Specify a particular printer, otherwise the default line printer is used (or the value of the PRINTER variable in the environment). All other arguments supplied are interpreted as user names or job numbers to filter out only those jobs of interest.
-l
Information about each of the files comprising the job entry is printed. Normally, only as much information as will fit on one line is displayed.
-a
Report on the local queues for all printers, rather than just the specified printer.
For each job submitted (i.e., invocation of lpr(1)) lpq reports the user’s name, current rank in the queue, the names of files comprising the job, the job identifier (a number which may be supplied to lprm(1) for removing a specific job), and the total size in bytes. Job ordering is dependent on the algorithm used to scan the spooling directory and is supposed to be FIFO (First in First Out). File names comprising a job may be unavailable (when lpr(1) is used as a sink in a pipeline) in which case the file is indicated as ‘‘(standard input)’’.
If lpq warns that there is no daemon present (i.e., due to some malfunction), the lpc(8) command can be used to restart the printer daemon.
