The cancel utility cancels print requests. There are two forms of the cancel command.

The first form of cancel has two optional arguments: print requests (request-ID) and destinations (destination). Specifying request-ID with destination cancels request-ID on destination. Specifying only the destination cancels the current print request on destination. If destination is not specified, cancel cancels the requested print request on all destinations.

The second form of cancel cancels a user's print requests on specific destinations.

Users can only cancel print requests associated with their username. By default, users can only cancel print requests on the host from which the print request was submitted. If a super-user has set user-equivalence=true in /etc/printers.conf on the print server, users can cancel print requests associated with their username on any host. Super-users can cancel print requests on the host from which the print request was submitted. Super-users can also cancel print requests from the print server.

The print client commands locate destination information using the "printers" database in the name service switch. See nsswitch.conf(4), printers(4), and printers.conf(4) for details.

The following options are supported:

-u user

The name of the user for which print requests are to be cancelled. Specify user as a username.

The following operands are supported:

destination

The destination on which the print requests are to be canceled. destination is the name of a printer or class of printers (see lpadmin(1M)). If destination is not specified, cancel cancels the requested print request on all destinations. Specify destination using atomic, POSIX-style (server:destination), or Federated Naming Service (FNS) (.../service/printer/...) names. See NOTES for information regarding using POSIX-style destination names with cancel. See printers.conf(4) for information regarding the naming conventions for atomic and FNS names, and standards(5) for information regarding POSIX.

request-ID

The print request to be canceled. Specify request-ID using LP-style request IDs (destination-number).

user

The name of the user for which the print requests are to be cancelled. Specify user as a username.

The following exit values are returned:

0

Successful completion.

non-zero

An error occurred.

/var/spool/print/*

LP print queue.

$HOME/.printers

User-configurable printer database.

/etc/printers.conf

System printer configuration database.

printers.conf.byname

NIS version of /etc/printers.conf.

printers.org_dir

NIS+ version of /etc/printers.conf.

fns.ctx_dir.domain

FNS version of /etc/printers.conf.

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

lp(1), lpq(1B), lpr(1B), lprm(1B), lpstat(1), lpadmin( 1M), nsswitch.conf(4), printers(4), printers.conf(4), attributes(5), standards(5)

POSIX-style destination names (server:destination) are treated as print requests if destination has the same format as an LP-style request-ID. See standards(5).