LPF(1)

💖 LPF(1) — the lpf filter, aka the general printer filter 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about lpf — it's the general printer filter, and it's giving backbone of your print queue energy. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

lpf — general printer filter 🖨️💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

lpf -Pprinter -wwidth -llength -xwidth -ylength [ -c ] -Kcontrolfilename
-Lbnrname [ -iindent ] [ -Zoptions ] [ -Cclass ] [ -Jjob ] [ -Raccntname
] -nlogin -hHost -Fformat [ -T[crlf,debug] -Dlevel ] [ affile ]

look at all those flags. it's a lot. we're gonna go through every single one, no skips, no cap. 🫶

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So lpf is a general printer filter. Usually it lives inside the printcap file as a filter, and it gets called by lpd. That's its whole thing. It's the little guy doing the actual work while everyone else takes credit. 😤

Two spicy behaviors up top, real quick:

• The -Tcrlf option will suppress translation of LF to CR/LF pairs.
• The -Tdebug option will increment the debug level.

🌸 Options that lpd passes by default

These ones? lpd just hands them over automatically. You don't have to do anything. Iconic behavior honestly.

• -Pprinter — the name of the printer. that's it, that's the printer. 🖨️
• -wwidth — the page width in chars, exactly as given in the :pw field in the printcap file.
• -llength — the page length in lines, as given in the :pl field in the printcap file.
• -xwidth — the page width in pixels, as given in the :px field in the printcap file.
• -ylength — the page length in pixels, as given in the :py field in the printcap file.
• -Kcontrolfilename — the name of the control file.
• -Lbnrname — the banner name. this one is set by the lpr -T option.
• -nlogin — the user login name. 👤
• -hHost — the host where the job was submitted.
• -Fformat — the job format, from the lpr -F option or other option.

🌈 Options that lpd sets optionally

• -Zoptions — extra options. They are passed from the -Z parameter given on the lpr command line, and the filter can interpret them however it wants. it's a free-for-all, lowkey. 🦋

👑 Options you can add yourself in the printcap file

These remaining ones? You can add them to the filter entry in the printcap file. Your house, your rules. 🏠✨

• -c — ignore control characters. Set by the lpr -b (binary) or -l (literal) options.
• -iindent — the indentation amount, set by the lpr -i indent option.
• -Cclass — the class name, set by the lpr -C class option.
• -Jjob — the job name, set by the lpr -J job option.
• -Raccntname — the name of the accounting file, from printcap information. 💸
• -Dlevel — sets the debug level. The level must be an integer, and a nonzero value switches debugging on.
• -Tcrlf — turn LF to CR/LF translation off.
• -Tdebug — increment the debug level. yes again. it's here twice. it's just that important. 🙈

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✨ EXIT STATUS ✨

The following exit values are returned, and they are not subtle:

• zero (0) — successful completion. slay. 🎉
• non-zero (!=0) — an error occurred. 💀

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✨ FILES ✨

The files used by LPRng are set by values in the printer configuration file. The following are a commonly used set of default values — your mileage may vibe differently.

/etc/lprng/lpd.conf                          LPRng configuration file
${HOME}/.printcap                            user printer description file
/etc/printcap                                printer description file
/etc/lprng/lpd.perms                         permissions
/var/run/lprng/lpd                           lock file for queue control
/var/spool/lpd                               spool directories
/var/spool/lpd/QUEUE/control                 queue control
/var/spool/lpd/QUEUE/log                     trace or debug log file
/var/spool/lpd/QUEUE/acct                    accounting file
/var/spool/lpd/QUEUE/status                  status file

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

lpd.conf(5), lpc(8), lpd(8), lpr(1), lpq(1), lprm(1), printcap(5), lpd.perms(5), pr(1), lprng_certs(1), lprng_index_certs(1).

the whole friend group, basically. 🫂

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✨ AUTHOR ✨

Patrick Powell <papowell@lprng.com>. the king who wrote this. 👑

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✨ DIAGNOSTICS ✨

Most of the diagnostics are self explanatory. But if you are puzzled over the exact cause of failure, set the debugging level on (-D5) and run again. The debugging information will help you to pinpoint the exact cause of failure. fr fr, -D5 is your bestie here. 🔍

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✨ HISTORY ✨

LPRng is an enhanced printer spooler system with functionality similar to the Berkeley LPR software. The LPRng developer mailing list is lprng-devel@lists.sourceforge.net; subscribe by visiting https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/lprng-devel or sending mail to lprng-request@lists.sourceforge.net with the word subscribe in the body.

The software is available via http://lprng.sourceforge.net. 🌐

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okay that's the whole page bestie, you're officially an lpf scholar 💜

this was brought to you by the LPRng girlies, dated 2006-12-09 — yes the date is ancient, and yes she still ate. periodt. 💅✨