Find a printer

First, you should find a printer.

Self-Administered Linux/Unix system

If you admin your own Dept. Linux system, you’ll need to have CUPS installed and setup your account to use CUPS.

echo 'ServerName print1.eecis.udel.edu' > ~/.cups/client.conf

from a shell, then log off and on again should make the EECIS print server your server. You’ll need to be using the same username on your machine as on the EECIS hosts. You can then check the status of the printer queue with the lpq command.

Printing from Unix with CUPS

We use a print system called CUPS.

The simplest way to print is to use the command line programm lpr.

It takes the name of the file to be printed and a -P printername option will cause it to go to printername instead of the default printer for that host. lpr will print text or PostScript files.

For example,

lpr -P cis filename

The CUPS system is also able to handle other file types such as PDF, and JPEG.

The default printer

When print programs are not given a -P printername they use the default printer. The default printer can be configured by each user by using lpoptions. For example, lpoptions -d cis2 will cause your default printer to be cis2. If the option is not set, then the programs will use default configured for the host the program is run on. Hosts are configured to go to a printer close to them, by default, or at least in the same building. To find the default printer just type lpq. This will show the status for default printer including the location.

If you want to change you default printer run lpoptions -d printername where printername is the name of the printer you want Asto make the default.

Default paper size

The default paper size can also be set using lpoptions. Many times this is useful when printing to printers with both A4 and Letter support (ex: cis) since otherwise when printing a PDF for example, it will take the default paper size from what is encoded in the PDF. To see the paper size of a PDF you can run pdfinfo filename.pdf | grep Paper\ size or simply pdfinfo filename.pdf for the standard output. You can set a default paper size using lpoptions that will take precedence over the encoded paper size like so:

lpoptions -p printername -o PageSize=papersize

ex:

lpoptions -p cis -o PageSize=Letter

Its recommended to set your default page size to letter on the print queues you use frequently to avoid stuck jobs where the printer is waiting for A4 paper, and only set it to A4 when you need it.

One exception is that lprclear does not use the CUPS printer options. A -P printername must be given to not use the default printer configured for the host.

Duplexed (double-sided) printing

Duplexed printing should be enabled by default, but if it is not, run one of the following:

• For portrait mode: lpoptions -o sides=two-sided-long-edge
• For landscape mode: lpoptions -o sides=two-sided-short-edge

To disable duplexed printing, run lpoptions -o sides=one-sided

Printr tools

Printer status with lpq

To get the print queue of the printers use lpq. It also takes a -P printername option to show the status of a printer other than the default one for that host. For example, lpq -P cis.

Finding list of printers with lpstat

The list of printers and their current queues can be found with lpstat -a.

Removing jobs with lprm

Print jobs on the queue can be removed with lprm. It takes the job number, displayed by lpq, and removes the job. It also takes the -P printername option. Also you must run lprm on the same host the job was submitted from. For example, lprm -Pcis 111. If you run lprm -P printername without specifying a job number, it will delete your current print request.

Note: lprm is silent if there are no applicable print requests to be removed.

lprclear can be used to remove the top job on the printer when given the -r option. This should only be used when it appears that the print job at the top of the queue is causing the printer to hang. For example, lprclear -r -Pcis
Please use this command only when completely necessary.

Restarting the print server with lprclear

When lpq shows «no server present» or the printer appears to be hung or in an error state, the server can be restarted with lprclear. For example:

lprclear -Pcis

Restricted printer, permissions

The following is a typical error when trying to print to a restricted printer.

/usr/local/cups/bin/lpr: Not allowed to print.

Some printers are restricted to certain groups. For example, ee2, is restricted to the image group. If you need to print to a restricted printer one of the faculty members please contact us, stating that you should be added to the group for that printer.