Managing Print Requests

When a user submits a print request from a print client, the print request is added to a queue on the print server before it is sent to the printer. While a print request is in the queue, you can cancel or gain status information on the request from a client system. You must login to the print server to move, hold, resume, or change the priorities of print requests with LP commands. These actions can help you keep printing services operating smoothly.

The following table lists the values for changing the priority of a print request with the lp H command.

How to Check the Status of Print Requests

1. Log in on any system on the network.

2. Check the status of printers and print requests.

   Only the most commonly used options are shown here. For other valid options, see lpstat(1).

   $ lpstat -o [list] | -u [user-list]

   -o list	Shows the status of print requests on a specific printer. list can be one or more printer names, printer class names, or print request IDs. You can specify multiple printer names, class names, and IDs for list. Use a space or a comma to separate values. If you use spaces, enclose the list of values in quotes. If you don't specify list, the status of print requests to all printers is displayed.
   -u user-list	Shows the status of print requests for a specific user. user-list can be one or more user names. You can specify multiple users with this command. Use a space or a comma to separate user names. If you use spaces, enclose the list of names in quotes.  If you don't specify user-list, the status of print requests for all users is displayed.

   When used to check the status of print requests, the lpstat command displays one line for each print request. From left to right, the line shows the request ID, the user, the output size in bytes, the date and time of the request, and information about the request, such as “being filtered.”

Examples—Checking the Status of Print Requests

The following example shows that user fred has one print request queued to the printer luna.

$ lpstat
luna-1    fred     1261    Jul 12 17:34

The following example shows that the user paul currently has no print requests in queue.

$ lpstat -u paul

The following example shows that there are two print requests on the printer moon.

$ lpstat -o moon
moon-78    root     1024   Jul 14 09:07
moon-79    root     1024   Jul 14 09:08

Enabling or Disabling a Printer From Printing

The enable and disable commands control whether a printer prints or stops printing requests that are in the print queue. When you disable a printer, the printer stops printing requests in queue. However, requests are still added to the queue. (You must set the printer to reject print requests so requests are not added to the queue. For information about rejecting print requests, see Accepting or Rejecting Print Requests.)

A printer is enabled to print and accepts print requests when it is added by using Solaris Print Manager. Solaris Print Manager doesn't provide any additional printer processing management.

You must enable the printer whenever it has been disabled, which can happen when a printer fault occurs. When you enable a printer, it prints requests from the print queue until the queue is empty, even if the print service rejects additional requests for the print queue.

The following figure shows the point at which processing of print requests is interrupted when a printer is disabled.

Figure 5–1 What Happens When a Printer Is Enabled or Disabled

How to Enable or Disable a Printer

1. Log in as superuser, lp, or assume an equivalent role on the print server.

2. Stop printing print requests.

   # disable [-c | -W] [-r "reason"] printer-name

   disable	Cancels the current job, then disables the printer. The current job is saved to reprint when the printer is enabled.
   -c	Cancels the current job, then disables the printer. The current job is not printed later.
   -W	Waits until the current job is finished before disabling the printer.
   -r "reason"	Provides users with a reason why the printer is disabled. The reason is stored and displayed whenever a user checks on the status of the printer with the lpstat -p command.
   printer-name	Name of the printer that will stop printing print requests.

   ---

   Note –

   You cannot enable or disable classes of printers. Only individual printers can be enabled or disabled.

   ---

3. Start printing print requests.

   # enable printer-name

4. Verify that the printer is enabled.

   $ lpstat -p printer-name

Examples—Enabling or Disabling a Printer

The following example shows how to stop the current job on the printer luna, save it to print later, and provide a reason why the printer has stopped printing print requests.

# disable -r "changing the form" luna

The following example shows how to start printing print requests on the printer luna.

# enable luna
printer "luna" enabled

Accepting or Rejecting Print Requests

The accept and reject commands enable you to turn on or turn off a print queue that stores requests to be printed.

When you use the reject command, the print queue for a specified printer is turned off. No new print requests can enter the queue on the print server. All print requests that are in the queue are still printed. You must disable the printer if you want it to stop printing requests that are already in the queue. The following table compares the functions of the accept, reject, enable, and disable commands.

