postreverse(1)

postreverse -- reverse the page order in a PostScript file

Synopsis

/usr/lib/lp/postscript/postreverse [options] [file]

Description

The postreverse filter reverses the page order in files that conform to Adobe's Version 1.0 or Version 2.0 file structuring conventions, and writes the results on the standard output. Only one input file is allowed and if no file is specified, the standard input is read. The following options are understood:

-o list: Select pages whose numbers are given in the comma-separated list. The list contains single numbers N and ranges N1 - N2. A missing N1 means the lowest numbered page, a missing N2 means the highest.
-r: Don't reverse the pages in file.

The postreverse filter can handle a limited class of files that violate page independence, provided all global definitions are bracketed by %%BeginGlobal and %%EndGlobal comments. In addition, files that mark the end of each page with %%EndPage: label ordinal comments will also reverse properly, provided the prologue and trailer sections can be located. If postreverse fails to find an %%EndProlog or %%EndSetup comment, the entire file is copied, unmodified, to the standard output.

Because global definitions are extracted from individual pages and put in the prologue, the output file can be minimally conforming, even if the input file was not.

Diagnostics

An exit status of 0 is returned if file was successfully processed.

References

download(1), dpost(1), postdaisy(1), postdmd(1), postio(1), postmd(1), postprint(1), posttek(1)

Notices

No attempt has been made to deal with redefinitions of global variables or procedures. If standard input is used, the input file will be read three times before being reversed.

Examples

To select pages 1 to 100 from file and reverse the pages:

postreverse -o1-100 file

To print four logical pages on each physical page and reverse all the pages:

postprint -n4 file | postreverse

To produce a minimally conforming file from output generated by dpost without reversing the pages:

dpost file | postreverse -r