The command lpq can be used to display the status of the printer’s queue on a Linux server. The lpq command is part of the cups-bsd package, which provides the Berkeley commands for CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System), the standard printing system for Linux. The lpq command shows the status of a specified printer or the default printer if none is specified. It also lists the jobs that are queued for printing, along with their job IDs, owners, sizes, and names12. For example, to display the status of the printer lp1, we can use the following command:
$ lpq -P lp1
lp1 is ready
Rank Owner Job File(s) Total Size
active user1 123 test.txt 1024 bytes
1st user2 124 report.pdf 2048 bytes
The output shows that the printer lp1 is ready, and that there are two jobs in the queue, one of which is active and the other is waiting. The output also shows the owners, job IDs, file names, and sizes of the jobs. To display the status of all printers, we can use the -a option:
$ lpq -a
lp1 is ready
Rank Owner Job File(s) Total Size
active user1 123 test.txt 1024 bytes
1st user2 124 report.pdf 2048 bytes
lp2 is ready
no entries
The output shows that there are two printers, lp1 and lp2, and that lp2 has no entries in the queue. To display more information about the jobs, such as the priority, submission time, and status, we can use the -l option:
$ lpq -l -P lp1
lp1 is ready
Rank Owner Job File(s) Total Size
active user1 123 test.txt 1024 bytes
priority 50 Apr 27 10:00 processing since Apr 27 10:01
1st user2 124 report.pdf 2048 bytes
priority 50 Apr 27 10:05 waiting for lp1
The output shows that the jobs have the same priority, and that the first job is processing while the second job is waiting. The lpq command can be useful for troubleshooting printing problems, such as checking if the printer is ready, if there are any stuck or failed jobs, or if there are any conflicts or delays in the queue34. References: 1: lpq(1) - Linux manual page 2: How to Use the lp Command in Linux to Print Files From Terminal - Make Tech Easier 3: Linux sysadmin printing reference guide - PenguinTutor 4: How to manage print jobs on Linux - Network World
