NAME¶
lpr —
off line print
SYNOPSIS¶
lpr |
[-cdfghlmnpqrstv]
[-#num]
[-1234 font]
[-C class]
[-i [numcols]]
[-J job]
[-Pprinter]
[-T title]
[-U user]
[-wnum]
[name ...] |
DESCRIPTION¶
lpr uses a spooling daemon to print the named files when
facilities become available. If no names appear, the standard input is
assumed.
The following single letter options are used to notify the line printer spooler
that the files are not standard text files. The spooling daemon will use the
appropriate filters to print the data accordingly.
- -c
- The files are assumed to contain data produced by
cifplot.
- -d
- The files are assumed to contain data from
tex (DVI format from Stanford).
- -f
- Use a filter which interprets the first character of each
line as a standard FORTRAN carriage control character.
- -g
- The files are assumed to contain standard plot data as
produced by the plot routines (see also
plot for the filters used by the printer spooler).
- -l
- Use a filter which allows control characters to be printed
and suppresses page breaks.
- -n
- The files are assumed to contain data from
ditroff (device independent troff).
- -p
- Use pr(1) to format the files.
- -t
- The files are assumed to contain data from
troff(1) (cat phototypesetter commands).
- -v
- The files are assumed to contain a raster image for devices
like the Benson Varian.
These options apply to the handling of the print job:
- -h
- Suppress the printing of the burst page.
- -m
- Send mail upon completion.
- -Pprinter
- Force output to a specific printer. Normally, the default
printer is used (site dependent), or the value of the environment variable
PRINTER
is used.
- -q
- Queue the print job but do not start the spooling
daemon.
- -r
- Remove the file upon completion of spooling or upon
completion of printing (with the -s option).
- -s
- Use symbolic links. Usually files are copied to the spool
directory. The -s option will use
symlink(2) to link data files rather than trying to copy
them so large files can be printed. This means the files should not be
modified or removed until they have been printed.
The remaining options apply to copies, the page display, and headers:
- -#num
- The quantity num is the number of
copies desired of each file named. For example,
$ lpr -#3 foo.c bar.c more.c
would result in 3 copies of the file foo.c, followed by 3 copies of the file
bar.c, etc. On the other hand,
$ cat foo.c bar.c more.c | lpr -#3
will give three copies of the concatenation of the files. Often a site will
disable this feature to encourage use of a photocopier instead.
- -1234
font
- Specifies a font to be mounted on
font position i. The daemon will construct a
.railmag
file referencing the font pathname.
- -C
class
- Job classification to use on the burst page. For example,
causes the system name (the name returned by hostname(1))
to be replaced on the burst page by EECS, and the file foo.c to be
printed.
- -i
[numcols]
- The output is indented. If the next argument is numeric
(numcols), it is used as the number of blanks to be
printed before each line; otherwise, 8 characters are printed.
- -J
job
- Job name to print on the burst page. Normally, the first
file's name is used.
- -T
title
- Title name for pr(1), instead of the file
name.
- -U
user
- User name to print on the burst page, also for accounting
purposes. This option is only honored if the real user ID is daemon (or
that specified in the printcap file instead of daemon), and is intended
for those instances where print filters wish to requeue jobs.
- -wnum
- Uses num as the page width for
pr(1).
ENVIRONMENT¶
If the following environment variable exists, it is used by
lpr:
PRINTER
- Specifies an alternate default printer.
FILES¶
- /etc/passwd
- local users database
- /etc/printcap
- printer capabilities database
- /usr/sbin/lpd*
- line printer daemons
- /var/spool/output/*
- directories used for spooling
- /var/spool/output/*/cf*
- daemon control files
- /var/spool/output/*/df*
- data files specified in “cf” files
- /var/spool/output/*/tf*
- temporary copies of “cf” files
DIAGNOSTICS¶
If you try to spool too large a file, it will be truncated. If a user other than
root prints a file and spooling is disabled,
lpr will print
a message saying so and will not put jobs in the queue. If a connection to
lpd(8) on the local machine cannot be made,
lpr will say that the daemon cannot be started. Diagnostics
may be printed in the daemon's log file regarding missing spool files by
lpd(8).
SEE ALSO¶
lpq(1),
lprm(1),
pr(1),
symlink(2),
printcap(5),
lpc(8),
lpd(8)
HISTORY¶
The
lpr command appeared in
3BSD.
BUGS¶
Fonts for
troff(1) and
tex reside on the
host with the printer. It is currently not possible to use local font
libraries.