(BSD System Compatibility)

lpq(1bsd)

lpq -- (BSD) display the queue of printer jobs

Synopsis

   /usr/ucb/lpq [-Pprinter] [-l] [+ [interval] ] [job# . . . ]
   	[username . . . ]

Description

lpq displays the contents of a printer queue. It reports the status of jobs specified by job#, or all jobs owned by the user specified by username. lpq reports on all jobs in the default printer queue when invoked with no arguments.

For each print job in the queue, lpq reports the user's name, current position, the names of input files comprising the job, the job number (by which it is referred to when using lprm(1bsd)) and the total size in bytes. Normally, only as much information as will fit on one line is displayed. Jobs are normally queued on a first-in-first-out basis. Filenames comprising a job may be unavailable, such as when lpr is used at the end of a pipeline; in such cases the filename field indicates the standard input.

If lpq warns that there is no daemon present (that is, due to some malfunction), the lpc(1Mbsd) command can be used to restart a printer daemon.

Options

-P printer: Display information about the queue for the specified printer. In the absence of the -P option, the queue to the printer specified by the PRINTER variable in the environment is used. If the PRINTER variable is not set, the queue for the default printer is used.
-l: Display queue information in long format; includes the name of the host from which the job originated.
+[interval ]: Display the spool queue periodically until it empties. This option clears the terminal screen before reporting on the queue. If an interval is supplied, lpq sleeps that number of seconds in between reports.

Files

/var/spool/lp: spooling directory.
/var/spool/lp/tmp/system_name/*-0: request files specifying jobs

Diagnostics

lpq: printer is printing: The lpq program queries the spooler LPSCHED about the status of the printer. If the printer is disabled, the system administrator can restart the spooler using lpc(1Mbsd).
lpq: printer waiting for auto-retry (offline ?): The daemon could not open the printer device. The printer may be turned off-line. This message can also occur if a printer is out of paper, the paper is jammed, and so on. Another possible cause is that a process, such as an output filter, has exclusive use of the device. The only recourse in this case is to kill the offending process and restart the printer with lpc.
lpq: waiting for host to come up: A daemon is trying to connect to the remote machine named host, in order to send the files in the local queue. If the remote machine is up, lpd on the remote machine is probably dead or hung and should be restarted using lpc.
lpq: sending to host: The files are being transferred to the remote host, or else the local daemon has hung while trying to transfer the files.
lpq: printer disabled reason:: The printer has been marked as being unavailable with lpc.
lpq: The LP print service isn't running or can't be reached.: The lpsched process overseeing the spooling queue does not exist. You can restart the printer daemon with lpc.
lpq: printer: unknown printer: The printer was not found in the System V LP database. Usually this is a typing mistake; however, it may indicate that the printer does not exist on the system. Use `lpstat -p' to find the reason.
lpq: error on opening queue to spooler: The connection to lpsched on the local machine failed. This usually means the printer server started at boot time has died or is hung. Check if the printer spooler daemon /usr/lib/lp/lpsched is running.
lpq: Can't send message to LP print service
lpq: Can't establish contact with LP print service: These indicate that the LP print service has been stopped. Get help from the system administrator.
lpq: Received unexpected message from LP print service: It is likely there is an error in this software. Get help from system administrator.

References

lpc(1Mbsd), lpr(1bsd), lprm(1bsd)

Notices

Output formatting is sensitive to the line length of the terminal; this can result in widely-spaced columns.