LPR

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: April 29, 1985
Index Return to Main Contents
 

NAME

lpr - off line print  

SYNOPSIS

lpr [ -Pprinter ] [ -#num ] [ -C class ] [ -J job ] [ -T title ] [ -i [ numcols ]] [ -1234 font ] [ -wnum ] [ -pltndgvcfrmhs ] [ name ... ]  

DESCRIPTION

The lpr command uses a spooling daemon to print the named files when facilities become available. If no names appear, the standard input is assumed. The -P option may be used to force output to a specific printer. Normally, the default printer is used (site dependent), or the value of the default variable Printer owned by System is used. Note that a printer specification given as an environment variable will be ignored.

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.

-p
Use pr(1) to format the files (equivalent to print).
-l
Use a filter which allows control characters to be printed and suppresses page breaks.
-t
The files are assumed to contain data from troff(1) (cat phototypesetter commands).
-n
The files are assumed to contain data from ditroff (device independent troff).
-d
The files are assumed to contain data from tex(l) (DVI format from Stanford).
-g
The files are assumed to contain standard plot data as produced by the plot(3X) routines (see also plot(1G) for the filters used by the printer spooler).
-v
The files are assumed to contain a raster image for devices like the Benson Varian.
-c
The files are assumed to contain data produced by R cifplot (l).
-f
Use a filter that interprets the first character of each line as a standard FORTRAN carriage control character.

The remaining single letter options have the following meaning.

-r
Remove the file upon completion of spooling or upon completion of printing (with the -s option).
-m
Send mail upon completion.
-h
Suppress the printing of the burst page.
-s
Use symbolic links. Usually files are copied to the spool directory.

The -C option takes the following argument as a job classification for use on the burst page. For example,


      lpr -C EECS foo.c

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.

The -J option takes the following argument as the job name to print on the burst page. Normally, the first file's name is used.

The -T option uses the next argument as the title used by pr(1) instead of the file name.

To get multiple copies of output, use the -#num option, where 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.

The -i option causes the output to be indented. If the next argument is numeric, it is used as the number of blanks to be printed before each line; otherwise, 8 characters are printed.

The -w option takes the number immediately following as the page width for pr.

The -s option will use symlink(2) to link data files rather than trying to copy them so large files can be printed. When using the -s option, the files should not be modified or removed until they have been printed.

The option -1234 Specifies a font to be mounted on font position i. The daemon will construct a .railmag file referencing /usr/lib/vfont/name.size.  

FILES

/etc/passwd            personal identification
/etc/printcap          printer capabilities data base - if NetInfo is not running.
/usr/lib/lpd*          line printer daemons
/usr/spool/*           directories used for spooling
/usr/spool/*/cf*       daemon control files
/usr/spool/*/df*       data files specified in "cf" files
/usr/spool/*/tf*       temporary copies of "cf" files
 

SEE ALSO

lpq(1), lprm(1), pr(1), netinfo(5), symlink(2), printcap(5), lpc(8), lpd(8)  

DIAGNOSTICS

If you try to spool too large a file, it will be truncated. The lpr command will object to printing binary files. 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 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.  

BUGS

Fonts for troff and tex reside on the host with the printer. It is currently not possible to use local font libraries.

 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
FILES
SEE ALSO
DIAGNOSTICS
BUGS
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