NAME

lpc − line printer control program

SYNOPSIS

/etc/lpc [ command [ argument ... ] ]

DESCRIPTION

lpc is used by the system administrator to control the operation of the line printer system.  For each line printer configured in /etc/printcap, lpc can be used to:

Disable or enable a printer

Disable or enable a printer’s spooling queue

Rearrange the order of jobs in a spooling queue

Find the status of printers and their associated spooling queues and printer daemons

If no arguments are given, 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 a file.  Commands may be abbreviated.  The following commands are recognized:

? [ 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 any temporary files, data files, and control files that cannot be printed (i.e., do not form a complete printer job) from the specified printer queue(s) on the local machine.

disable { all | printer ... }
Turn the specified printer queues off. This prevents new printer jobs from being entered into the queue by lpr.

down { all | printer } message ...
Turn the specified printer queue off, disable printing, and put message in the printer status file (the message need not be enclosed in quotation marks).  The remaining arguments are treated like echo(1). This is normally used to take a printer down and let others know why the action was taken (lpq will indicate the printer is down and print the status message). 

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. 

restart { all | printer ... }
Attempt to start a new printer daemon for the named printer or for all printers (“all”). This is useful when some abnormal condition causes the daemon to “die” unexpectedly, leaving jobs in the queue. lpq will report that there is no daemon present when this condition occurs.  If the user is the superuser (root), it will try to abort the current daemon first, i.e., kill and ­restart a stuck daemon. 

start { all | printer ... }
Enable printing and start a spooling daemon for the listed printers.

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.

up { all | printer ... }
Enable everything and start a new printer daemon. This will undo the effects of down.

FILES

/etc/printcap   printer description file
/usr/spool/*spool directories
/usr/spool/*/locklock file for queue control

SEE ALSO

lpd(1M), lpq(1), lpr(1), lprm(1), printcap(5).  “Line Printer Spooler Manual.”

DIAGNOSTICS

?Ambiguous command      abbreviation matches more than one command;
use the full command name
?Invalid commandno match was found
?Privileged command     command can be executed by root only

\*U  —  Version 1.0