LPRM(1) | General Commands Manual | LPRM(1)

# NAME

`lprm` — remove jobs from the line printer spooling queue

# SYNOPSIS

`lprm` | [`-`] [`-P` printer] [[job# ...] [user ...]]

# DESCRIPTION

`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:

`-P` printer
  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 restarted upon completion of file removals.

# ENVIRONMENT

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`.

# FILES

/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.

# DIAGNOSTICS

Permission denied
  File to remove was owned by another user.

# SEE ALSO

lpq(1), lpr(1), lpd(8)

# HISTORY

The `lprm` command appeared in 3.0BSD.

# BUGS

Since there are race conditions possible in the update of the lock file, the currently active job may be incorrectly identified.

February 18, 2022 | Debian