Solaris

On occasion a printer will get removed while a job is still queued somewhere on the network. As a result, you will have a rogue print job on a Solaris[TM] 2.6 or higher system. Usually, there is no hint of a problem unless the messages file fills the /var partition, /var/adm/messages is consulted for other problems or you see it on the system console.

Example of error message found in /var/adm/messages:

Dec 5 08:39:32 venus bsd-gw [7220]: [ID 9370 lpr.error] request to printer_X (unknown printer) from mars

Where "venus" is the host whose messages file is being written to, "printer_X" is the printer queuename that is unknown and "mars" is the host that is sending the request. bsd-gw is the stamp that the incoming in.lpd print server process uses for an id.

Solution:

Option 1: To stop the messages from being written

Telnet or otherwise access the host identified after the "from" (mars in the example above) and remove the print job and the missing printer (printer_X).

You can remove the print job with the command "# cancel <job_id>".

Then re-create the printer using the lpadmin command below:

#lpadmin -p <missing printer> -v /dev/null -I any

#enable <missing printer>

#accept <missing printer>

When the messages stop, just delete the printer.

# lpadmin -x <missing printer>