. More ?
=========

	a2ps has a home page where the latest version may be found.

		http://www.inf.enst.fr/~demaille/a2ps/

	There, you may also find an html version of the documentation,
	and a postscript (A4, 2 up) version.

	There is also a mailing list, to which you can subscribe by
	sending an email to a2ps-request@gnu.org, with "subscribe" as
	subject.

	*NOTE* The mailing list is not a place to drop your bug reports
	or the problems you have.  It is a place to discuss about a2ps,
	to make the announcements, wishes etc.  Before sending a mail
	there, remember many people will read your mail.

	Bug reports should be sent to bug-a2ps@gnu.org

PS(um): if you're happy with this program, or just if you installed
it, please let_us_know! We would be so happy :).

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