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LPC(8)			    System Manager's Manual			LPC(8)

NAME
       lpc -- line printer control program

SYNOPSIS
       lpc [command [argument ...]]

DESCRIPTION
       The  lpc	utility	is used	by the system administrator to control the op-
       eration 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,

	     	 change	the status message for printer queues (the status mes-
		 sage may be seen by users as part of the output of the	lpq(1)
		 utility).

       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	recog-
       nized commands.

       ? [command ...]
       help [command ...]
	       Print  a	short description of each command specified in the ar-
	       gument list, or,	if no argument is given, a list	of the	recog-
	       nized commands.

       abort {all | printer}
	       Terminate  an  active spooling daemon on	the local host immedi-
	       ately and then disable printing (preventing  new	 daemons  from
	       being started by	lpr(1))	for the	specified printers.

       bottomq printer [jobspec	...]
	       Take the	specified jobs in the order specified and move them to
	       the bottom of the printer queue.	 Each jobspec can match	multi-
	       ple print jobs.	The full description of	a jobspec is given be-
	       low.

       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.  This
	       command	will  also  look for core files	in spool directory for
	       each printer queue, and list any	that are found.	 It  will  not
	       remove any core files.  See also	the tclean command.

       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 ...}	-msg message ...
       down {all | printer} message ...
	       Turn the	specified printer queue	off, disable printing and  put
	       message	in the printer status file.  When specifying more than
	       one printer queue, the -msg argument is	required  to  separate
	       the  list of printers from the text that	will be	the new	status
	       message.	 The message does not need to be quoted, the remaining
	       arguments are treated like echo(1).  This is normally  used  to
	       take  a	printer	 down,	and let	other users find out why it is
	       down (the lpq(1)	utility	will indicate that the printer is down
	       and will	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).

       setstatus {all |	printer} -msg message ...
	       Set  the	 status	 message for the specified printers.  The -msg
	       argument	is required to separate	the list of printers from  the
	       text  that  will	 be  the new status message.  This is normally
	       used to change the status message when the printer queue	is  no
	       longer active after printing has	been disabled, and you want to
	       change what users will see in the output	of the lpq(1) utility.

       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 dis-
	       able printing.

       tclean {all | printer}
	       This will do a test-run of the clean  command.	All  the  same
	       checking	 is done, but the command will only print out messages
	       saying what a similar clean command would do if the user	 typed
	       it in.  It will not remove any files.  Note that	the clean com-
	       mand  is	 a privileged command, while the tclean	command	is not
	       restricted.

       topq printer [jobspec ...]
	       Take the	specified jobs in the order specified and move them to
	       the top of the printer queue.  Each jobspec can match  multiple
	       print jobs.  The	full description of a jobspec is given below.

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

       Commands	such as	topq and bottomq can take one or more jobspec to spec-
       ify which jobs the command should operate on.  A	jobspec	can be:

          a single job	number,	which will match all  jobs  in	the  printer's
	   queue which have the	same job number.  Eg: 17,

          a range of job numbers, which will match all	jobs with a number be-
	   tween the starting and ending job numbers, inclusive.  Eg: 21-32,

          a  specific	userid,	 which	will match all jobs which were sent by
	   that	user.  Eg: jones,

          a host name,	when prefixed by an `@', which will match all jobs  in
	   the queue which were	sent from the given host.  Eg: @freebsd.org,

          a  job range	and a userid, separated	by a `:', which	will match all
	   jobs	which both match the job range and were	sent by	the  specified
	   user.  Eg: jones:17 or 21-32:jones,

          a  job  range  and/or a userid, followed by a host name, which will
	   match all  jobs  which  match  all  the  specified  criteria.   Eg:
	   jones@freebsd.org or	21-32@freebsd.org or jones:17@freebsd.org.

       The  values  for	userid and host	name can also include pattern-matching
       characters, similar to the pattern matching done	for filenames in  most
       command	shells.	  Note	that if	you enter a topq or bottomq command as
       parameters on the initial lpc command, then the shell will  expand  any
       pattern-matching	 characters  that it can (based	on what	files in finds
       in the current directory) before	lpc processes the  command.   In  that
       case,  any  parameters which include pattern-matching characters	should
       be enclosed in quotes, so that the shell	will not try to	expand them.

FILES
       /etc/printcap	   printer description file
       /var/spool/*	   spool directories
       /var/spool/*/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 ALSO
       lpq(1), lpr(1), lprm(1),	printcap(5), chkprintcap(8), lpd(8)

HISTORY
       The lpc utility appeared	in 4.2BSD.

FreeBSD	14.3			 July 16, 2002				LPC(8)

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