lpr(1BSD) (BSD System Compatibility) lpr(1BSD)
NAME
lpr - (BSD) 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]
[-filter_option] [file . . . ]
DESCRIPTION
lpr forwards printer jobs to a spooling area for subsequent
printing as facilities become available. Each printer job
consists of copies of each file 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 variable, 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
burst page. For example,
lpr -C Operations new.index.c
replaces the system name (the name returned by
hostname) with Operations on the burst 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).
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lpr(1BSD) (BSD System Compatibility) lpr(1BSD)
-i[indent] Indent output indent SPACE characters. Eight
SPACE characters is the default.
-w cols Use cols as the page width for pr.
-r Remove the file upon completion of spooling, or
upon completion of printing with the -s option.
This option is not supported in UnixWare.
-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.
filter_option 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(1BSD) (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 routine plot(1BSD) for
the filters used by the printer spooler.
-v The files contain a raster image. The
printer must support an appropriate
imaging model such as PostScriptO in
order to print the image.
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lpr(1BSD) (BSD System Compatibility) lpr(1BSD)
-c The files contain data produced by
cifplot.
-f Interpret the first character of each
line as a standard
FORTRAN carriage control character.
If no filter_option 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 applicable to, all printers.
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
(N is an integer and > 0) data files
specified in `*-0' files
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 `lpstat
-p' to find the reason.
lpr: error on opening queue to spooler
The connection to lpsched on the local machine failed.
This usually 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.
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lpr(1BSD) (BSD System Compatibility) lpr(1BSD)
lpr: Can't send message to the LP print service
lpr: Can't establish contact with 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 administrator.
lpr: cannot access the file
Make sure file names are valid.
REFERENCES
lpc(1M_BSD), lpq(1BSD), lprm(1BSD), plot(1BSD), troff(1BSD)
NOTICES
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 argument, 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 modified.
Fonts for troff(1BSD) and TEXO 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
package. Instead, the complete path names are used. Also,
the copying is avoided only for print jobs that are run from
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lpr(1BSD) (BSD System Compatibility) lpr(1BSD)
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 the file to print, and
places it in the spool area of the printer host, regardless of
-s.
If userA uses su to become userB and uses /usr/ucb/lpr, then
the printer request will be entered as userB, not userA
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