Ubuntu Manpage: lpr - off line print

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 environment variable.

-B Do filtering of job files by the filters specified by the printcap. 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 minimal)
processing is to be done by the print spooling system. 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 (highest); 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 assumed 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 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
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 supported 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 creation
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 information. See the
LPRng HOWTO for details on how this is implemented.

-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 specified 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 additional 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 independent) troff, -v a raster image for devices like the
Benson Varian. These are obsolete. These are retained for historical compatibility,
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 compatibility, 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.

AUTHENTICATED TRANSFERS

       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   functionally   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.

THE -B, -Y, -X filter ULTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT PRINTING OPTIONS

       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.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values are returned:

       zero (0)       Successful completion.

       non-zero (!=0) An error occurred.

PRINTCAP INFORMATION

       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 printcap(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

AUTHOR

       Patrick Powell <papowell@lprng.com>.

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  developer  mailing  list  is  lprng-devel@lists.sourceforge.net;
       subscribe by visiting https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/lprng-devel or  sending
       mail to lprng-request@lists.sourceforge.net with the word subscribe in the body.
       The software is available via http://lprng.sourceforge.net