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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  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	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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