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PROLOG

       This  manual  page  is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of
       this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux  manual  page  for  details  of
       Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME

       lp — send files to a printer

SYNOPSIS

       lp [−c] [−d dest] [−n copies] [−msw] [−o option]... [−t title] [file...]

DESCRIPTION

       The  lp  utility  shall  copy  the  input files to an output destination in an unspecified
       manner. The default output destination should be to a hardcopy device, such as  a  printer
       or  microfilm  recorder,  that  produces non-volatile, human-readable documents. If such a
       device is not available to the application, or if the system provides no such device,  the
       lp utility shall exit with a non-zero exit status.

       The  actual  writing  to  the  output  device  may  occur  some  time after the lp utility
       successfully exits. During the portion of the writing that corresponds to each input file,
       the implementation shall guarantee exclusive access to the device.

       The lp utility shall associate a unique request ID with each request.

       Normally, a banner page is produced to separate and identify each print job. This page may
       be suppressed by implementation-defined conditions, such as an operator command or one  of
       the −o option values.

OPTIONS

       The lp utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2,
       Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported:

       −c        Exit only after further access to any of the input files is no longer  required.
                 The application can then safely delete or modify the files without affecting the
                 output operation. Normally, files  are  not  copied,  but  are  linked  whenever
                 possible.  If the −c option is not given, then the user should be careful not to
                 remove any of the files before the request has been printed in its entirety.  It
                 should  also  be noted that in the absence of the −c option, any changes made to
                 the named files after the request is made  but  before  it  is  printed  may  be
                 reflected  in  the  printed  output.   On  some implementations, −c may be on by
                 default.

       −d dest   Specify a string that names the destination (dest).  If dest is a  printer,  the
                 request  shall  be  printed only on that specific printer. If dest is a class of
                 printers, the request shall be printed on the first available printer that is  a
                 member  of  the  class.  Under  certain conditions (printer unavailability, file
                 space limitation, and so on), requests for specific  destinations  need  not  be
                 accepted. Destination names vary between systems.

                 If  −d is not specified, and neither the LPDEST nor PRINTER environment variable
                 is set, an unspecified destination is  used.  The  −d  dest  option  shall  take
                 precedence  over  LPDEST,  which  in  turn  shall  take precedence over PRINTER.
                 Results are undefined when dest contains a value that is not a valid destination
                 name.

       −m        Send  mail (see mailx) after the files have been printed. By default, no mail is
                 sent upon normal completion of the print request.

       −n copies Write copies number of copies of the files, where copies is a  positive  decimal
                 integer.  The  methods  for  producing  multiple  copies  and  for arranging the
                 multiple copies when multiple file operands are  used  are  unspecified,  except
                 that  each  file  shall  be  output  as  an integral whole, not interleaved with
                 portions of other files.

       −o option Specify printer-dependent or class-dependent options.  Several such options  may
                 be collected by specifying the −o option more than once.

       −s        Suppress messages from lp.

       −t title  Write title on the banner page of the output.

       −w        Write a message on the user's terminal after the files have been printed. If the
                 user is not logged in, then mail shall be sent instead.

OPERANDS

       The following operand shall be supported:

       file      A pathname of a file to be output. If no file operands are specified,  or  if  a
                 file  operand  is  '−',  the  standard input shall be used. If a file operand is
                 used, but the −c option is not specified, the process performing the writing  to
                 the  output  device may have user and group permissions that differ from that of
                 the process invoking lp.

STDIN

       The standard input shall be used only if no file operands are  specified,  or  if  a  file
       operand is '−'.  See the INPUT FILES section.

INPUT FILES

       The input files shall be text files.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of lp:

       LANG      Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or
                 null.  (See  the  Base  Definitions  volume  of   POSIX.1‐2008,   Section   8.2,
                 Internationalization   Variables  for  the  precedence  of  internationalization
                 variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL    If set to a non-empty string  value,  override  the  values  of  all  the  other
                 internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE  Determine  the  locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data
                 as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte  characters  in
                 arguments and input files).

       LC_MESSAGES
                 Determine  the  locale  that should be used to affect the format and contents of
                 diagnostic messages written to standard error and informative  messages  written
                 to standard output.

       LC_TIME   Determine  the  format and contents of date and time strings displayed in the lp
                 banner page, if any.

       LPDEST    Determine the destination. If the LPDEST environment variable is  not  set,  the
                 PRINTER  environment variable shall be 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 destination name.

       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.

       PRINTER   Determine   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 shall take 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.

       TZ        Determine  the timezone used to calculate date and time strings displayed in the
                 lp banner page, if any. If TZ is unset or null, an unspecified default  timezone
                 shall be used.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

       Default.

STDOUT

       The  lp  utility  shall write a request ID to the standard output, unless −s is specified.
       The format of the message is unspecified. The request ID can be used on systems supporting
       the historical cancel and lpstat utilities.

STDERR

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES

       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

       None.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0    All input files were processed successfully.

       >0    No output device was available, or an error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE

       The  pr  and  fold  utilities  can  be  used  to  achieve  reasonable  formatting  for the
       implementation's default page size.

       A conforming application can use one of the file operands only with the −c  option  or  if
       the file is publicly readable and guaranteed to be available at the time of printing. This
       is because POSIX.1‐2008 gives the implementation the freedom to queue up the  request  for
       printing  at  some  later time by a different process that might not be able to access the
       file.

