NAME

lpadmin − configure the LP print service

SYNOPSIS

/usr/lib/lpadmin −p printer options
/usr/lib/lpadmin −x dest
/usr/lib/lpadmin −d [dest]
/usr/lib/lpadmin −S print-wheel −A alert-type [−Winteger1 ]
    [−Qinteger2 ]

DESCRIPTION

lpadmin configures the LP print service to describe printers and devices.  It is used to add and change printers, to remove printers from the service, to set or change the system default destination, and to define alerts for print wheels. 

Adding or Changing a Printer

The first form of the lpadmin command (lpadmin −p printer options) is used to configure a new printer or to change the configuration of an existing printer.  The following options are used and may appear in any order.  For ease of discussion, the printer will be referred to as P below. 

−F fault-recovery
Restores the LP print service after a printer fault according to the value of fault-recovery:

continue
Continues printing on the top of the page where printing stopped. This requires a filter to wait for the fault to clear before automatically continuing.

beginning
Starts printing the request again from the beginning.

wait Disables printing on the printer and waits for the administrator or a user to enable printing again. 

During the wait, the administrator or the user who submitted the stopped print request can issue a change request that specifies where printing should resume.  If no change request is made before printing is enabled, printing will resume at the top of the page where stopped if the filter allows; otherwise, the request will be printed from the beginning. 

This option specifies the recovery to be used for any print request that is stopped because of a printer fault. 

−c class
Inserts printer P into the specified class.  class will be created if it does not already exist. 

−D comment
Saves comment for display whenever a user asks for a full description of the printer P [see lpstat(1)].  The LP print service does not interpret this comment. 

−e printer
Copies an existing printer’s interface program to be the new interface program for printer P.

−f allow:form-list

−f deny:form-list
Allows (−f allow) or denies (−f deny) the forms in form-list to be printed on printer P. 

For each printer, the LP print service keeps two lists of forms: an "allow-list" of forms that can be used with the printer and a "deny-list" of forms that shouldn’t be used with the printer.  With the −f allow option, the forms listed are added to the allow-list and removed from the deny-list.  With the −f deny option, the forms listed are removed from the allow-list and added to the deny-list. 

If the allow-list is not empty, the forms in the list can be used with the printer and all others cannot regardless of the content of the deny-list.  If the allow-list is empty but the deny-list is not, the forms in the deny-list cannot be used with the printer.  All forms can be excluded from a printer by having an empty allow-list and putting the word any in the deny-list.  All forms can be used on a printer by having an empty deny-list and specifying any for the allow-list, provided the printer can handle all the characteristics of the forms. 

The LP print service uses this information as a set of guidelines for determining where a form can be mounted.  Administrators, however, are not restricted from mounting a form on any printer.  If mounting a form on a particular printer is in disagreement with the information in the allow-list or deny-list, the administrator is warned, but the mount is accepted.  Nonetheless, if a user attempts to issue a print or change request for a form and printer combination that is in disagreement with the information, the request is accepted only if the form is currently mounted on the printer.  If the form is later unmounted before the request can print, the request is canceled, and the user is notified by mail. 

If an administrator tries to name a form as acceptable for use on a printer that doesn’t have the capabilities needed by the form, the command is rejected. 

Note the other use of −f below. 

−h Indicates that the device associated with P is hardwired.  This option is assumed when adding a new printer unless the −l option is supplied. 

−i interface
Establishes a new interface program for P. interface is the path name of the new program. 

−I content-type-list
Assigns P to handle print requests with content of a type listed in content-type-list. 

The type simple is recognized as the default content-type of files in the UNIX system.  Such a data stream contains only printable ASCII characters and the following control characters:

Control Character	Octal Value	Meaning
backspace	108	move back to previous column,
		except at beginning of line
tab	118	move to next tab stop
linefeed (newline)	128	move to beginning of next line
form feed	148	move to beginning of next page
carriage return	158	move to beginning of current line

To force the print service to not consider simple as a valid type for the printer, give an explicit value (e.g., the printer type) in the content-type-list.  If you do want simple included along with other types, you must include simple in the content-type-list. 

Each printer automatically has its printer type included in the list of content types it will accept. 

Except for simple, each content-type name is freely determined by the administrator.  If names given as content types are also printer types, the names are accepted without comment because the LP print service recognizes all printer types as potential content types as well. 

−l Indicates that the device associated with P is a login terminal.  The LP scheduler, lpsched, disables all login terminals automatically each time it is started. Before re-enabling P, its current device should be established using lpadmin.

−M −f form-name [−a [−o filebreak]]
Mounts the form form-name on P.  Print requests to be printed with the pre-printed form form-name will be printed on P.  If more than one printer has the form mounted and the user has specified any (with the −d option of the lp command) as the printer destination, then each print request will be printed on the one that meets the other needs of the request. 

The page length and width and character and line pitches needed by the form are compared with those allowed for the printer by checking the capabilities in the term­info(4) database for the type of printer.  If the form requires attributes that are not available with the printer, the administrator is warned, but the mount is accepted.  If the form lists a print wheel as mandatory but the print wheel mounted on the printer is different, the administrator is also warned but the mount is accepted. 

If the −a option is given, an alignment pattern is printed, preceded by the same initialization of the physical printer that precedes a normal print request with one exception: no banner page is printed.  Printing is assumed to start at the top of the first page of the form.  After the pattern is printed, the administrator can adjust the mounted form in the printer, press return for another alignment pattern (no initialization this time), and continue printing as many alignment patterns as desired.  The administrator can quit the printing alignment patterns by typing "q". 

If the −o filebreak option is given, a formfeed is inserted between each copy of the alignment pattern.  By default, the alignment pattern is assumed to correctly fill a form, so no formfeed is added. 

A form is unmounted by mounting a new form in its place using the −f option.  The −f none option can be used to specify no form.  By default, a new printer has no form mounted. 

Note the other use of −f above. 

−M −S print-wheel
Mounts the print wheel print-wheel on P.  Print requests to be printed with print-wheel will be printed on P.  If more than one printer has the print-wheel mounted and the user has specified any (with the −d option of the lp command) as the printer destination, then each print request will be printed on the one that meets the other needs of the request. 

If the print-wheel is not listed as acceptable for the printer, the administrator is warned, but the mount is accepted.  If the printer does not take print wheels, the command is rejected. 

A print wheel is unmounted by mounting a new print wheel in its place or by using the −S none option. 

By default, a new printer has no special print wheel mounted.  Until this is changed, a print request that asks for a specific print wheel will not be printed on P. 

Note the other uses of the −S option described below. 

−m model
Selects a model interface program provided with the LP print service for printer P.

−o printing-option
Each −o option in the list below is the default given to an interface program if the option is not taken from a preprinted form description or is not explicitly given by the user submitting a request [see lp(1)].  The only −o options that can have defaults defined are listed below:

length=scaled-decimal-number
width=scaled-decimal-number
cpi=scaled-decimal-number
lpi=scaled-decimal-number
stty=stty-option-list

The term scaled-decimal-number refers to a non-negative number used to indicate a unit of size.  (The type of unit is shown by a trailing letter attached to the number.)  Three types of scaled decimal numbers are discussed for the LP print service: numbers that show sizes in centimeters (marked with a trailing c), numbers that show sizes in inches (marked with a trailing i), and numbers that show sizes in units appropriate to use (without a trailing letter), i.e., lines, columns, lines per inch, or characters per inch. 

The first four default option values should agree with the capabilities of the type of physical printer as defined in the term­info(4) database for the printer type.  If they do not, the command is rejected. 

The stty-option-list is not checked for allowed values but is passed directly to the stty(1) program by the standard interface program.  Any error messages produced by stty(1) when a request is processed (by the standard interface program) are mailed to the user submitting the request. 

For each printing option not specified, the defaults for the following attributes are defined in the Terminfo entry for the specified printer type:

length
width
cpi
lpi

The default for stty is

stty=9600 cs8 −cstopb −parenb −paroff ixon
−ixany opost −olcuc −onlcr −ocrnl −onocr
−onlret −ofill nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0 ff0

You can set any of the −o options to the default values (which vary for different types of printers) by typing them without assigned values as follows:

length=
width=
cpi=
lpi=
stty=

−o nobanner
Allows users to submit a print request that asks that no banner page be printed.

−o banner
Forces a banner page to be printed with every print request, even when a user asks for no banner page. This is the default; you must specify −o nobanner if you want to allow users to specify −o nobanner with the lp command. 

−r class
Removes printer P from the specified class. If P is the last member of the class, then the class will be removed. 

−S list
Allows the aliases for character sets or print wheels named in list to be used with P.  If the printer is a type that takes print wheels, then list is a list of print wheel names separated by commas or spaces.  These will be the only print wheels considered mountable on the printer.  (You can always force a different print wheel to be mounted, however.)  Until the option is used to specify a list, no print wheels will be considered mountable on the printer, and print requests that ask for a particular print wheel with this printer will be rejected. 

If the printer is a type that has selectable character sets, then list is a list of character set name mappings or aliases separated by commas or spaces.  Each mapping is of the form

known-name = synonym

known-name is a character set number preceded by cs, such as cs3 for character set three, or a character set name from the Terminfo database csnm entry.  [See term­info(4) in the INTERACTIVE SDS Guide and Programmer’s Reference Manual.] If this option is not used to specify a list, only the names already known from the Terminfo database or numbers with a prefix of cs will be acceptable for the printer.  If list is the word none, the previous print wheel list or character set aliases will be removed.  Note the other uses of the −S option. 

−T printer-type
Assigns the given printer-type, a representation of a physical printer of type printer-type.  Printer-type is used to extract data from term­info(4); this data is used to initialize the printer before printing each user’s request.  Some filters may also use printer-type to convert content for the printer.  If this option is not used, the default printer-type will be unknown; no useful information will be extracted from term­info(4), so each user request will be printed without first initializing the printer.  Also, this option must be used if the following are to work: −o cpi=, −o lpi=, −o width=, and −o length= options of the lpadmin and lp commands, and the −S and −f options of the lpadmin command. 

−u allow:user-list

−u deny:user-list
Allows (−u allow) or denies (−u deny) the users in user-list access to P.  For normal access to each printer, the LP print service keeps two lists of users: an allow-list of people allowed to use the printer and a deny-list of people denied access to the printer.  With the −u allow option, the users listed are added to the allow-list and removed from the deny-list.  With the −u deny option, the users listed are removed from the allow-list and added to the deny-list. 

If the allow-list is not empty, the users in the list are allowed access to the printer and all others are denied access, regardless of the content of the deny-list.  If the allow-list is empty but the deny-list is not, the users in the deny-list are denied access and all others are allowed.  If both lists are empty, all users are allowed access.  Access can be denied to all users except the LP print service administrator by putting any in the allow-list.  To allow everyone access to P and effectively empty both lists, put any in the allow-list. 

−U dial-info
Assigns the dialing information dial-info to the printer.  dial-info is used with the dial(3) routine to call the printer.  Any network connection supported by the Basic Networking Utilities will work.  dial-info can be either a phone number for a modem connection or a system name for other kinds of connections.  Or if −U direct is given, no dialing will take place because the name direct is reserved for a printer that is directly connected.  If a system name is given, it is used to search for connection details from the file /usr/lib/uucp/Systems or related files.  The Basic Networking Utilities are required to support this option.  By default, −U direct is assumed. 

−v device
Associates a new device with printer P. device is the path name of a file that is writable by lp. Note that the same device can be associated with more than one printer. 

−A  alert-type [−W integer]
The −A option is used to send the alert alert-type to the administrator when a printer fault is detected and periodically thereafter until the printer fault is cleared by the administrator.  The alert-types are

mail Sends the alert message via mail [see mail(1)] to the administrator who issues this command. 

write Writes the message to the terminal on which the administrator is logged in.  If the administrator is logged in on several terminals, one is chosen arbitrarily. 

quiet Does not send messages for the current condition.  An administrator can use this option to temporarily stop receiving further messages about a known problem.  Once the fault has been cleared and printing resumes, messages will again be sent when another fault occurs with the printer. 

none Does not send messages until this command is given again with a different alert-type; removes any existing alert definition.  No alert will be sent when the printer faults until a different alert-type is used (except quiet). 

shell-command
shell-command is run each time the alert needs to be sent.  shell-command should expect the message as standard input.  If there are blanks embedded in the command, enclose the command in quotes.  Note that the mail and write values for this option are equivalent to the values mail user-name and write user-name, respectively, where user-name is the current name for the administrator.  This will be the login name of the person submitting this command unless he or she has used the su command to change to another user ID.  If the su command has been used to change the user ID, then the user-name for the new ID is used. 

list The type of the alert for the printer fault is displayed on the standard output.  No change is made to the alert. 

