lpr(1) (BSD Compatibility Package) lpr(1)
NAME
lpr - send a job to the printer
SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucb/lpr [-P printer] [-# copies] [-C class] [-J job] [-T title]
[-i[indent]] [-w cols] [-B] [-r] [-m] [-h] [-s]
[-filteroption] [filename ...]
DESCRIPTION
lpr forwards printer jobs to a spooling area for subsequent printing
as facilities become available. Each printer job consists of copies
of, or, with -s, complete pathnames of each filename you specify. The
spool area is managed by the line printer spooler, lpsched. lpr reads
from the standard input if no files are specified.
OPTIONS
-P printer Send output to the named printer. Otherwise send output
to the printer named in the PRINTER environment vari-
able, or to the default printer, lp.
-# copies Produce the number of copies indicated for each named
file. For example:
lpr -#3 index.c lookup.c
produces three copies of index.c, followed by three
copies of lookup.c. On the other hand,
cat index.c lookup.c | lpr -#3
generates three copies of the concatenation of the
files.
-C class Print class as the job classification on the first
page. For example,
lpr -C Operations new.index.c
replaces the system name (the name returned by host-
name) with Operations on the first page, and prints the
file new.index.c.
-J job Print job as the job name on the burst page. Normally,
lpr uses the first file's name.
-T title Use title instead of the file name for the title used
by pr(1).
-i[indent] Indent output indent SPACE characters. Eight SPACE
characters is the default.
-w cols Use cols as the page width for pr.
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lpr(1) (BSD Compatibility Package) lpr(1)
-r Remove the file upon completion of spooling, or upon
completion of printing with the -s option. This is not
supported in the SunOS compatibility package. However
if the job is submitted to a remote SunOS system, these
options will be sent to the remote system for process-
ing.
-m Send mail upon completion.
-h Suppress printing the burst page.
-s Use the full pathnames (not symbolic links) of the
files to be printed rather than trying to copy them.
This means the data files should not be modified or
removed until they have been printed. -s only prevents
copies of local files from being made. Jobs from remote
hosts are copied anyway. -s only works with named data
files; if the lpr command is at the end of a pipeline,
the data is copied to the spool.
filteroption The following single letter options notify the line
printer spooler that the files are not standard text
files. The spooling daemon will use the appropriate
filters to print the data accordingly.
-p Use pr to format the files (lpr -p is very much
like pr | lpr).
-l Print control characters and suppress page breaks.
-t The files contain troff(1M) (cat phototypesetter)
binary data.
-n The files contain data from ditroff (device
independent troff).
-d The files contain data from tex (DVI format from
Stanford).
-g The files contain standard plot data as produced by
the plot routines (see also plot(1) for filters
used by the printer spooler).
-v The files contain a raster image. The printer must
support an appropriate imaging model such as
PostScript in order to print the image.
-c The files contain data produced by cifplot.
-f Interpret the first character of each line as a
standard FORTRAN carriage control character.
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lpr(1) (BSD Compatibility Package) lpr(1)
If no filteroption is given (and the printer can
interpret PostScript), the string "%!" as the first two
characters of a file indicates that it contains
PostScript commands.
These filter options offer a standard user interface,
and all options may not be available for, nor applica-
ble to, all printers.
DIAGNOSTICS
lpr: printer: unknown printer
The printer was not found in the LP database. Usually this is a
typing mistake; however, it may indicate that the printer does
not exist on the system. Use lptstat -p to find the reason.
lpr: error on opening queue to spooler
The connection to lpsched on the local machine failed. This usu-
ally means the printer server started at boot time has died or is
hung. Check if the printer spooler daemon /usr/lib/lpsched is
running.
lpr: printer: printer queue is disabled
This means the queue was turned off with
/usr/etc/lpc disable printer
to prevent lpr from putting files in the queue. This is normally
done by the system manager when a printer is going to be down for
a long time. The printer can be turned back on by a privileged
user with lpc.
lpr: Can't send message to the LP print service
lpr: Can't receive message from the LP print service
These indicate that the LP print service has been stopped. Get
help from the system administrator.
lpr: Received unexpected message from LP print service
It is likely there is an error in this software. Get help from
system administrator.
lpr: There is no filter to convert the file content
Use the lpstat -p -l command to find a printer that can handle
the file type directly, or consult with your system administra-
tor.
lpr: cannot access the file
Make sure file names are valid.
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lpr(1) (BSD Compatibility Package) lpr(1)
NOTES
lp is the preferred interface.
Command-line options cannot be combined into a single argument as with
some other commands. The command:
lpr -fs
is not equivalent to
lpr -f -s
Placing the -s flag first, or writing each option as a separate argu-
ment, makes a link as expected.
lpr -p is not precisely equivalent to pr | lpr. lpr -p puts the
current date at the top of each page, rather than the date last modi-
fied.
Fonts for troff(1M) and TEX reside on the printer host. It is
currently not possible to use local font libraries.
lpr objects to printing binary files.
The -s option does not use symbolic links in the compatibility pack-
age. Instead, the complete path names are used. Also, the copying is
avoided only for print jobs that are run from the printer host itself.
Jobs added to the queue from a remote host are always copied into the
spool area. That is, if the printer does not reside on the host that
lpr is run from, the spooling system makes a copy of the file to
print, and places it in the spool area of the printer host, regardless
of -s.
FILES
/etc/passwd
Personal identification
/usr/lib/lp/lpsched
System V line printer spooler
/var/spool/lp/tmp/*
Directories used for spooling
/var/spool/lp/tmp/system/*-0
Spooler control files
/var/spool/lp/tmp/system/*-N
Data files specified in "*-0" files (N is an integer and > 0)
SEE ALSO
lp(1), lpq(1), lprm(1), plot(1), pr(1), lpc(1M), lpsched(1M),
troff(1M).
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