lpstat(C)

lpstat, rlpstat -- print information about status of (remote) lp print service

Syntax

lpstat options [ request-id | printer | class ... ]

rlpstat local_printer_name

Description

lpstat prints information about the current status of the lp(C) print service.

rlpstat prints information about the status of a print service on a remote host connected via TCP/IP.

lpstat prints the status of arguments that are request IDs (as returned by lp), printer names, or printer classes.

If no options or arguments are given, lpstat prints the status of all requests made to lp by all users on the system.

Options may appear in any order and may be repeated and intermixed with other arguments. Some of the options may be followed by an optional list that can be in one of two forms:

A list of items separated from one another by a comma.
A list of items enclosed in double quotes and separated from one another by a comma or one or more spaces.

For example, -u user1,user2,user3 and -u "user1 user2 user3" are equivalent. -u "user1,user2 user3" should be avoided.

Specifying all after any keyletters that take list as an argument causes all information relevant to the keyletter to be printed. For example, the command lpstat -o all prints the status of all output requests.

lpstat takes the following arguments:

-a [ list ]: Print acceptance status (with respect to lp) of destinations for requests (see accept(ADM)). list is a list of intermixed printer names and class names; the default is all.
-c [ list ]: Print class names and their members. list is a list of class names; the default is all.
-d: Print the system default destination for lp.
-f [ list ] [ -l ]: Print a verification that the forms in form-list are recognized by the lp print service. The -l option will list the form descriptions.
-o [ list ] [ -l ]: Print the status of output requests. list is a list of intermixed printer names, class names, and request IDs; the default is all. The -l option gives a more detailed status of the request.
-p [ list ] [ -D ] [ -l ]: Print the status of printers named in list. If the -D option is given, a brief description is printed for each printer in list. If the -l option is given, a full description of each printer's configuration is given, including the form mounted, the acceptable content and printer types, a printer description, the interface used, and the number of banner pages.
-r: Print the status of the lp request scheduler.
-s: Print a status summary, including the system default destination, a list of class names and their members, a list of printers and their associated devices, a list of all forms currently mounted, and a list of all recognized character sets and print wheels.
-S [ list ] [ -l ]: Print a verification that the character sets or the print wheels specified in list are recognized by the lp print service. Items in list can be character sets or print wheels; the default for the list is all. If the -l option is given, each line is appended by a list of printers that can handle the print wheel or character set. The list also shows whether the print wheel or character set is mounted or specifies the built-in character set into which it maps.
-t: Print all status information.
-u [list]: Print status of output requests for users. list is a list of login names. The default is all.
-v [list]: Print the names of printers and the path names of the devices associated with them. list is a list of printer names. The default is all.

rlpstat allows the user to look at the queue of a remote printer. The command is invoked with the name of the printer as it is known locally (that is, by its host computer). For example,

rlpstat local_printer_name

rlpstat will find the machine on which the printer is physically connected and do an lpstat -o local_printer_name to show the queue on that machine for that printer.

rlpstat makes the following assumptions:

lp accounts exist on both local and host machines. To establish equivalence of the lp accounts, the .rhosts file in lp's home directory on the host machine must contain the name of the local machine and lp. The .rhosts file must be owned by root or lp, and must not be writable by other groups or users.
The documented format of /usr/spool/lp/remote is adhered to.
The first option of the lp command to be executed on the remote machine is the destination (-d local_printer_name).

Exit values

lpstat and rlpstat return the following values:

0: successful completion
>0: an error occurred

Examples

lpstat -r: used to find out if the scheduler is running
lpstat -t: display all status information about the print service

Authorization

Behaviour of this utility depends on the lp authorization in authorize(F). Refer to subsystem(M) for more details.

Files

/usr/spool/lp/

Standards conformance

lpstat is conformant with:

ISO/IEC DIS 99452:1992, Information technology Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) Part 2: Shell and Utilities (IEEE Std 1003.21992);
AT&T SVID Issue 2;
X/Open CAE Specification, Commands and Utilities, Issue 4, 1992.

rlpstat is not part of any currently supported standard.