bsd man page for lpq

LPQ(1)							      General Commands Manual							    LPQ(1)

NAME
       lpq - spool queue examination program

SYNOPSIS
       lpq [ +[ n ] ] [ -l ] [ -Pprinter ] [ job # ... ] [ user ... ]

DESCRIPTION
       lpq  examines  the spooling area used by lpd(8) for printing files on the line printer, and reports the status of the specified jobs or all
       jobs associated with a user.  lpq invoked without any arguments reports on any jobs currently in the queue.  A -P flag may be used to spec-
       ify  a  particular  printer,  otherwise the default line printer is used (or the value of the PRINTER variable in the environment).  If a +
       argument is supplied, lpq displays the spool queue until it empties.  Supplying a number immediately after the + sign  indicates  that  lpq
       should  sleep n seconds in between scans of the queue.  All other arguments supplied are interpreted as user names or job numbers to filter
       out only those jobs of interest.

       For each job submitted (i.e. invocation of lpr(1)) lpq reports the user's name, current rank in the queue, the names  of  files	comprising
       the  job,  the job identifier (a number which may be supplied to lprm(1) for removing a specific job), and the total size in bytes.  The -l
       option causes information about each of the files comprising the job to be printed.  Normally, only as much information as will fit on  one
       line  is  displayed.   Job  ordering is dependent on the algorithm used to scan the spooling directory and is supposed to be FIFO (First in
       First Out).  File names comprising a job may be unavailable (when lpr(1) is used as a sink in a pipeline) in which case the file  is  indi-
       cated as ``(standard input)".

       If lpq warns that there is no daemon present (i.e. due to some malfunction), the lpc(8) command can be used to restart the printer daemon.

FILES
       /etc/termcap	       for manipulating the screen for repeated display
       /etc/printcap	       to determine printer characteristics
       /usr/spool/*	       the spooling directory, as determined from printcap
       /usr/spool/*/cf*        control files specifying jobs
       /usr/spool/*/lock       the lock file to obtain the currently active job

SEE ALSO
       lpr(1), lprm(1), lpc(8), lpd(8)

BUGS
       Due  to	the  dynamic nature of the information in the spooling directory lpq may report unreliably.  Output formatting is sensitive to the
       line length of the terminal; this can results in widely spaced columns.

DIAGNOSTICS
       Unable to open various files.  The lock file being malformed.  Garbage files when there is no daemon active,  but  files  in  the  spooling
       directory.

4.2 Berkeley Distribution					   June 5, 1986 							    LPQ(1)