xref: /dragonfly/share/man/man4/lpt.4 (revision b40e316c)
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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.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man4/lpt.4,v 1.9.2.2 2001/08/17 13:08:38 ru Exp $
29.\" $DragonFly: src/share/man/man4/lpt.4,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:36:59 dillon Exp $
30.\"
31.Dd February 14, 1999
32.Dt LPT 4
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm lpt
36.Nd generic printer device driver
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.Cd "device ppbus"
39.Cd "device lpt"
40.Pp
41.Cd "device	ppc0	at isa? port IO_LPT1 irq 7"
42.Cd "device	ppc1	at isa? port IO_LPT2 irq 7"
43.Cd "device	ppc2	at isa? port IO_LPT3 irq 7"
44.Pp
45For BIOS-probed ports:
46.Cd "device ppc0 at isa? port? irq 7"
47.Pp
48For polled ports:
49.Cd "device ppc0 at isa? port?"
50.Cd "device ppc1 at isa? port IO_LPT2"
51.Pp
52For DMA capable parallel port:
53.Cd "device ppc0 at isa? port? irq 7 drq 1"
54.Sh DESCRIPTION
55The current
56.Em lpt
57driver is the port of the original lpt driver to the
58.Xr ppbus 4
59system.
60.Pp
61One purpose of this port was to allow parallel port sharing with other
62parallel devices.
63Secondly, inb()/outb() calls have been replaced by ppbus
64function calls.
65lpt is now arch-independent thanks to the ppbus interface.
66See
67.Xr ppbus 4
68for more info about the ppbus system.
69.Pp
70The parallel port bus is allocated by lpt when the printer device is opened
71and released only when the transfer is completed: either when the device
72is closed or when the entire buffer is sent in interrupt driven mode.
73.Pp
74The driver can be configured to be either interrupt-driven, or
75to poll the printer.  Ports that are configured to be
76interrupt-driven can be switched to polled mode by using the
77.Xr lptcontrol 8
78command.
79.Pp
80Depending on your hardware, extended capabilities may be configured with the
81.Xr lptcontrol 8
82command.
83With an ECP/ISA port, you can take advantage
84of FIFO and DMA.
85.Pp
86In order to retrieve printer info from /dev/lpt0, just apply the
87.Nm cat
88command to the device.
89If the printer supports IEEE1284 nibble mode and has
90data to send to the host, you'll get it.
91.Sh SEE ALSO
92.Xr ppbus 4 ,
93.Xr lptcontrol 8
94.Sh HISTORY
95This driver replaces the functionality of the lpa
96driver, which is now defunct.
97.Sh FILES
98.Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
99.It Pa /dev/lpt0
100first parallel port driver
101.El
102.Sh BUGS
103There are lots of them, especially in cheap parallel port implementations.
104.Pp
105It is only possible to open a lpt port when a printer is connected and
106on-line, making it impossible to run
107.Xr lptcontrol 8
108when there is no printer connected.
109.Pp
110This driver could still stand a rewrite.
111