Using the lpq Command to Check the Status of Print Jobs

The lpq command can be used to check the status of jobs that are waiting in the print queue. If it is called without any arguments, lpq will report the status of all jobs currently in the queue for the default printer. If the PRINTER environment variable is set, that printer is considered to be the default printer. If the PRINTER environment variable is not set, the printer that is aliased to lp in /etc/printcap will be used as the default.

lpq can also be called with a job number to show only the status of a particular job or with a username to show only the status of jobs owned by a particular user. The output of lpq will look something like this:

# lpq -P samsunginkjet samsunginkjet is ...

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