lp(1) lp(1)
NAME [Toc] [Back]
lp, lpalt, cancel - print/alter/cancel requests on an LP destination
SYNOPSIS [Toc] [Back]
lp [-c] [-ddest] [-m] [-nnumber] [-ooption] [-ppriority] [-s]
[-ttitle] [-w] [file ...]
lpalt id [-ddest] [-i] [-m] [-nnumber] [-ooption] [-ppriority] [-s]
[-ttitle] [-w]
cancel [id ...] [dest ...] [-a] [-e] [-i] [-uuser] [-f]
DESCRIPTION [Toc] [Back]
The lp command queues files for printing. The lpalt command changes
information in a queued request. The cancel command deletes a queued
request.
lp Command
The lp command arranges for the named files, file ..., and associated
information (collectively called a request) to be queued for output to
a destination in the LP (line printer) subsystem. The process is
called printing, regardless of the actual output device.
lp associates a unique identifier with each request and writes it to
standard output, using the message:
request id is dest-sequence (fileinfo)
The request ID is dest-sequence, which can be used later to alter,
cancel, or find the status of the request (see lpalt and cancel below,
and lpstat(1)).
For example, in the following message,
request id is pr47lf8e-2410 (1 file)
the request ID is pr47lf8e-2410.
lp Options and Arguments
lp recognizes the following options and arguments. The keyletter
options can be specified in any order. The file ... names must be
last.
file ... Print each named file. If no file names are specified,
standard input is assumed. The hyphen symbol (-) also
specifies standard input and can be intermixed on the
command line with file names. If more than one - is
specified, all but first are ignored. Files are
printed in the same order in which they are specified.
A maximum of 832 file names can be specified.
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-c Copy the named files to LP subsystem spooling
directories.
Normally, the files are linked into a spool directory.
The ownership and mode of the linked files remain
unchanged. If the -c option is given, or linking is
not possible (perhaps because the files do not reside
on the same filesystem as that of the spooling
directory), the files are copied into the spool
directories. The ownership and mode of the copies are
set to allow read and write access to owner lp and read
access to group lp only.
If the files are linked rather than copied, any changes
made to the named files after the request is made but
before it is printed will be reflected in the printed
output. Standard input is always copied instead of
linked.
-ddest Select dest as the printer or class of printers that is
to do the printing. If dest is a printer, the request
will be printed only on that specific printer. If dest
is a class, the request will be printed on the first
available printer that is a member of the class. Under
certain conditions (printer unavailability, file space
limitation, etc.), requests for a specific dest might
not be accepted (see accept(1M) and lpadmin(1M)).
If the -d option is omitted, dest is taken from the
environment variable LPDEST. If that variable is unset
or empty, dest is taken from the environment variable
PRINTER. If that variable is unset or empty, the
default queue is used. If there is no default queue,
or default queue exists but is empty or has invalid
destination entry, or LPDEST is set but invalid,
PRINTER is set but invalid, lp issues an error message
and the request is not queued. Printer and class names
and the default queue are defined by your LP subsystem
administrator (see lpadmin(1M) and lpstat(1)).
-m Send a mail message (see mail(1)) to the user after the
request has been printed. By default, no mail is sent
upon normal completion of the print request.
-nnumber Print number copies of the output. If illegal number
of copies is specified with this option, the default
number of copies is 1.
-ooption Specify a printer-dependent option. You can specify
several printer options by repeating the -o option.
For information about the options that are available
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lp(1) lp(1)
for a printer supported on your system, see the
interface script for the printer name in the
/etc/lp/interface directory.
-ppriority Set the priority of the print request. priority must
be in the range 0 (lowest priority) to 7 (highest
priority). The priority is used by the lpsched
scheduler to select the next spooled file for the
targeted printer or class of printers. If the priority
is less than the fence, the minimum priority set for
the printer, the print request is deferred until the
fence is lowered or the priority is raised. The
default for a printer queue is the default priority set
by the lpadmin or lpfence command (see lpadmin(1M) and
lpsched(1M)). The default for a class queue is the
highest default priority among printers in the class.
-s Suppress standard output messages from lp such as
"request id is ...". Error messages are still
displayed on standard error.
-ttitle Print title on the banner page of the output. The
maximum length of the title is 79 bytes. title of
length greater than 79 bytes is truncated to 79 bytes.
-w Write a message to the user's terminal after the
request has been printed. If the user is not logged
in, or if the user has denied messages to his terminal
(see mesg(1)), or (for remote printing) if rlpdaemon
(see rlpdaemon(1M)) is not running on the user's local
system, mail will be sent instead.
lpalt Command
The lpalt command alters a request made by a previous lp command, if
it is not currently printing. (To requeue a currently printing
request, use the disable command (see enable(1)) to stop the printer.)
lpalt Options
lpalt recognizes the following options and arguments, which can be
specified in any order. Blanks are not permitted between a keyletter
and its argument.
id Specifies the request to be altered. id is a request
ID returned by lp or lpalt.
-ddest Requeue the request to the named printer or class dest.
A new unique request ID is written to standard output.
-i Alter only local requests.
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-m Send mail upon normal completion of the print request.
-nnumber Change the number of copies to number.
-ooption Specify a printer-dependent option. You can specify
several printer options by repeating the -o option.
All -o options from previous lp and lpalt commands for
this request ID are deleted.
-ppriority Change the request's priority to priority.
-s Suppress standard output messages from lpalt such as
"new request id is ...". Error messages are still
displayed on standard error.
-ttitle Change the title on the banner page of the output.
