MirBSD manpage: lprm(1)
LPRM(1) BSD Reference Manual LPRM(1)
lprm - remove jobs from the line printer spooling queue
lprm [-] [-Pprinter] [[job# ...][user ...]]
lprm will remove a job, or jobs, from a printer's spool queue. Since the
spooling directory is protected from users, using lprm is normally the
only method by which a user may remove a job. The owner of a job is
determined by the user's login name and host name on the machine where
the lpr(1) command was invoked.
Options and arguments:
-Pprinter
Specify the queue associated with a specific printer (otherwise
the default printer is used).
- If a single "-" is given, lprm will remove all jobs which a user
owns. If the superuser employs this flag, the spool queue will be
emptied entirely.
user Causes lprm to attempt to remove any jobs queued belonging to
that user (or users). This form of invoking lprm is useful only
to the superuser.
job # A user may dequeue an individual job by specifying its job
number. This number may be obtained from the lpq(1) program,
e.g.,
% lpq -l
1st:ken [job #013ucbarpa]
(standard input) 100 bytes
% lprm 13
If neither arguments or options are given, lprm will delete the currently
active job if it is owned by the user who invoked lprm.
lprm announces the names of any files it removes and is silent if there
are no jobs in the queue which match the request list.
lprm will kill off an active daemon, if necessary, before removing any
spooling files. If a daemon is killed, a new one is automatically res-
tarted upon completion of file removals.
If the following environment variable exists, it is utilized by lprm:
PRINTER If the environment variable PRINTER exists, and a printer has
not been specified with the -P option, the default printer is
assumed from PRINTER.
/etc/printcap Printer characteristics file.
/var/spool/output/* Spooling directories.
/var/spool/output/*/lock Lock file used to obtain the PID of the
current daemon and the job number of the
currently active job.
Permission denied
Printed if the user tries to remove files other than his own.
lpq(1), lpr(1), lpd(8)
The lprm command appeared in 3.0BSD.
Since there are race conditions possible in the update of the lock file,
the currently active job may be incorrectly identified.
MirBSD #10-current June 6, 1993 1