lpr

off line print - sends a print job to the default system queue.

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

DESCRIPTION
     Lpr uses a spooling daemon to print the named files when facilities be­
     come 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(1)

     -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 inde­
             pendent troff).

     -p      Use pr(1) to format the files (equivalent to print).

     -t      The files are assumed to contain data from troff(1) (cat photo­
             typesetter 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:

     -P      Force output to a specific printer.  Normally, the default print­
             er is used (site dependent), or the value of the environment
             variable PRINTER is used.

     -h      Suppress the printing of the burst page.

     -m      Send mail upon completion.

     -r      Remove the file upon completion of spooling. Can not be used with
             the -s option, due to security concerns.

     -s      Use symbolic links.  Usually files are copied to the spool direc­
             tory.  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,

                   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.

     -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 purpos­
             es.  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 re­
             queue jobs.

     -i [numcols]
             The output is indented. If the next argument is numeric
             (numcols), it is used as the number of blanks to be printed be­
             fore each line; otherwise, 8 characters are printed.

     -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              Personal identification.
     /etc/printcap            Printer capabilities data base.
     /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.  Lpr will ob­
     ject 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(1) on the local machine
     cannot be made, lpr will say that the daemon cannot be started.  Diagnos­
     tics may be printed in the daemon's log file regarding missing spool
     files by lpd(1).

Bugs
     Fonts for troff(1) and tex reside on the host with the printer. It is
     currently not possible to use local font libraries.

Related commands:

banner - Print a line of text in extra large (poster size)
cancel - Cancel request to printer
lpc - Line printer control program
lprint - Print a file
lprintd / lpd(8) - Abort a print job
lprintq / lpq(1) - List the print queue
lprm - Remove jobs from the print queue
pr(1) - Convert text files for printing
printcap(5) - Printer Capability database
symlink - Make a new name for a file