make.coverpg is called from faxspool(1) to generate a cover page for the just-processed fax. It has to
create a proper G3 file (e.g. via pbm2g3(1) or hp2hig3(1) or ghostscript(1)) and output that on stdout.
If the program doesn't exist, or can't be executed, the fax simply won't get a coverpage (so, if you
don't want a fax coverpage, do not install it...)
make.coverpg can put anything it wants on the page, but note that there are certain legal requirements in
certain countries about the contents that *have* to be on the cover page, for example, the fax phone
number of the sender and the recepient, the number of pages, or similar things.
make.coverpg gets the informations about the fax to be sent from the command line, in the order listed
above.
If the environment variable normal_res is set to something non-empty, faxspool requests that make.coverpg
creates a cover page in normal resolution (98 lpi). Default is fine resolution (196 lpi).
NOmake.coverpg program is installed by default, since everyones needs differ too wildly.
Some sample coverpage programs are provided in the mgetty source tree, in the samples/ subdirectory
(coverpg.pbm shows how to do it with "pbmtext|pbm2g3", coverpg.ps shows how I do it with ghostscript).
In this directory, you can also find two shell scripts (fax and faxmemo) that will take advantage of one
more esoteric feature of my coverpage programs: if called with the option "-m <memo-file>", the sample
programs will put a text file "<memo-file>" on the cover page (used for short notes or such). To make use
of it, faxspool is called with the option '-C "make.coverpg -m <memo-file>"' (the double quotes are
needed!).