Practical Linux

Controlling Printers and Print Jobs

Printers and the order of print jobs can be controlled with the lpc (line-printer control) command. The lpc command has 14 built-in commands, but, as shown in Table 5.1, only the root operator can use every command. Each command can be used on the command line when you start lpc, and some commands require the name of a printer. For example, suppose you're the root operator and want to stop printing. If you simply use stop the lpc command will complain and quit:

# lpc stop
Usage: stop { all | printer}

To stop a particular printer, specify the command followed by the printer's name, like this:

# lpc stop mylp
mylp:
      printing disabled

The lpc command will echo the printer's name, followed by a message verifying ...