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lprm - remove jobs from the printer queue
lprm [ -Pprinter ] [ - ] [ job # ... ] [ username ... ]
lprm removes a job or jobs from a printer's spooling queue.
Since the spool directory is protected from users, using
lprm is normally the only method by which a user can remove
a job.
Without any arguments, lprm deletes the job that is
currently active, provided that the user who invoked lprm
owns that job.
When the super-user specifies a username, lprm removes all
jobs belonging to that user.
You can remove a specific job by supplying its job number as
an argument, which you can obtain using lpq(1). For example:
example% lpq -Phost
host is ready and printing
Rank Owner Job Files Total Size
active wendy 385 standard input 35501 bytes
example% lprm -Phost 385
lprm reports the names of any files it removes, and is
silent if there are no applicable jobs to remove.
lprm kills the active printer daemon, if necessary, before
removing spooled jobs; it restarts the daemon when through.
- -Pprinter
- Specify the queue associated with a specific
printer. Otherwise the value of the PRINTER
variable in the environment is used. If this
variable is unset, the queue for the default
printer is used.
- -
- Remove all jobs owned by you. If invoked by
the super-user, all jobs in the spool are
removed. (Job ownership is determined by the
user's login name and host name on the
machine where the lpr command was invoked).
- /etc/printcap
- printer characteristics file
- /var/spool/*
- spooling directories
/var/spool/l*/lock lock file used to obtain the pid of the
current daemon and the job number of the
currently active job
lpr(1), lpq(1), lpd(8)
lprm: printer: cannot restart printer daemon
The connection to lpd on the local machine failed.
This usually means the printer server started at boot
time has died or is hung. If it is hung, the master
lpd(8) daemon may have to be killed and a new one
started.
Since race conditions are possible when updating the lock
file, an active job may be incorrectly identified for removal
by an lprm command issued with no arguments. During the
interval between an lpq(1) command and the execution of
lprm, the next job in line may have become active; that job
may be removed unintentionally if it is owned by you. To
avoid this, supply lprm with the job number to remove when a
critical job that you own is next in line.
Only the super-user can remove print jobs submitted from
another host.
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