The message sent appears as follows:

The print wheel print-wheel needs to be mounted
on the printer(s):
printer-list
number-of-requests print requests await this print-wheel.

The printer printer-name has stopped printing for the reason given below.  Fix the problem and bring the printer back on line.  Printing has stopped but will be restarted in a few minutes; issue an enable command if you want to restart sooner. 

Unless someone issues a change request

lp −i request-id −P ...

to change the page-list to print, the current request will be repeated from the beginning. 

The reason(s) it stopped (multiple reasons indicate reprinted attempts):

reason

The LP print service can detect printer faults only through an adequate fast filter and only when the standard interface program or a suitable customized interface program is used.  Furthermore, the level of recovery after a fault depends on the capabilities of the filter. 

If the printer-name is all, the alerting defined in this command applies to all existing printers. 

If the −W option is not given orinteger1 is zero (which represents once and is also the default), only one message will be sent per fault.  If this command is not used to arrange fault alerting for a printer, the default procedure is to mail one message to the administrator of the printer per fault. 

Restrictions

When creating a new printer, either the −v or the −U option must be supplied.  In addition, only one of the following may be supplied: −e, −i, or −m; if none of these three options are supplied, the model standard is used.  The −h and −l keyletters are mutually exclusive.  Printer and class names may be no longer than 14 characters and must consist entirely of the characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and _ (underscore). 

Removing a Printer Destination

The −x dest option removes the destination dest from the LP print service.  If dest is a printer and is the only member of a class, then the class will be deleted, too.  If dest is all, all printers and classes are removed.  No other options are allowed with −x. 

Changing the System Default Destination

The −d [dest] option makes dest, an existing destination, the new system default destination. If dest is not supplied, then there is no system default destination.  No other options are allowed with −d. 

Setting an Alert for a Print Wheel

−S print-wheel −A alert-type [−W integer sub 1 ] [−Q integer2]
The −S print-wheel option is used with the −A alert-type option to send the alert alert-type to the administrator as soon as the print-wheel needs to be mounted and periodically thereafter.  The alert-types are

mail Sends the alert message via mail [see mail(1)] to the administrator who issues this command. 

write Writes the message to the terminal on which the administrator is logged in.  If the administrator is logged in on several terminals, one is chosen arbitrarily. 

quiet Does not send messages for the current condition.  An administrator can use this option to temporarily stop receiving further messages about a known problem.  Once the print-wheel has been mounted and subsequently unmounted, messages will again be sent when the number of print requests again exceeds the threshold. 

none Does not send messages until this command is given again with a different alert-type (other than quiet). 

shell-command
The shell-command is run each time the alert needs to be sent.  The shell command should expect the message as standard input.  If there are blanks embedded in the command, enclose the command in quotes.  Note that the mail and write values for this option are equivalent to the values mail user-name and write user-name, respectively, where user-name is the current name for the administrator.  This will be the login name of the person submitting this command unless he or she has used the su command to change to another user ID.  If the su command has been used to change the user ID, then the user-name for the new ID is used. 

list The type of the alert for the print wheel is displayed on the standard output.  No change is made to the alert. 

The printers listed are those that the administrator had earlier specified were candidates for this print wheel.  The number (integer3) listed next to each printer is the number of requests eligible for the printer.  The number (integer4) shown after the printer list is the total number of requests awaiting the print wheel.  It will be less than the sum of the other numbers if some requests can be handled by more than one printer. 

If the print-wheel is all, the alerting defined in this command applies to all print wheels already defined to have an alert. 

If the −W option is not given or integer1 is zero (which is interpreted as once and is also the default), only one message will be sent per need to mount a print wheel.  If this command is not used to arrange alerting for a print wheel, no alerts will be sent for the print wheel. 

If the −Q option is also given, the alert will be made when integer2 print requests that need the print wheel are waiting.  If the −Q option is not given orinteger2 is 1 or the word any, a message is sent as soon as anyone submits a print request for the print wheel when it is not mounted. 

The −S option has a different meaning when used with the −p option. 

FILES

/usr/spool/lp/∗

SEE ALSO

accept(1M), enable(1), lp(1), lpstat(1), stty(1), lpsched(1M).  dial(3), term­info(4) in the INTER­ACTIVE SDS Guide and Programmer’s Reference Manual. 
 

\*U  —  Version 1.0