Provided by:
lprng_3.8.28dfsg.1-1.1ubuntu2_i386 
NAME
lpr - off line print
SYNOPSIS
lpr [ -A ] [ -B ] [ -b,l ] [ -C class ] [ -D debugopt ]
[ -F filterformat ] [ -G ] [ -h ] [ -i indentcols ]
[ -k ] [ -J job ] [ -K,# copies ]
[ -m mailTo ] [ -P printer ] [ -r ]
[ -R remoteAccount ] [ -s ] [ -T title ] [ -U user ]
[ -V ] [ -w width ] [ -X userfile ] [ -Y ] [ -Z options ] [
-1,2,3,4 font ] [ -- ]
[ 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.
OPTIONS
-A The authentication type is set by the value of the AUTH environ‐
ment variable.
-B Do filtering of job files by the filters specified by the print‐
cap. Combine the output of the filtering operation into a single
job file and then send the single file to the lpd print spooler.
-b, -l
either of these flags specifies a binary or literal file, and no
(or minimial) processing is to be done by the print spooling sys‐
tem. Printed using the f format filter (:if=... or :filter=...).
-C class
Specify the job classification for use on the burst page and to
set the priority. Priorities range from A (lowest) to Z (high‐
est); 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.
-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.
-F filterformat
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. Other formats available are
listed below. Not all formats may be available on all printers;
see printcap(5) for details. Formats are single lower case let‐
ters; the following are the valid arguments for -F together with
the assumed type of data. For compatibility with previous ver‐
sions of lpr, the format types can be used as options themselves
(i.e. by omitting the F) except where noted below, a warning may
be issued in such cases.
-G Similar to the -B option, but only processes individual files.
-h No banner or header for this job.
-i indentcols
Indent input by indentcols. Note that this option is not sup‐
ported on all printers.
-J jobname
Specify the job name to print on the burst page; defaults to the
name of files in the job or (STDIN) if input is from a pipe.
-Kcopies, -#copies
Specify the number of copies of each file to be printed. You may
or may not get the requested number of copies depending on the
intelligence of the remote printing system.
-k lpr normally creates a temporary file for the input read from
stdin before sending it to the remote printer. The -k (kut-
through) option will simply copy from STDIN to the destination
print spooling system. If you kill the job in the middle of cre‐
ation then the partly transferred file will get printed. This
option may not work with very large jobs, non-LPRng spoolers, or
when you have encryption or authentication enabled.
-m mailTo
Send mail upon unsuccessful completion to user mailTo. The mailTo
value has been used to do such things as specify email
(user@host), paging (page:user@host), both
(user@host,page:user@host) and all sorts of other notifier infor‐
mation. See the LPRng HOWTO for details on how this is imple‐
mented.
-P printer
By default, the destination printer is taken from the command line
-P printer value, then the environment variables PRINTER, LPDEST,
NPRINTER, NGPRINTER, then first entry in the printcap information,
and and finally the default_printer entry from the configuration
file, and then the compile time default.
-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.
-r The DREADED REMOVE AFTER PRINTING option. Beware, for lpr will
delete the files after spooling them. Present by demand from
users for compatibility with other Berkeley lpr implementation,
but really should NOT be present.
-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. This is
available only to ROOT or users listed in the allow_user_setting
configuration option. This is obviously a security loophole, but
it is present to allow systems such as SAMBA to submit jobs on
behalf of users. See Authenticated Transfers below.
-V Verbose mode. Additional -V flags increase verbosity. Use debug
flags for extreme verbosity.
-w width
Specify the page width for printing the job. -X path User speci‐
fied filter for job files. Processing is done on the client host.
-Y Make a direct connection to the printer device and do not
spool.
-Z options
Pass the specified options to the print spooler. Used when addi‐
tional or specialized information must be provided to the spooler.
OBSOLETE OPTIONS Lower case -c, -d, -g, -n, -t, -v
Used to indicate: -c is data produced by cifplot(l), -d is tex(l)
(DVI format from Stanford), -g is standard plot data as produced
by the plot(3X) routines, -n and -t is output from (device inde‐
pendent) troff, -v a raster image for devices like the Benson Var‐
ian. These are obsolete. These are retained for historical com‐
patibility, but most of their functionality has been replaced by
the abilities of the printer support system to determine the file
type and do the appropriate conversions.
