LPC(8)                               BSD                                LPC(8)



NAME
     lpc - line printer control program

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

DESCRIPTION
     The lpc command 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 dameons.

     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
     Commands may be abbreviated; the following  is  the  list  of  recognized
     commands.

     ? [ 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 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
          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.  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 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 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. Undoes the effects
          of down.

FILES
     /etc/printcap           printer description file
     /usr/spool/lpd          spool directories
     /usr/spool/lpd/lock     lock file for queue control

DIAGNOSTICS
     "?Ambiguous command"  abbreviation matches more than one command
     "?Invalid command"    no match was found
     "?Privileged command" command can be executed by root only

SEE ALSO
     lpd(8), lpr(1), lpq(1), lprm(1), printcap(5)