enable(1M)

enable, disable -- enable/disable LP printers

Synopsis

enable printers

disable [options] printers

Description

The enable command activates the named printers, enabling them to print requests submitted by the lp command. If the printer is remote, the command will only enable the transfer of requests to the remote system; the enable command must be run again, on the remote system, to activate the printer. (Run lpstat -p to get the status of printers.)

When changes are made to the attributes of a print device, they are recognized by enable. Therefore to change the definition or allocation for a device, you must disable the printer on that device, change the device, and then run enable. The new device attributes will become effective when enable is executed.

The disable command deactivates the named printers, disabling them from printing requests submitted by lp. By default, any requests that are currently printing on the designated printers will be reprinted in their entirety either on the same printer or on another member of the same class of printers. If the printer is remote, this command will only stop the transmission of jobs to the remote system. The disable command must be run on the remote system to disable the printer. (Run lpstat -p to get the status of printers.) disable recognizes supplementary code set characters in the reason given to the -r option (see below) according to the locale specified in the LC_CTYPE environment variable [see LANG on environ(5)].

-c: Cancel any requests that are currently printing on any of the designated printers. This option cannot be used with the -W option. If the printer is remote, the -c option will be silently ignored.
-r reason: Assign a reason for the disabling of the printers. This reason applies to all printers specified. This reason is reported by lpstat -p. reason may contain supplementary code set characters, and must be enclosed in quotes if it contains blanks. The default reason is ``unknown reason'' for existing printers, and ``new printer'' for printers just added to the system but not yet enabled.
-W: Wait until the request currently being printed is finished before disabling the specified printer.
This option cannot be used with the -c option. If the printer is remote, the -W option will be silently ignored.

Files

/var/spool/lp/*
/usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/uxlp: language-specific message file (see LANG on environ(5)).

References

lp(1), lpstat(1)

Notices

Printer names are system-defined words and as such should be restricted to uppercase and lowercase ASCII characters.