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+.\" This file Copyright (C) 1992-1997 Michael K. Johnson <johnsonm@redhat.com>
+.\" This file Copyright (C) 1998      Andrea Arcangeli   <andrea@e-mind.com>
+.\" It may be distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License,
+.\" version 2, or any higher version.  See section COPYING of the GNU General
+.\" Public license for conditions under which this file may be redistributed.
+.\"
+.\" Polished a bit - aeb
+.TH TUNELP 8 "October 2011" "util-linux" "System Administration"
+.SH NAME
+tunelp \- set various parameters for the lp device
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B tunelp
+[options]
+.I device
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+\fBtunelp\fP sets several parameters for the /dev/lp\fI?\fP 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.
+.SH OPTIONS
+.TP
+\fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-irq\fR \fIargument\fR
+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 printing stop.  The command
+.B 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.
+.IP
+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
+.IR /proc/parport/*/irq .
+Read
+.I /usr/src/linux/Documentation/parport.txt
+for more details on parport.
+.TP
+\fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-time\fR \fImilliseconds\fR
+is the amount of time in jiffies that the driver waits if the printer doesn't
+take a character for the number of tries dictated 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 buffer, 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.
+.TP
+\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-chars\fR \fIcharacters\fR
+is the number of times to try to output a character to the printer before
+sleeping for \-t \fITIME\fP.  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 \fImust\fP 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 \fIreally\fP old printer, you can increase this further.
+.IP
+Setting \-t \fITIME\fP to 0 is equivalent to setting \-c \fICHARS\fP to
+infinity.
+.TP
+\fB\-w\fR, \fB\-\-wait\fR \fImilliseconds\fR
+is the number of usec we wait while playing with the strobe signal.  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.
+.TP
+\fB\-a\fR, \fB\-\-abort\fR \fI<on|off>\fR
+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.
+.TP
+\fB\-o\fR, \fB\-\-check\-status\fR \fI<on|off>\fR
+This option is much like \-a.  It makes any
+.I 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.
+.TP
+\fB\-C\fR, \fB\-\-careful\fR \fI<on|off>\fR
+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.
+.IP
+NOTE: This option is obsolete because it's the default in 2.1.131 kernel or
+later.
+.TP
+\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-status\fR
+This option returns the current printer status, both as a decimal 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.
+.TP
+\fB\-T\fR, \fB\-\-trust\-irq\fR \fI<on|off>\fR
+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 kernels only.
+.IP
+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.
+.IP
+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...
+.TP
+\fB\-r\fR, \fB\-\-reset\fR
+This option resets the port.  It requires a Linux kernel version of 1.1.80 or
+later.
+.TP
+\fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-print-irq\fR \fI<on|off>\fR
+This option sets printing the display of the current IRQ setting.
+.SH NOTES
+.BR \-o ,
+.BR \-C ,
+and
+.B \-s
+all require a Linux kernel version of 1.1.76 or later.
+.PP
+.B \-C
+requires a Linux version prior to 2.1.131.
+.PP
+.B \-T
+requires a Linux version of 2.1.131 or later.
+.SH 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.
+.SH FILES
+.I /dev/lp?
+.br
+.I /proc/parport/*/*
+.SH AVAILABILITY
+The tunelp  command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
+.UR ftp://\:ftp.kernel.org\:/pub\:/linux\:/utils\:/util-linux/
+Linux Kernel Archive
+.UE .