lp(1)

NAME

lp, lpalt, cancel — print/alter/cancel requests on an LP printer or plotter

SYNOPSIS

lp [-c] [-ddest] [-m] [-nnumber] [-ooption] [-ppriority] [-s] [-ttitle] [-w] [file ...]

lpalt id [-ddest] [-i] [-m] [-nnumber] [-ooption] [-ppriority] [-s] [-ttitle] [-w]

cancel [id ...] [printer ...] [-a] [-e] [-i] [-uuser]

DESCRIPTION

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 printer or plotter 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. Blanks are not permitted between a keyletter and its argument.

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. Files are printed in the same order in which they are specified.

-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 printer is not physically attached to the local system or cluster), the files are copied into the spool directories. The ownership and mode of the copies are set to allow read access to owner lp and group bin 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, the default queue is used, if one has been defined. If there is no default queue, or LPDEST 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. The default 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 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 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.

-w

Write a message to the user's terminal after the request has been printed. If the user is not logged in 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.
-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 "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 (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. At least one id or printer must be specified.

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.

id ...: Specifies one or more requests. id is a request ID returned by lp or lpalt.
printer ...: Specifies one or more printers. printer is the name of a printer, not a class. Either cancel the request that is currently printing on each printer, or, if an -a, -e, or -u option is specified, specify the printer on which to perform the corresponding operation.
-a: Remove all requests the user owns on each printer. The owner 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 all requests for each printer. Only users with appropriate privileges can use this option.
-i: Cancel only local requests.
-uuser: Remove any requests belonging to user. You can repeat the -u option to specify more users. Only users with appropriate privileges can use this option.

Printing Overview

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

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_.

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. Results are undefined when -d is not specified and LPDEST contains a value that is not a valid device or destination name.

PRINTER determines the output device or destination. If the LPDEST and PRINTER environment variables are not set, an unspecified output device is used. The -d dest option and the LPDEST environment variable takes precedence over PRINTER. Results are undefined when -d is not specified, LPDEST is unset, and PRINTER contains a value that is not a valid device or destination name.

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

Single- and multibyte character code sets are supported.

RETURN VALUE

Exit values are:

0: Successful completion.
>0: Error condition occurred.

EXAMPLES

For a HP2934A 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

A remote print request can be altered or canceled only by the user who requested it, and only from the system from which the the original lp command was issued.

If the restrict cancel feature (see lpadmin(1M)) is enabled for the specified printer, a user can only alter or cancel requests owned by the user.

For a remote system, lpalt cannot change dest and priority.

FILES

/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

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

lp: SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, POSIX.2

cancel: SVID2, SVID3, XPG4