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

NAME
     lpc -- line printer control program

SYNOPSIS
     lpc [command [argument ...]]

DEPRECATION NOTICE
     This   facility   is   scheduled  for  removal  prior  to	the  release  of
     FreeBSD 16.0.

DESCRIPTION
     The lpc utility is used by the system administrator to control  the  opera-
     tion  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  message
	       may  be	seen  by users as part of the output of the lpq(1) util-
	       ity).

     Without any arguments, lpc will prompt for commands from the  standard  in-
     put.   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 argument
	     list,  or,  if  no argument is given, a list of the recognized com-
	     mands.

     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.

     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 multiple print
	     jobs.  The full description of a jobspec is given below.

     clean {all | printer}
	     Remove any temporary files, data files, and control files that can-
	     not 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) util-
	     ity will indicate that the printer is down and will print the  sta-
	     tus 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  argu-
	     ment  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 ac-
	     tive 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 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  disable
	     printing.

     tclean {all | printer}
	     This  will do a test-run of the clean command.  All the same check-
	     ing 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 command is a privi-
	     leged 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 ef-
	     fects of down.

     Commands such as topq and bottomq can take one or more jobspec  to  specify
     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 between
	 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 char-
     acters, 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 direc-
     tory) 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 16.0 CURRENT		  July 16, 2002 			  LPC(8)

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<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=lpc&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+16.0-CURRENT>

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