-w Write a message to the user's terminal after the
request has been printed. If the user is not logged in
or if the user has denied messages to his terminal (see
mesg(1)) or (for remote printing) if rlpdaemon (see
rlpdaemon(1M)). is not running on the user's local
system, mail will be sent instead.
cancel Command
The cancel command cancels requests that were made with the lp
command, even if they are currently printing.
The cancellation of a request that is currently printing frees the
printer to print its next available request.
cancel Options and Arguments
cancel recognizes the following options and arguments, which can be
specified in any order. Blanks are not permitted between a keyletter
and its argument. When cancel is used with a mix of different options
and arguments, it will operate first on id ..., next on dest ..., next
on -a, next on -e and finally on -u, irrespective of the order in
which the options and arguments are specified in the command line.
id ... Specifies one or more requests to be canceled. id is a
request ID returned by lp or lpalt.
dest ... Specifies one or more printers or printer classes. If
a -a, -e, or -u option is not specified, cancel the
request that is currently printing on each dest. In
this case, dest must be a printer, not a class. If a
-a, -e, or -u option is specified, specify the
destination on which to perform the corresponding
cancel operation. In this case, dest can be a printer
or a class.
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lp(1) lp(1)
-a Remove all requests the user owns on each dest, or if
dest is not specified and -f option is specified,
remove all requests the user owns on all destinations
in the system. The owner of a request is determined by
the user's login name and the host name of the machine
where the lp command was invoked.
-e Empty the spool queue of each dest, or if dest is not
specified and -f option is specified, empty the spool
queue of all destinations in the system. Only users
with appropriate privileges can use this option.
-i Cancel only local requests.
-uuser Remove all requests belonging to user on each dest, or
if dest is not specified and -f option is specified,
remove all requests belonging to user on all
destinations in the system. You can repeat the -u
option to specify more users. Only users with
appropriate privileges can use this option.
-f Force cancel -a/-e/-u to act on all destinations in the
system.
Printing Overview [Toc] [Back]
A printer can print requests from one or two destination queues: its
own private queue and an optional class queue, which can serve one or
more printers. The destination queues are set up with the lpadmin
command. The lp command places a printing request into a printer or
class destination queue as directed by a user. The lpsched scheduler
directs the requests from the destination queues to the printers. The
accept and reject commands control whether lp can place requests in
the destination queues. The enable and disable commands control
whether lpsched can send a queued request to a printer. If a printer
has two queues and one queue is rejecting requests, users can still
direct requests to the other destination queue and have the requests
printed. lpstat reports the current status of the destination queues
and the scheduler. See enable(1), lpstat(1), accept(1M), and
lpadmin(1M).
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES [Toc] [Back]
Environment Variables
LANG determines the locale to use for the locale categories when both
LC_ALL and the corresponding environment variable (beginning with LC_)
do not specify a locale. If LANG is not set or is set to the empty
string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used.
LC_ALL determines the locale to use to override any values for locale
categories specified by the setting of LANG or any environment
variables beginning with LC_.
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LC_CTYPE determines the locale for interpretation of sequences of
bytes of text data as characters (e.g., single- verses multibyte
characters in arguments and input files).
LC_MESSAGES determines the language in which messages are displayed.
LPDEST determines the output device or destination. If the LPDEST
environment variable is not set, the PRINTER environment variable is
used. The -d dest option takes precedence over LPDEST.
PRINTER determines the output device or destination. If the LPDEST
and PRINTER environment variables are not set, the default queue is
used. The -d dest option and the LPDEST environment variable takes
precedence over PRINTER.
If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting, the
commands behave as if all internationalization variables are set to
"C". See environ(5).
International Code Set Support [Toc] [Back]
Single- and multibyte character code sets are supported.
RETURN VALUE [Toc] [Back]
Exit values are:
0 Successful completion.
>0 Error condition occurred.
EXAMPLES [Toc] [Back]
For a laserjet printer named lp2, configured with an interface script
that defines the -c option to cause the printer to print in a
compressed mode, use the following command to print myfile with
compressed print on lp2:
lp -dlp2 -oc myfile
lp can be used at the end of a pipeline to print the results of a
previous command. It is commonly used with the pr command (see pr(1))
to print formatted output. For a default printer, to format file
.profile into pages and print three copies of it:
pr .profile | lp -n3
WARNINGS [Toc] [Back]
A remote print request can be canceled only from the system from which
the the original lp command was issued, and if the restrict cancel
feature (see lpadmin(1M)) is enabled for the specified printer, a
request belonging to this printer can be canceled only by
administrator or the user who requested it.
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lp(1) lp(1)
A remote print request can be altered only from the system from which
the the original lp command was issued, and only by administrator or
the user who requested it. The remote system will ignore this alter
request if the request is being printed.
For a remote system, lpalt cannot change dest and priority.
The information on destination queues and print requests are
maintained in pstatus, qstatus and outputq files under /var/spool/lp
directory. These files should not be directly read by any application
other than the LP subsystem, because the format of data stored in
these files may change in future.
FILES [Toc] [Back]
/etc/lp Directory of spooler configuration
data
/etc/lp/interface Directory of active LP device
interface scripts
/usr/lib/lp Directory of model and font file
directories
/var/adm/lp Directory of spooler log files
/var/spool/lp Directory of LP spooling files and
directories
SEE ALSO [Toc] [Back]
enable(1), lpstat(1), mail(1), slp(1), accept(1M), lpadmin(1M),
lpana(1M), lpsched(1M), rcancel(1M), rlp(1M), rlpdaemon(1M),
rlpstat(1M).
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE [Toc] [Back]
lp: SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, POSIX.2
cancel: SVID2, SVID3, XPG4
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