xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/lpt.4 (revision a2f733abcff64628b7771a47089628b7327a88bd)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 1993 Christopher G. Demetriou
3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Geoffrey M. Rehmet
4.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Nicolas Souchu
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28.Dd February 14, 1999
29.Dt LPT 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm lpt
33.Nd generic printer device driver
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Cd "device ppc"
36.Cd "device ppbus"
37.Cd "device lpt"
38.Sh DESCRIPTION
39The current
40.Em lpt
41driver is the port of the original lpt driver to the
42.Xr ppbus 4
43system.
44.Pp
45One purpose of this port was to allow parallel port sharing with other
46parallel devices.
47Secondly, inb()/outb() calls have been replaced by ppbus
48function calls.
49lpt is now arch-independent thanks to the ppbus interface.
50See
51.Xr ppbus 4
52for more info about the ppbus system.
53.Pp
54The parallel port bus is allocated by lpt when the printer device is opened
55and released only when the transfer is completed: either when the device
56is closed or when the entire buffer is sent in interrupt driven mode.
57.Pp
58The driver can be configured to be either interrupt-driven, or
59to poll the printer.
60Ports that are configured to be
61interrupt-driven can be switched to polled mode by using the
62.Xr lptcontrol 8
63command.
64.Pp
65Depending on your hardware, extended capabilities may be configured with the
66.Xr lptcontrol 8
67command.
68With an ECP/ISA port, you can take advantage
69of FIFO and DMA.
70.Pp
71In order to retrieve printer info from /dev/lpt0, just apply the
72.Nm cat
73command to the device.
74If the printer supports IEEE1284 nibble mode and has
75data to send to the host, you will get it.
76.Sh FILES
77.Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
78.It Pa /dev/lpt0
79first parallel port driver
80.El
81.Sh SEE ALSO
82.Xr ppbus 4 ,
83.Xr ppc 4 ,
84.Xr lptcontrol 8
85.Sh HISTORY
86This driver replaces the functionality of the lpa
87driver, which is now defunct.
88.Sh BUGS
89There are lots of them, especially in cheap parallel port implementations.
90.Pp
91It is only possible to open a lpt port when a printer is connected and
92on-line, making it impossible to run
93.Xr lptcontrol 8
94when there is no printer connected.
95.Pp
96This driver could still stand a rewrite.
97