tunelp man page on ElementaryOS

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TUNELP(8)		     System Administration		     TUNELP(8)

NAME
       tunelp - set various parameters for the lp device

SYNOPSIS
       tunelp device [-i IRQ] [-t TIME] [-c CHARS] [-w WAIT] [-a {on|off}] [-o
       {on|off}] [-C {on|off}] [-r] [-s] [-q {on|off}] [-T {on|off}]

DESCRIPTION
       tunelp sets several parameters for the  /dev/lp?	 devices,  for	better
       performance  (or for any performance at all, if your printer won't work
       without it...)  Without parameters, it  tells  whether  the  device  is
       using  interrupts,  and if so, which one.  With parameters, it sets the
       device characteristics accordingly.  The parameters are as follows:

       -i IRQ specifies the IRQ to use for the parallel port in question.   If
	      this is set to something non-zero, -t and -c have no effect.  If
	      your port does not use interrupts, this option will make	print‐
	      ing stop.	 The command tunelp -i 0 restores non-interrupt driven
	      (polling) action, and your printer should work again.   If  your
	      parallel port does support interrupts, interrupt-driven printing
	      should be somewhat faster and efficient, and  will  probably  be
	      desirable.

	      NOTE:  This  option  will	 have no effect with kernel 2.1.131 or
	      later since the irq is handled by the parport  driver.  You  can
	      change  the  parport  irq	 for  example via /proc/parport/*/irq.
	      Read /usr/src/linux/Documentation/parport.txt for	 more  details
	      on parport.

       -t TIME
	      is  the  amount  of time in jiffies that the driver waits if the
	      printer doesn't take a character for the number  of  tries  dic‐
	      tated  by	 the  -c  parameter.  10 is the default value.	If you
	      want fastest possible printing,  and  don't  care	 about	system
	      load,  you  may  set this to 0.  If you don't care how fast your
	      printer goes, or are printing text on a slow printer with a buf‐
	      fer, then 500 (5 seconds) should be fine, and will give you very
	      low system load.	This  value  generally	should	be  lower  for
	      printing	graphics  than	text, by a factor of approximately 10,
	      for best performance.

       -c CHARS
	      is the number of times to try  to	 output	 a  character  to  the
	      printer  before sleeping for -t TIME.  It is the number of times
	      around a loop that tries to send a  character  to	 the  printer.
	      120  appears  to	be  a  good value for most printers in polling
	      mode.  1000 is the default, because there are some printers that
	      become  jerky  otherwise, but you must set this to `1' to handle
	      the maximal CPU efficiency if you are using interrupts.  If  you
	      have  a  very  fast printer, a value of 10 might make more sense
	      even if in polling mode.	If you have a really old printer,  you
	      can increase this further.

	      Setting -t TIME to 0 is equivalent to setting -c CHARS to infin‐
	      ity.

       -w WAIT
	      is the number of usec we wait while playing with the strobe sig‐
	      nal.   While  most  printers  appear  to be able to deal with an
	      extremely short strobe,  some  printers  demand  a  longer  one.
	      Increasing this from the default 1 may make it possible to print
	      with those printers.  This may also  make	 it  possible  to  use
	      longer cables. It's also possible to decrease this value to 0 if
	      your printer is fast enough or your machine is slow enough.

       -a {on|off}
	      This is whether to abort on printer error - the default  is  not
	      to.   If	you are sitting at your computer, you probably want to
	      be able to see an error and fix it, and have the printer	go  on
	      printing.	  On  the  other hand, if you aren't, you might rather
	      that your printer spooler find out that the printer isn't ready,
	      quit trying, and send you mail about it.	The choice is yours.

       -o {on|off}
	      This option is much like -a.  It makes any open() of this device
	      check to see that the device is on-line and  not	reporting  any
	      out  of  paper or other errors.  This is the correct setting for
	      most versions of lpd.

       -C {on|off}
	      This option adds extra ("careful") error	checking.   When  this
	      option is on, the printer driver will ensure that the printer is
	      on-line and not reporting any  out  of  paper  or	 other	errors
	      before  sending  data.  This is particularly useful for printers
	      that normally appear to accept data when turned off.

	      NOTE: This option	 is  obsolete  because	it's  the  default  in
	      2.1.131 kernel or later.

       -s     This  option returns the current printer status, both as a deci‐
	      mal number from 0..255, and as a list  of	 active	 flags.	  When
	      this option is specified, -q off, turning off the display of the
	      current IRQ, is implied.

       -T {on|off}
	      This option is obsolete. It was  added  in  Linux	 2.1.131,  and
	      removed  again  in Linux 2.3.10. The below is for these old ker‐
	      nels only.

	      This option tells the lp driver to trust or not the  IRQ.	  This
	      option  makes  sense  only  if you are using interrupts.	If you
	      tell the lp driver to trust the irq, then, when  the  lp	driver
	      will  get an irq, it will send the next pending character to the
	      printer unconditionally, even if the printer still claims to  be
	      BUSY.   This  is	the only way to sleep on interrupt (and so the
	      handle the irq printing efficiently) at least  on	 Epson	Stylus
	      Color  Printers.	 The  lp  driver  automagically detects if you
	      could get improved performance by setting this flag, and in such
	      case it will warn you with a kernel message.

	      NOTE:  Trusting  the  irq is reported to corrupt the printing on
	      some hardware, you must try to know if your printer will work or
	      not...

       -r     This option resets the port.  It requires a Linux kernel version
	      of 1.1.80 or later.

       -q {on|off}
	      This option sets printing the display of the  current  IRQ  set‐
	      ting.

NOTES
       -o, -C, and -s all require a Linux kernel version of 1.1.76 or later.

       -C requires a Linux version prior to 2.1.131.

       -T requires a Linux version of 2.1.131 or later.

BUGS
       By  some	 unfortunate  coincidence the ioctl LPSTRICT of 2.0.36 has the
       same number as the ioctl LPTRUSTIRQ introduced in 2.1.131. So,  use  of
       the  -T option on a 2.0.36 kernel with an tunelp compiled under 2.1.131
       or later may have unexpected effects.

FILES
       /dev/lp?
       /proc/parport/*/*

AVAILABILITY
       The tunelp  command is part of the util-linux package and is  available
       from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.

util-linux			   May 1999			     TUNELP(8)
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