lp

LP(4)                      Linux Programmer's Manual                     LP(4)

NAME
       lp - line printer devices

SYNOPSIS
       #include <linux/lp.h>

CONFIGURATION
       lp[0-2] are character devices for the parallel line printers; they have
       major number 6 and minor number 0-2.  The minor numbers  correspond  to
       the  printer  port  base  addresses 0x03bc, 0x0378 and 0x0278.  Usually
       they have mode 220 and are owned by root and group  lp.   You  can  use
       printer  ports  either with polling or with interrupts.  Interrupts are
       recommended when high traffic  is  expected,  for  example,  for  laser
       printers.   For  typical  dot  matrix printers, polling will usually be
       enough.  The default is polling.

DESCRIPTION
       The following ioctl(2) calls are supported:

       int ioctl(int fd, LPTIME, int arg)
              Sets the amount of time that the driver sleeps before rechecking
              the  printer  when  the printer's buffer appears to be filled to
              arg.  If you have a fast printer, decrease this number;  if  you
              have a slow printer, then increase it.  This is in hundredths of
              a second, the default 2 being 0.02 seconds.  It influences  only
              the polling driver.

       int ioctl(int fd, LPCHAR, int arg)
              Sets  the  maximum  number  of  busy-wait  iterations  which the
              polling driver does while waiting for the printer to  get  ready
              for  receiving a character to arg.  If printing is too slow, in-
              crease this number; if the system gets too slow,  decrease  this
              number.   The  default  is 1000.  It influences only the polling
              driver.

       int ioctl(int fd, LPABORT, int arg)
              If arg is 0, the printer driver will retry on errors,  otherwise
              it will abort.  The default is 0.

       int ioctl(int fd, LPABORTOPEN, int arg)
              If  arg  is 0, open(2) will be aborted on error, otherwise error
              will be ignored.  The default is to ignore it.

       int ioctl(int fd, LPCAREFUL, int arg)
              If arg is 0, then the out-of-paper, offline, and  error  signals
              are  required  to be false on all writes, otherwise they are ig-
              nored.  The default is to ignore them.

       int ioctl(int fd, LPWAIT, int arg)
              Sets the number of busy waiting iterations to wait before strob-
              ing the printer to accept a just-written character, and the num-
              ber of iterations to wait before turning the strobe  off  again,
              to  arg.   The  specification  says  this time should be 0.5 mi-
              croseconds, but experience has shown the  delay  caused  by  the
              code  is  already enough.  For that reason, the default value is
              0.  This is used for both the polling and the interrupt driver.

       int ioctl(int fd, LPSETIRQ, int arg)
              This ioctl(2) requires superuser privileges.  It  takes  an  int
              containing  the  new  IRQ  as  argument.   As a side effect, the
              printer will be reset.  When arg is 0, the polling  driver  will
              be used, which is also default.

       int ioctl(int fd, LPGETIRQ, int *arg)
              Stores the currently used IRQ in arg.

       int ioctl(int fd, LPGETSTATUS, int *arg)
              Stores  the  value of the status port in arg.  The bits have the
              following meaning:

              LP_PBUSY     inverted busy input, active high
              LP_PACK      unchanged acknowledge input, active low
              LP_POUTPA    unchanged out-of-paper input, active high
              LP_PSELECD   unchanged selected input, active high
              LP_PERRORP   unchanged error input, active low

              Refer to your printer manual for the  meaning  of  the  signals.
              Note  that  undocumented bits may also be set, depending on your
              printer.

       int ioctl(int fd, LPRESET)
              Resets the printer.  No argument is used.

FILES
       /dev/lp*

SEE ALSO
       chmod(1), chown(1), mknod(1), lpcntl(8), tunelp(8)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 5.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of  the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest    version    of    this    page,    can     be     found     at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             1995-01-15                             LP(4)