LPC(8) BSD System Manager's Manual LPC(8)NAMElpc — line printer control program
SYNOPSISlpc [command [argument ...]]
DESCRIPTIONlpc is used by the system administrator to control the operation of the
line printer system. For each line printer configured in /etc/printcap,
lpc may 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.
Without any arguments, lpc will prompt 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.
Commands may be abbreviated; the following is the list of recognized com‐
mands.
? [command ...]
help [command ...]
Print a short description of each command specified in the argu‐
ment list, or, if no argument is 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(1)) 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(1).
down { all | printer } message ...
Turn the specified printer queue off, disable printing and put
message in the printer status file. The message doesn't need to
be quoted, the remaining arguments are treated like echo(1).
This is normally used to take a printer down and let others know
why lpq(1) 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(1) to put new jobs in the spool queue.
exit
quit Exit from lpc.
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. lpq(1) will report that there is no daemon
present when this condition occurs. If the user is the super-
user, 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 print‐
ers.
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 dis‐
able 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. Undoes the
effects of down.
FILES
/etc/printcap printer description file
/var/spool/output/* spool directories
/var/spool/output/*/lock lock file for queue control
DIAGNOSTICS
?Ambiguous command
abbreviation matches more than one command
?Invalid command
no match was found
?Privileged command
you must be a member of group "operator" or root to execute this
command
SEE ALSOlpq(1), lpr(1), lprm(1), printcap(5), lpd(8)HISTORY
The lpc command appeared in 4.2BSD.
BSD April 28, 1995 BSD
