NAME

       lpq — spool queue examination program

SYNOPSIS

       lpq [-al] [-Pprinter] [job# ...] [user ...]

DESCRIPTION

       lpq  examines  the  spooling  area used by lpd(8) for printing files on the line printer, and reports the
       status of the specified jobs or all jobs associated with a  user.   lpq  invoked  without  any  arguments
       reports on any jobs currently in the queue.

       The options are as follows:

       -a      Report on the local queues for all printers, rather than just the specified printer.

       -l      Information  about each of the files comprising the job entry is printed.  Normally, only as much
               information as will fit on one line is displayed.

       -Pprinter
               Specify a particular printer, otherwise the default line printer is used (or  the  value  of  the
               PRINTER variable in the environment).  All other arguments supplied are interpreted as user names
               or job numbers to filter out only those jobs of interest.

       For  each  job  submitted  (i.e.,  invocation of lpr(1)) lpq reports the user's name, current rank in the
       queue, the names of files comprising the job, the job identifier (a  number  which  may  be  supplied  to
       lprm(1)  for  removing  a  specific  job), and the total size in bytes.  Job ordering is dependent on the
       algorithm used to scan the spooling directory and is supposed to be FIFO  (First  In  First  Out).   File
       names comprising a job may be unavailable (when lpr(1) is used as a sink in a pipeline) in which case the
       file is indicated as “(standard input)”.

       If  lpq  warns that there is no daemon present (i.e., due to some malfunction), the lpc(8) command can be
       used to restart the printer daemon.

ENVIRONMENT

       If the following environment variable exists, it is used by lpq:

       PRINTER  Specifies an alternate default printer.

FILES

       /etc/printcap             To determine printer characteristics.
       /var/spool/*              The spooling directory, as determined from printcap.
       /var/spool/output/*/cf*   Control files specifying jobs.
       /var/spool/output/*/lock  The lock file to obtain the currently active job.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Unable to open various files.  The lock file being malformed.  Garbage files  when  there  is  no  daemon
       active, but files in the spooling directory.

SEE ALSO

       lpr(1), lprm(1), lpc(8), lpd(8)

HISTORY

       lpq appeared in 3BSD.

BUGS

       Due  to  the  dynamic  nature  of  the  information in the spooling directory, lpq may report unreliably.
       Output formatting is sensitive to the line length of the terminal;  this  can  result  in  widely  spaced
       columns.

Debian                                            May 31, 2007                                            LPQ(1)