Managing Print Requests
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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 log in to the print server to move, hold, resume, or change the priorities of print requests with LP print service 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 by using the lp H command.

Table 4.6. Values for Changing the Priority of a Print Request

Value for H change-priority

Description

hold

Places the print request on hold until you cancel the request or instruct the LP print service to resume printing the request.

resume

Places a print request that has been on hold back in the queue. The request is printed according to its priority and placement in the queue. If you place on hold a print job that is already printing, resume places the print request at the head of the queue so that it becomes the next request printed.

immediate

Places a print request at the head of the queue. If a request is already printing, you can put the request on hold to allow the next request to print immediately.

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 the lpstat ( 1 ) man page.

    $ 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.

    To 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 quotation marks.

    If you don't specify list, the status of print requests sent 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.

    To 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 quotation marks.

    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 following information.

    • Request ID

    • User

    • Output size in bytes

    • Date and time of the request,

    • Information about the request, such as “being filtered.”

Example 4.14. Checking the Status of Print Requests

The following example shows that user fred has one print request queued on 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 two print requests are queued 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 the queue. However, requests are still added to the queue. You must set the printer to reject print requests so that 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 the printer 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 the processing of print requests is interrupted when a printer is disabled.

Figure 4.1. What Happens When a Printer Is Enabled or Disabled

What Happens When a Printer Is Enabled or Disabled

[D]

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 by using the lpstat -p command.

    printer-name

    Specifies the 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

Example 4.15. Enabling or Disabling a Printer

The following example shows how to stop the current job on the printer luna, save the job 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. However, 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.

Table 4.7. Functions of accept, reject, enable, and disable Print Commands

Command

Function

accept

Accepts print requests that are sent to the print queue.

disable

Stops printing requests that are currently in the print queue.

enable

Prints the requests that are in the print queue.

reject

Rejects print requests that are sent to the print queue.

If a print request is rejected, the LP print service writes or mails a message to the user who submitted the request. the message states 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 a user's system when a user tries to check the printer's queue. The following figure shows the point at which the processing of print requests is interrupted when a print queue rejects print requests.

Figure 4.2. What Happens When a Print Queue Accepts or Rejects Requests

What Happens When a Print Queue Accepts or Rejects Requests

[D]

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 with 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 by using the lpstat -p command.

    printer-name

    Specifies the name of the printer that will stop accepting print requests.

    The queued requests continue printing as long as the printer is enabled. For instructions on disabling a printer so that 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

Example 4.16. 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 in printer queues or to cancel jobs that are printing. Three are three ways to use the cancel command.

  • Cancel requests by request identification number (request ID)

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

  • Cancel the job currently printing

When you use the cancel command, a message tells you the request or requests are canceled, and the next request in queue is being printed. You can cancel a print request only under the following conditions.

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

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

  • You are logged in as superuser, 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 contains 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 the print requests of other users, then 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 the print request.

    # cancel request-id | printer-name
    request-id

    Specifies the 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 quotation marks.

    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 quotation marks.

  4. Verify that the print requests are canceled.

    $ lpstat -o printer-name

Example 4.17. 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 the 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 quotation marks

    printer-name

    Specifies the printer for which you want to cancel the print requests for a specified user.

    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 quotation marks.

    If you don't specify the printer-name, the user's print requests will be canceled on all printers.

Example 4.18. 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. 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 a specific file content type or form, that cannot be met by the newly specified printer cannot be moved. These print requests must be canceled.

How to Move Print Requests to Another Printer

To move all print requests from one printer to another printer, you do not need to know the request IDs. However, first determine 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) Determine if 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 specifies the 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

    Specifies the name of the printer from which all print requests will be moved.

    printer-name2

    Specifies the name of the printer to which all print requests will be moved.

    For more information, see the lpmove ( 1M ) man page.

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

  5. (Optional) 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

    Ensure that all specified print requests were moved to the destination printer's queue.

    # lpstat -o printer-name2

Example 4.19. Moving Print Requests to Another Printer

The following example shows how to move print requests from the printer luna to the printer terra. Then, the original printer, luna, is instructed 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 doing any of the following:

  • Putting any print request on hold if it has not finished printing. Putting a request on hold stops the request, 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 become 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 or moving the job in the queue. Doing so will move the job ahead of lower priority requests and behind other requests that are the same priority or 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

    Specifies the 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 quotation marks.

    H change-priority

    Specifies 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 4–6.

    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 4.20. 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
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