Details on how to use the lpr command can be found in the LPRng Howto (/usr/share/doc/packages/lprng/LPRng-HOWTO.html#LPR). The following only covers some basic operations.

To print a file, you normally must enter lpr -Pqueuename filename. If you leave out the -Pqueuename parameter, the printing system defaults to the value of the environment variable PRINTER. The same is true for the commands lpq and lprm. See the manual pages of lpr, lpq, and lprm for more information. The environment variable PRINTER is set automatically on login. Display its current value with echo $PRINTER. Change it to expand to another queue by entering export PRINTER=queuename.

By entering lpq -Pqueuename, check the status of print jobs handled by the specified queue. If you specify all as the queue name, lpq displays information for all jobs in all queues.

With lpq -s -Pqueuename, tell lpq to display only a minimum of information. lpq -l -Pqueuename tells lpq to be more verbose.

With lpq -L -Pqueuename, lpq displays a detailed status report, which will come in handy when trying to track down errors.

For further information, see the manual page of lpq, and section /usr/share/doc/packages/lprng/LPRng-HOWTO.html#LPQ of the LPRng Howto.

The command lprm -Pqueuename jobnumberremoves the print job with the specified number from the specified queue, if you own the job. A print job is owned by the user who started it. Display the owner and the job number of print jobs with lpq.

The command lprm -Pall all removes all print jobs from all queues for which you have the required permissions. root may remove any jobs in any queues regardless of permissions.

More information can be obtained in the manual page of lprm and in the LPRng Howto (/usr/share/doc/packages/lprng/LPRng-HOWTO.html#LPRM).

The command lpc option queuename displays the status of the specified queue and allows changing it. The most important options are:

root permissions are required to control printer queues with the above commands. Options can be supplied to lpc directly on the command line (as in lpc status all). You can also run the program without any options, which starts it in dialog mode — it opens the lpc> command prompt. Then enter the options at the prompt. To leave the program, enter either quit or exit.

If you were to enter lpc status all, the output could look like this:

Printer        Printing Spooling Jobs Server Subserver
lp@earth        enabled  enabled    2    123       456
color@earth    disabled disabled    0   none      none
laser@earth    disabled  enabled    8   none      none

This gives the following information: Queue lp is completely enabled and holds two print jobs, one of which is being printed at the moment. Queue color, on the other hand, is completely stopped. Finally, the laser queue does not print at the moment, but jobs (there are currently eight of them) are still accepted for the queue and are accumulating in the spooler.

Further information can be obtained from the manual page of lpc and the LPRng Howto (/usr/share/doc/packages/lprng/LPRng-HOWTO.html#LPC).

With the LPRng spooler, even remote queues can be addressed directly, using the lpr command with the syntax lpr -Pqueuename@printserver file. This is only possible if the print server is configured to accept remote print jobs on its queues. This is enabled by default with LPRng.

Check the status of a queue on a remote host by entering:

lpq -P<queuename>@<printserver>
lpq -s -P<queuename>@<printserver>
lpq -l -P<queuename>@<printserver>
lpq -L -P<queuename>@<printserver>

and

lpc status <queuename>@<printserver>
lpc status all@<printserver>

To list the names of and display status information on all queues of a print server, use either lpq -s -Pall@printserver or lpc status all@printserver, provided that LPRng is used on the print server.

If printing over a remote queue does not work, querying the status of the queues helps determine the cause of the problem. If LPRng is installed on the print server, enter lpq -L -Pqueuename@printserver to get a detailed status report for remote diagnosis.

With the following command delete all print jobs in remote queues that have been issued under your user name:

lprm -P<queuename>@<printserver> <jobnumber>
lprm -P<queuename>@<printserver> all
lprm -Pall@<printserver> all

root has no special privileges on remote queues. The parameter all only works if LPRng is used on the print server host as well.