term% cat index.txt LPD(8) System Manager's Manual LPD(8)
NAME
lpd - line printer daemon
SYNOPSIS
/etc/lpd
DESCRIPTION
Lpd is the daemon for the line printer. Lpd uses the directory
/usr/spool/lpd. The file lock in that directory is used to prevent two
daemons from becoming active. After the program has successfully set
the lock, it forks and the main path exits, thus spawning the daemon.
The directory is scanned for files beginning with df. Each such file
is submitted as a job. Each line of a job file must begin with a key
character to specify what to do with the remainder of the line.
L specifies that the remainder of the line is to be sent as a lit‐
eral.
B specifies that the rest of the line is a file name.
F is the same as B except a form feed is prepended to the file.
U specifies that the rest of the line is a file name. After the job
has been transmitted, the file is unlinked.
M is followed by a user ID; after the job is sent, a message is
mailed to the user via the mail(1) command to verify the sending
of the job.
Any error encountered will cause the daemon to wait and start over.
This means that an improperly constructed df file may cause the same
job to be submitted repeatedly.
Lpd is automatically initiated by the line printer command, lpr.
To restart lpd (in the case of hardware or software malfunction), it is
necessary to first kill the old daemon (if still alive), and remove the
lock file before initiating the new daemon. This is done automatically
when the system is brought up, by /etc/rc, in case there were any jobs
left in the spooling directory when the system last went down.
FILES
/usr/spool/lpd/* spool area for line printer daemon
/etc/passwd to get the user's name
/dev/lp line printer device
SEE ALSO
lpr(1)
LPD(8)