(BSD System Compatibility)
lpr(1bsd)
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).
-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
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.
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.
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(1Mbsd),
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
T[E]X®
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 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
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 25 April 2004