NAME

lprm − remove jobs from the printer queue

SYNOPSIS

lprm [ −Pprinter ] [ − ] [ job # ... ] [ username ... ]

DESCRIPTION

lprm removes a job or jobs from a printer’s spooling queue.  Since the spool directory is protected from users, using lprm is normally the only method by which a user can remove a job. 

Without any arguments, lprm deletes the job that is currently active, provided that the user who invoked lprm owns that job. 

When the super-user specifies a username, lprm removes all jobs belonging to that user. 

You can remove a specific job by supplying its job number as an argument, which you can obtain using lpq(1).  For example:

example% lpq −Phost
host is ready and printing
RankOwnerJobFilesTotal Size
activewendy385standard input35501 bytes
example% lprm −Phost 385

lprm reports the names of any files it removes, and is silent if there are no applicable jobs to remove. 

lprm kills the active printer daemon, if necessary, before removing spooled jobs; it restarts the daemon when through. 

OPTIONS

−Pprinter Specify the queue associated with a specific printer.  Otherwise the value of the PRINTER variable in the environment is used.  If this variable is unset, the queue for the default printer is used. 

− Remove all jobs owned by you.  If invoked by the super-user, all jobs in the spool are removed.  (Job ownership is determined by the user’s login name and host name on the machine where the lpr command was invoked). 

FILES

/etc/printcap printer characteristics file

/var/spool/∗ spooling directories

/var/spool/l∗/lock lock file used to obtain the pid of the current daemon and the job number of the currently active job

SEE ALSO

lpr(1), lpq(1), lpd(8)

DIAGNOSTICS

lprm: printer: cannot restart printer daemon
The connection to lpd on the local machine failed.  This usually means the printer server started at boot time has died or is hung.  If it is hung, the master lpd(8) daemon may have to be killed and a new one started. 

BUGS

Since race conditions are possible when updating the lock file, an active job may be incorrectly identified for removal by an lprm command issued with no arguments.  During the interval between an lpq(1) command and the execution of lprm, the next job in line may have become active; that job may be removed unintentionally if it is owned by you.  To avoid this, supply lprm with the job number to remove when a critical job that you own is next in line. 

Only the super-user can remove print jobs submitted from another host. 

Sun Release 4.1  —  Last change: 7 September 1988