---
name: "foomatic-ppd-options"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "foomatic-db-engine"
version: "5:20200131-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/foomatic-ppd-options"
---

# foomatic-ppd-options(1)

show the PPD options

## NAME

foomatic-ppd-options - show the PPD options

## SYNOPSIS

**foomatic-ppd-options \[-d=debuglevel\] \[ ppdfiles \]**

## DESCRIPTION

The **foomatic-ppd-options** program reads the specified PPD files or stdin and decodes the PPD file to produce a list of options. This is really just a text based version of other print configuration tools.

The output format consists of a set of lines, each starting with a keyword, followed by a set of options and the default value. For example:

```
makemodel = Tektronix Phaser 350 Foomatic/Postscript (recommended)
name=PageSize; default=Letter; options=Letter (US Letter), \
    A4 (A4), 11x17 (11x17), A3 (A3), A5 (A5), B5 (B5 \(JIS\)),...
name=PageRegion; default=Letter; options=Letter (US Letter), A4 (A4), ...
```

Each option starts with the **name** tag, followed by a default value (if any), followed by the set of options and a comment describing them. Punctuation in the comment is escaped.

### Options

- **-d***debuglevel*

  Set the debug level. 0 disables debug messages.

- **\[ files \]**

  The list of PPD files to read for options. A '-' causes STDIN to be read.

## EXIT STATUS

**foomatic-ppd-options** exits with a 0 status if successful, and nonzero if an error. An error message is also printed on standard error (STDERR).

## AUTHOR

Patrick Powell \<papowell at astart.com\>

## BUGS

Probably.  But it has been tested.