The enable command activates printers, enabling them to print requests submitted by the lp command. enable must be run on the printer server.

The disable command deactivates printers, disabling them from printing requests submitted by the lp command. By default, any requests that are currently printing on printer will be reprinted in their entirety either on printer or another member of the same class of printers. The disable command must be run on the print server.

Use lpstat -p to check the status of printers.

enable and disable only effect queueing on the print server's spooling system. Executing these commands from a client system will have no effect on the server.

The following options are supported for use with disable:

-c

Cancels any requests that are currently printing on printer. This option cannot be used with the -W option. If the printer is remote, the -c option will be silently ignored.

-W

Waits until the request currently being printed is finished before disabling printer. This option cannot be used with the -c option. If the printer is remote, the -W option will be silently ignored.

-r [reason]

Assigns a reason for the disabling of the printer(s). This reason applies to all printers specified. This reason is reported by lpstat -p. Enclose reason in quotes if it contains blanks. The default reason is "unknown reason" for the existing printer, and "new printer" for a printer added to the system but not yet enabled.

The following operand is supported for both enable and disable:

printer

The name of the printer to be enabled or disabled. Specify printer using atomic name. See printers.conf(4) for information regarding the naming conventions for atomic names.

The following exit values are returned:

0

Successful completion.

non-zero

An error occurred.

/var/spool/lp/*

LP print queue.

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

lp(1), lpstat(1), printers.conf(4), attributes(5)