If a print request is rejected, the print service writes or mails a message to the user who submitted the request, saying that print requests are not being accepted for the specified printer.

You can also specify a reason for not accepting requests through the command line. The reason is displayed on users' systems when one tries to check the printer's queue. The following figure shows the point at which processing of print requests is interrupted when a print queue rejects print requests.

Figure 5–2 What Happens When a Print Queue Accepts or Rejects Requests

How to Accept or Reject Print Requests for a Printer

1. Log in as superuser, lp, or assume an equivalent role on the print server.

2. Stop accepting print requests for the printer.

   # reject [-r "reason"] printer-name

   -r "reason"	Provides users a reason why the printer is rejecting print requests. The reason is stored and displayed whenever a user checks on the status of the printer with the lpstat -p command.
   printer-name	Name of the printer that will stop accepting print requests.

   The queued requests will continue printing as long as the printer is enabled. For instructions on disabling a printer so it stops printing, see How to Enable or Disable a Printer.

3. Start accepting print requests for the printer.

   # accept printer-name

4. Check that the status of the printer to see whether it is accepting or rejecting print requests.

   $ lpstat -p printer-name

Examples—Accepting or Rejecting Print Requests for a Printer

The following example shows how to stop the printer luna from accepting print requests.

# reject -r "luna is down for repairs" luna
destination "luna" will no longer accept requests

The following example shows how to set the printer luna to accept print requests.

# accept luna
destination "luna" now accepting requests

Canceling a Print Request

You can use the cancel command to cancel print requests from printer queues or to cancel jobs that are printing. There are three ways to use the cancel command:

• Cancel requests by request identification number (request ID)

• Cancel requests from a specific user on all, or specified, printers

• Cancel the job currently printing

When you use the cancel command, a message tells you the request(s) are canceled, and the next request in queue is printed. You can cancel a print request only if you are:

• The user who submitted the request and you are logged in on the system from which you submitted the request

• The user who submitted the request on any client system and the print server has the “user-equivalence” option configured for the printer in it's /etc/printers.conf file.

• Logged in as superuser or lp or have assumed an equivalent role on the print server.

To cancel a specific request, you need to know its request ID. The request ID is comprised of the name of the printer, a dash, and the number of the print request. For example, luna-185.

When you submit the print request, the request ID is displayed. If you do not remember the print request ID, you can find it by using the lpstat command with the -o printer option.

How to Cancel a Print Request

1. If you are going to cancel print requests of other users, become superuser, lp, or assume an equivalent role.

2. Determine the request IDs of the print requests to cancel.

   # lpstat

   For more details, see How to Check the Status of Print Requests.

3. Cancel a print request.

   $ cancel request-id | printer-name

   request-id	Request ID of a print request to be canceled. You can specify multiple request IDs with this command. Use a space or a comma to separate request IDs. If you use spaces, enclose the list of request IDs in quotes.
   printer-name	Specifies the printer for which you want to cancel the currently printing print request.  You can specify multiple printer names with this command. Use a space or a comma to separate printer names. If you use spaces, enclose the list of printer names in quotes.

4. Verify that the print requests are canceled.

   $ lpstat -o printer-name

Examples—Canceling a Print Request

The following example shows how to cancel the luna-3 and luna-4 print requests.

$ cancel luna-3 luna-4
request "luna-3" cancelled
request "luna-4" cancelled

The following example shows how to cancel the print request that is currently printing on the printer luna.

# cancel luna
request "luna-9" cancelled

How to Cancel a Print Request From a Specific User

1. (Optional) Become superuser, lp, or assume an equivalent role if you are going to cancel print requests of other users.

2. Cancel a print request from a specific user.

   $ cancel -u user-list [printer-name]

   -u user-list	Cancels the print request for a specified user.   user-list can be one or more user names. Use a space or a comma to separate user names. If you use spaces, enclose the list of names in quotes.
   printer-name	Specifies the printer for which you want to cancel the specified user's print requests.  printer-name can be one or more printer names. Use a space or a comma to separate printer names. If you use spaces, enclose the list of printer names in quotes. If you don't specify printer-name, the user's print requests will be canceled on all printers.

