NAME

       lprm — remove jobs from the line printer spooling queue

SYNOPSIS

       lprm [-] [-Pprinter] [[job# ...] [user ...]]

DESCRIPTION

       lprm will remove a job, or jobs, from a printer's spool queue.  Since the spooling directory is protected
       from  users, using lprm is normally the only method by which a user may remove a job.  The owner of a job
       is determined by the user's login name and host name on the machine where the lpr(1) command was invoked.

       Options and arguments:

       -Pprinter
               Specify the queue associated with a specific printer (otherwise the default printer is used).

       -       If a single “-” is given, lprm will remove all jobs which a user owns.  If the superuser  employs
               this flag, the spool queue will be emptied entirely.

       user    Causes lprm to attempt to remove any jobs queued belonging to that user (or users).  This form of
               invoking lprm is useful only to the superuser.

       job#    A  user  may dequeue an individual job by specifying its job number.  This number may be obtained
               from the lpq(1) program, e.g.,

                     % lpq -l

                     1st:ken                         [job #013ucbarpa]
                             (standard input)        100 bytes
                     % lprm 13

       If neither arguments or options are given, lprm will delete the currently active job if it  is  owned  by
       the user who invoked lprm.

       lprm  announces  the  names of any files it removes and is silent if there are no jobs in the queue which
       match the request list.

       lprm will kill off an active daemon, if necessary, before removing any spooling files.  If  a  daemon  is
       killed, a new one is automatically restarted upon completion of file removals.

ENVIRONMENT

       If the following environment variable exists, it is utilized by lprm:

       PRINTER  If  the  environment  variable  PRINTER exists, and a printer has not been specified with the -P
                option, the default printer is assumed from PRINTER.

FILES

       /etc/printcap              Printer characteristics file.
       /var/spool/output/*        Spooling directories.
       /var/spool/output/*/lock   Lock file used to obtain the PID of the current daemon and the job  number  of
                                  the currently active job.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Permission denied
               Printed if the user tries to remove files other than his own.

SEE ALSO

       lpq(1), lpr(1), lpd(8)

HISTORY

       The lprm command appeared in 3.0BSD.

BUGS

       Since  there are race conditions possible in the update of the lock file, the currently active job may be
       incorrectly identified.

Debian                                            May 31, 2007                                           LPRM(1)