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LPC(8)			  BSD 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	opera-
     tion of the line printer system.  For each	line printer configured	in
     /etc/printcap, lpc	may be used to:

	   o   disable or enable a printer,

	   o   disable or enable a printer's spooling queue,

	   o   rearrange the order of jobs in a	spooling queue,

	   o   find the	status of printers, and	their associated spooling
	       queues and printer daemons,

	   o   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 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	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.

     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
	     cannot be printed (i.e., do not form a complete printer job) from
	     the specified printer queue(s) on the local machine.  This	com-
	     mand 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	mes-
	     sage.  The	message	does not need to be quoted, the	remaining ar-
	     guments 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 ar-
	     gument 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	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 command
	     is	a privileged command, while the	tclean command is not re-
	     stricted.

     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:

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

     o	 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,

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

     o	 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,

     o	 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,

     o	 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 pa-
     rameters on the initial lpc command, then the shell will expand any pat-
     tern-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.

BSD				 July 16, 2002				   BSD

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FILES | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY

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