Examples—Canceling a Print Request From a Specific User

The following example shows how to cancel all the print requests submitted by the user george on the printer luna.

# cancel -u george luna
request "luna-23" cancelled

The following example shows how to cancel all the print requests submitted by the user george on all printers.

# cancel -u george
request "asteroid-3" cancelled
request "luna-8" cancelled

Moving a Print Request

If you plan to change the way a printer is used or decide to take a printer out of service, you should set up the LP print service to reject additional print requests, and then move or cancel any requests that are currently queued to the printer. You can use the lpmove command to move individual or all print requests to another local printer.

Request IDs are not changed when you move print requests, so users can still find their requests. Print requests that have requirements (such as file content type or forms) that cannot be met by the newly specified printer cannot be moved. They must be canceled.

How to Move Print Requests to Another Printer

To move all print requests from one printer to another, you do not need to know the request IDs. However, it is a good idea to see how many print requests are affected before you move them.

1. Log in as superuser, lp, or assume an equivalent role on the print server.

2. (Optional) Check the request IDs of the print requests on the original printer.

   # lpstat -o printer-name1

3. (Optional) Check to see if the destination printer is accepting print requests.

   # lpstat -p printer-name2

   -p printer-name2

   Name of the printer to which you are moving the print requests.

4. Move all the print requests from the original printer to the destination printer.

   # lpmove printer-name1 printer-name2

   printer-name1	Name of the printer from which all print requests will be moved.
   printer-name2	Name of the printer to which all print requests will be moved.

   For more information, see lpmove(1M).

   If some requests cannot be printed on the destination printer, they are left in the original printer's queue. By using request IDs, you can also move specific print requests to another printer with the lpmove command.

5. Start accepting print requests on the original printer.

   If you move all the print requests to another printer, the lpmove command automatically stops accepting print requests for the printer. This step is necessary if you want to begin accepting new print requests for the printer.

   # accept printer-name1

6. Check for any remaining print requests in the original printer's queue.

   $ lpstat -o printer-name1

   Make sure all specified print requests were moved to the destination printer's queue by using the following command.

   $ lpstat -o printer-name2

Example—Moving Print Requests to Another Printer

The following example shows how to move print requests from the printer luna to the printer terra, and then tells the original printer luna to resume accepting print requests.

# lpmove luna terra
# accept luna

Changing the Priority of Print Requests

After a user has submitted a print request, you can change its priority in the print server's queue by:

• Putting any print request on hold if it has not finished printing. Putting a request on hold stops it, if it is currently printing, and keeps it from printing until you resume printing it. Other print requests go ahead of the on-hold request.

• Moving any print request to the head of the queue, where it will be the next job eligible for printing. If you want a job to start printing immediately, you can interrupt the job that is currently printing by putting it on hold.

• Changing the priority of a job still waiting to be printed, moving it in the queue so it is ahead of lower priority requests and behind requests at the same level or at a higher priority.

How to Change the Priority of a Print Request

1. Log in as superuser, lp, or assume an equivalent role on the print server that is holding the print request.

2. Determine the request IDs of the print requests whose priority you want to change.

   # lpstat

   For more information, see How to Check the Status of Print Requests.

3. Change the priority of a print request.

   # lp -i request-id -H change-priority

   -i request-id	Request ID of a print request you want to change. You can specify multiple request IDs with this command. Use a space or a comma to separate request IDs. If you use spaces, enclose the list of request IDs in quotes.
   -H change-priority	One of the three ways to change the priority of a print request: hold, resume, immediate. For detailed information about valid values for change-priority, see Table 5–6.

   You can also use the lp -q command to change the priority level of a specified print request. You can change the priority level from 0, the highest priority, to 39, the lowest priority.

Example—Changing the Priority of a Print Request

The following example shows how to change a print request with the request ID asteroid-79, to priority level 1.

# lp -i asteroid-79 -q 1