line printer control utility
lprc [command [argument ...]]
Without any arguments, lprc will prompt for
commands from the standard input. If arguments are supplied,
lprc interprets the first argument as a command
and the remaining arguments as parameters to the command.
The standard input may be redirected causing lprc
to read commands from file. 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, print 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 can't be printed (i.e., don't 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.
The down command is normally used to take a
printer down and let others know why lprq 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
- Exit from lprc. (Same as quit.)
- quit
- Exit from lprc. (Same as exit.)
- 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. The lprq
utility will report that no daemon is present when
this condition occurs. If the user is the superuser, 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. If no printer
is specified, then the status of all printers defined in the
/etc/printcap file is displayed.
- 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.
The lprc utility is used by the system
administrator to control the operation of the line printer
system. For each line printer configured in
/etc/printcap, lprc 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.
- /etc/printcap
- Printer description file.
- ?Ambiguous command
- Abbreviation matches more than one command.
- ?Invalid command
- No match was found.
- ?Privileged command
- Command can be executed only by root.
lpd,
lpr,
lprq,
lprrm,
/etc/printcap file