Provided by: lprng_3.8.B-9_amd64 
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
SEE ALSO
lpd.conf(5), lpc(8), lpd(8), checkpc(8), lpq(1), lprm(1), checkpc(8), printcap(5), lpd.perms(5), pr(1).
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
LPRng 2006-12-09 LPR(1)