lpc(8)
Name
lpc − line printer control program
Syntax
/etc/lpc [ command [ argument... ] ]
Description
The lpc program is used by the system administrator to control the operation of the line printer system. For each line printer with an entry in the /etc/printcap file, lpc may be used to start/stop several different functions.
Without any arguments, lpc prompts for commands from the standard input. If arguments are supplied, lpc interprets the first argument as a command and the remaining arguments as parameters to the command. The standard input may be redirected causing lpc to read commands from file. The commands and their parameters are shown below. Commands may be abbreviated.
? [ command... ]
help [ command... ]
Print a short description of each command specified in the argument list, or, if no arguments are given, a list of the recognized commands.
abort [ all ] [ printer... ]
Terminate an active spooling daemon on the local host immediately and then disable printing (preventing new daemons from being started by lpr for the specified printers.
clean [ all ] [ printer... ]
Remove all files beginning with “cf”, “tf”, or “df” from the specified printer queue(s) on the local machine.
enable [ all ] [ printer... ]
Enable spooling on the local queue for the listed printers. This will allow lpr to put new jobs in the spool queue.
exit
quit
Exit from lpc.
disable [ all ] [ printer... ]
Turn the specified printer queues off. This prevents new printer jobs from being entered into the queue by lpr.
restart [ all ] [ printer... ]
Attempt to start a new printer daemon. This is useful when some abnormal condition causes the daemon to die unexpectedly leaving jobs in the queue. The lpq command will report that there is no daemon present when this condition occurs.
start [ all ] [ printer... ]
Enable printing and start a spooling daemon for the listed printers. This command also creates an init file in the printer’s spool directory. The init file can be used by filters as an initialization flag.
status [ all ] [ printer... ]
Display the status of daemons and queues on the local machine.
stop [ all ] [ printer... ]
Stop a spooling daemon after the current job completes and disable printing.
topq printer [ jobnum... ] [ user... ]
Place the jobs in the order listed at the top of the printer queue.
Diagnostics
| ?Ambiguous command | Abbreviation matches more than on command |
| ?Invalid command | No match was found |
| ?Privileged command | Command can only be executed by root |
Files
/etc/printcap Printer description file
/usr/spool/* Spool directories
/usr/spool/*/lock Lock file for queue control