OBSOLETE OPTION -p
This is obsolete. This option is retained for historical compati‐
bility, but this functionality should be implemented on the client
system before sending the job to the printer. Use pr(1) to format
the files, then print using f format. This may not be supported
on the print system.
OBSOLETE -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 irrelevant.
OBSOLETE OPTIONS -1,2,3,4fontname
Specify a font to be mounted on font position i for TROFF printing
(Obsolete).
FILENAMES
By default, if no filenames are specified lpr will read stdin and print
it.
The original LPR network protocol defined in RFC1179 did not provide
for user to server authentication. This is now supported by LPRng.
See the LPRng support documentation for details on its operation and
support.
COMPATIBILITY
The LPRng version of lpr attempts to be functionaly compatible with
common implementations of lpr. However, there are some commands and
functionality that are deliberately 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.
LPRng supports ultra-lightweight printing by eliminating the need for a
print spooler. This is quite dangerous, but makes the lpr client very
lightweight. The -Y command line option and the :direct printcap
option enables lpr to connect directly to a specified port or use a
program to send a job. This filter also enables client side filtering,
so if there are any filters specified in the printcap entry they will
be used. For example:
lpr -Y -Phost%port file1 file2 ...
approximately equivalent to:
for i in file1 file2 ...; do
${filter} <$i;
# ${filter} is filter from printcap
done >host%port (TCP/IP connection)
lpr -Y -Phost%port -X userfilter file1 file2 ...
approximately equivalent to:
for i in file1 file2 ...; do
userfilter <$i;
done >host%port (TCP/IP connection)
Summary:
-P host%port > TCP/IP connection to host%port
-P /dev/lp > /dev/lp
-P ’|/program’ | /program
SPECIAL CASE
lpr -Y -Ppr@host -X userfilter file1 file2 ...
approximately equivalent to:
for i in file1 file2 ...; do
userfilter <$i >temp.$i;
done
lpr -Ppr@host temp.file1 temp.file2
The -B option or the :lpr_bounce is used to filter and make a single
file out of a set of print files and then forward them.
lpr -B -Ppr@host
approximately equivalent to:
lpr -Y -P/tmp/tempfile file1 file2 ...
lpr -Ppr@host /tmp/tempfile
You can also use a printcap entry and the :direct options.
Printcap:
lp:direct:lp=h14%9100:remote_support=R
lpr -Plp file1 file2
Same as:
lpr -Plp -Y -Ph14%9100 file1 file2
The :remote_support option is used to prevent the lpq and lpc program
from attempting to send jobs to the device.
ENVIRONMENT
By default, the destination printer is taken from the command line -P
printer value, then the environment variables PRINTER, LPDEST,
NPRINTER, NGPRINTER, then first entry in the printcap information, and
and finally the default_printer entry from the configuration file, and
then the compile time default.
The following exit values are returned:
zero (0) Successful completion.
non-zero (!=0) An error occurred.
The printer names and other information is obtained by using a printcap
file or some other database. The ${HOME}/.printcap file can be used to
specify user level options and configuration information. See print‐
cap(5) for more information.
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/lprng/lpd.conf LPRng configuration file
${HOME}/.printcap user printer description file
//etc/printcap printer description file
//etc/lprng/lpd.perms permissions
/var/run/lprng/lpd lock file for queue control
/var/spool/lpd spool directories
/var/spool/lpd/QUEUE/control queue control
/var/spool/lpd/QUEUE/log trace or debug log file
/var/spool/lpd/QUEUE/acct accounting file
/var/spool/lpd/QUEUE/status status file
lpd.conf(5), lpc(8), lpd(8), checkpc(8), lpq(1), lprm(1), checkpc(8),
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 functionality similar
to the Berkeley LPR software. The LPRng mailing list is
lprng@lprng.com; subscribe by sending mail to lprng-request@lprng.com
with the word subscribe in the body. The software is available from
ftp://ftp.lprng.com/pub/LPRng.
AUTHOR
Patrick Powell <papowell@lprng.com>.