19.6. lpq Requests

The RFC1179 protocol specifies that lpq print status requests can be sent to the lpd server. The lpq requests have the format:

    \003printer [id]* \n    short
    \004printer [id]* \n    long
    \011printer [id]* \n    LPRng extension- verbose

The lpd print server will then return queue status and close the data connection.

RFC1179 does not state in any manner what the format of the queue status should be. Thus, implementors have been free to augment or change the status as they like. Even the BSD lpq status format has been changed from different versions.

See lpq - Status Monitoring Program for information on the formats returned.

The id values are used to select the jobs to be displayed. LPRng displays any job whose ID, hostname, or user name information from the control file A, H, or P fields match any of the id values.

Note that since there is no identification of the information requestor, then restriction of information is almost impossible.