lpr
Hurricane Electric Internet Services
NAME
lpr - off line print
SYNOPSIS
lpr [ -Pprinter ] [ -Kcopies ] [ -Q ] [ -C class ] [ -J
job ] [ -RremoteAccount ] [ -mmailTo ] [ -Ttitle ] [
-inumcols ] [ -wnum ] [ -Zzoptions ] [ -Uuser ] [ -Ffilter
] [ -bhkrsV ] [ -Ddebugopt ] [ filename ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Lpr uses a spooling daemon to print the named files when
facilities become available. If no names appear, the
standard input is assumed.
-Pprinter
Output to the specific printer; the default is (in
order of priority) the explictly specified -P value,
the environment variable PRINTER, the first entry in
the printcap information, and the default_printer
entry from the configuration file, and finally the
hard coded (site dependent) default_printer value.
-Ff Filter or format specification. By default, input is
assumed to a standard text file and the f format is
used; the output device is assmed to be a simple line
printer. Therer are other formats available, listed
below. Not all formats may be available on all
printers; see printcap(5) for details. Formats are
single lower case letters; the following are the
valid arguments for -F together with the assumed type
of data. For compatibility with previous versions of
lpr, the format types can be used as options them-
selves (i.e. by omitting the F) except where noted
below, a warning may be issued in such cases.
c data produced by cifplot(l).
d output from tex(l) (DVI format from Stanford).
g standard plot data as produced by the plot(3X) rou-
tines (see also plot(1G) for the filters used by the
printer spooler).
l, b binary or literal file, no checking to be done.
Printed using the f format.
n output from (device independent) troff.
p First use pr(1) to format the files, then print using
f format.
r text in which the first character of each line is
interpreted as a standard FORTRAN carriage control
character. The effect of this format used to be
obtained with the -f option.
s This flag is included for compatibility with other
versions of lpr. In these versions it will create a
symbolic link to the files to be printed. Lpr now
sends files directly to the server and it is irrele-
vant.
t output from troff(1) (originally cat phototypesetter
commands, but now we assume the same as the n for-
mat).
v a raster image for devices like the Benson Varian.
The remaining options have the following meaning.
-C class
Specify the job classification for use on the burst
page and to set the priority. Priorities range from
A (highest) to Z (lowest); the default priority is A.
For example,
lpr -C B foo.c
sets the priority/class to B and the file foo.c is
printed.
-R remoteAccount
Specify accounting information to be used by a remote
system that prints your output.
This parameter can be used to specify a billing code
to be charged for the printing.
-D debugoptions
Debugging is controlled using the -D option. This
accepts a comma-separated list of debugging settings.
These settings take one of two forms: facility=value
, or value to set an overall default value.
-Kcopies, -#copies
Specify the number of copies of each file to be
printed.
-J jobname
Specify the job name to print on the burst page;
defaults to the name of the first file in job or
(STDIN) if input is from a pipe.
-Q Put the name of the spool queue into the job file.
This information can then be used by the spooling
software to control output format.
-T title
Specify the title used by pr(1); defaults to the file
name.
-U username
The -U option is used to specify a user name for the
job.
-V Verbose mode during spooling; additional -V options
increase verbosity.
-Z zoptions
This option is used to pass options to the print
spooler, and is used when additional or specialized
information must be provided to the spooler.
-h No banner or header for this job.
-k When used as a filter, lpr normally creates a tempo-
rary file for the spooled job. The -k causes the job
to be sent directly to the server. If you kill the
job in the middle of creation, then the partly trans-
ferred file will get printed.
-m mailTo
Send mail upon unsuccessful completion to user mailTo
.
-wwidth
Specify the page width for printing the job.
-i numcols
Indent input by numcols. Note that this option is
not supported on all printers.
The options
-1234 fontname
The number options are were used to specify a font to
be mounted on font position i for TROFF printing.
COMPATIBILITY
The LPRng version of lpr attempts to be functionaly com-
patible with common implementations of lpr. However,
there are some commands and functionality that are delib-
erately missing.
-s Symbolic Links
(Berkeley LPR) This option specified that a symbolic
link to the original data file rather than a copy of
the data file was to be used when spooling jobs.
This opens up a variety of security problems, as well
as being ineffective when printing to a remote host.
-r Remove File
This option specified that data files were to be
removed after the print job was completed. This
opens up a variety of security problems, especially
in a NFS based system.
FILES
The files used by LPRng are set by values in the printer
configuration file. The following are a commonly used set
of default values.
/etc/lpd.conf LPRng configuration file
/etc/printcap printer description file
/etc/lpd.perms printer permissions
/var/spool/printer* spool directories
/var/spool/printer*/printer lock file for queue control
/var/spool/printer*/control.printer queue control
/var/spool/printer*/active.printer active job
/var/spool/printer*/log.printer log file
SEE ALSO
lpd.conf(5), lpc(8), lpd(8), lpr(1), lpq(1), lprm(1),
printcap(5), lpd.perms(5), pr(1).
DIAGNOSTICS
Most of the diagnostics are self explanatory.
If you are puzzled over the exact cause of failure,
set the debugging level on (-D5) and run again.
The debugging information will
help you to pinpoint the exact cause of failure.
HISTORY
LPRng is a enhanced printer spooler system, with function-
ality similar to the Berkeley LPR software, and is derived
from the PLP (Public Line Printer) software, version 4.0.
LPRng has many advanced features, which are described in
LPRng - An Enhanced Line Printer Spooler by Patrick Pow-
ell, San Diego State University (papowell@sdsu.edu), et
al. It is available from dickory.sdsu.edu:/pub/LPRng.
The LPRng software is based on PLP4.0, supported and
extended by Justin Mason (jmason@iona.ie), which is avail-
able from ftp://ftp.iona.ie/pub/PLP4.0. Justin greatly
aided in the design and development of many of the soft-
ware features, as well as contributing a large number of
bug fixes, design reviews, and other suggestions.
Hurricane Electric Internet Services
Copyright (C) 1998
Hurricane Electric.
All Rights Reserved.