The lpq utility displays the information about the contents of a print queue. A print queue is comprised of print requests that are waiting in the process of being printed.

lpq displays the following information to the standard output:

• the username of the person associated with a print request,
• the position of a print request in the print queue,
• the name of file or files comprising a print request,
• the job number of a print request, and
• the size of the file requested by a print request. File size is reported in bytes.

Normally, only as much information as will fit on one line is displayed. If the name of the input file associated with a print request is not available, the input file field indicates the standard input.

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:

-P destination

Displays information about printer or class of printers (see lpadmin(1M)) . Specify destination using atomic, POSIX-style (server:destination), or Federated Naming Service (FNS) (.../service/printer/...) names. See printers.conf(4) for information regarding the naming conventions for atomic and FNS names, and standards(5) for information regarding POSIX.

-l

Displays information in long format. Long format includes the name of the host from which a print request originated in the display.

+ [interval]

Displays information at specific time intervals. Stops displaying information when the print queue is empty. Clears the screen before reporting displaying the print queue. Specify interval as the number of seconds between displays. If interval is not specified only executes once.

The following operands are supported:

request-ID

The job number associated with a print request.

user

The name of the user about whose jobs lpq reports information. Specify user as a valid username.

The following exit values are returned:

0

Successful completion.

non-zero

An error occurred.

/var/spool/print/[cd]f*

Spooling directory and request files for jobs awaiting transfer.

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

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