EXAMPLES

        1. To print file file:

               lp −c file

        2. To print multiple files with headers:

               pr file1 file2 | lp

RATIONALE

       The lp utility was designed to be a basic version of a utility that is  already  available
       in  many  historical implementations. The standard developers considered that it should be
       implementable simply as:

           cat "$@" > /dev/lp

       after appropriate processing of options, if that is how the implementation chose to do  it
       and  if  exclusive  access could be granted (so that two users did not write to the device
       simultaneously).  Although in the future the standard developers may add other options  to
       this utility, it should always be able to execute with no options or operands and send the
       standard input to an unspecified output device.

       This volume of POSIX.1‐2008 makes no representations concerning the format of the  printed
       output,  except that it must be ``human-readable'' and ``non-volatile''.  Thus, writing by
       default to a  disk  or  tape  drive  or  a  display  terminal  would  not  qualify.  (Such
       destinations are not prohibited when −d dest, LPDEST, or PRINTER are used, however.)

       This  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2008  is worded such that a ``print job'' consisting of multiple
       input files, possibly in multiple copies, is guaranteed to print so that any one  file  is
       not  intermixed  with another, but there is no statement that all the files or copies have
       to print out together.

       The −c option may imply a spooling operation, but this is not required. The utility can be
       implemented to wait until the printer is ready and then wait until it is finished. Because
       of that, there is no attempt to define a queuing mechanism (priorities, classes of output,
       and so on).

       On  some  historical  systems,  the request ID reported on the STDOUT can be used to later
       cancel or find the status of a request using utilities  not  defined  in  this  volume  of
       POSIX.1‐2008.

       Although  the  historical  System  V  lp  and  BSD  lpr  utilities  have  provided similar
       functionality, they used different names  for  the  environment  variable  specifying  the
       destination printer.  Since the name of the utility here is lp, LPDEST (used by the System
       V lp utility) was given precedence over PRINTER (used  by  the  BSD  lpr  utility).  Since
       environments  of  users  frequently  contain one or the other environment variable, the lp
       utility is required to recognize both. If this was not done, many applications would  send
       output to unexpected output devices when users moved from system to system.

       Some  have  commented  that  lp  has  far  too little functionality to make it worthwhile.
       Requests have proposed additional options or operands or both  that  added  functionality.
       The requests included:

        *  Wording requiring the output to be ``hardcopy''

        *  A requirement for multiple printers

        *  Options for supporting various page-description languages

       Given  that  a  compliant  system  is not required to even have a printer, placing further
       restrictions upon the behavior of the printer is not useful. Since hardcopy format  is  so
       application-dependent,  it  is difficult, if not impossible, to select a reasonable subset
       of functionality that should be required on all compliant systems.

       The term unspecified is used in this section in lieu  of  implementation-defined  as  most
       known implementations would not be able to make definitive statements in their conformance
       documents; the existence and usage of  printers  is  very  dependent  on  how  the  system
       administrator configures each individual system.

       Since  the  default  destination, device type, queuing mechanisms, and acceptable forms of
       input are all unspecified, usage guidelines for what a conforming application can  do  are
       as follows:

        *  Use  the  command  in a pipeline, or with −c, so that there are no permission problems
           and the files can be safely deleted or modified.

        *  Limit output to text files of reasonable line lengths  and  printable  characters  and
           include  no  device-specific  formatting  information,  such  as  a  page  description
           language. The meaning of ``reasonable'' in this context can  only  be  answered  as  a
           quality-of-implementation  issue,  but  it  should  be  apparent from historical usage
           patterns in the industry and the locale. The pr and fold  utilities  can  be  used  to
           achieve reasonable formatting for the default page size of the implementation.

       Alternatively, the application can arrange its installation in such a way that it requires
       the system administrator or operator to provide the appropriate information on lp  options
       and environment variable values.

       At  a  minimum, having this utility in this volume of POSIX.1‐2008 tells the industry that
       conforming applications require a means to print output and provides at  least  a  command
       name  and  LPDEST  routing  mechanism  that  can  be used for discussions between vendors,
       application developers, and users. The use of ``should'' in the DESCRIPTION of lp  clearly
       shows  the intent of the standard developers, even if they cannot mandate that all systems
       (such as laptops) have printers.

       This volume of POSIX.1‐2008 does not specify what the ownership of the process  performing
       the  writing to the output device may be. If −c is not used, it is unspecified whether the
       process performing the writing to the output device has permission to read file  if  there
       are  any restrictions in place on who may read file until after it is printed. Also, if −c
       is not used, the results of deleting file before it is printed are unspecified.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       mailx

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter  8,  Environment  Variables,  Section
       12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines

COPYRIGHT

       Portions  of  this  text  are  reprinted  and  reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
       1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology  --  Portable  Operating  System
       Interface  (POSIX),  The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the
       Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc  and  The  Open  Group.   (This  is
       POSIX.1-2008  with  the  2013  Technical  Corrigendum  1  applied.)  In  the  event of any
       discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open  Group  Standard,  the
       original  IEEE  and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard
       can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most  likely  to  have
       been  introduced  during  the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report
       such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .