Remove jobs from a line printer's spooling queue


lprrm [-Pprinter] [-] [jobnum ...] [user ...]

Runs on:



Specify the queue associated with a specific printer; otherwise, the default printer is used.
Remove all of the jobs that you own. If the superuser (root) uses this flag, lprrm empties the entire spool queue.
Remove the individual job specified by the given job number. You can get this number from the lprq utility.
Attempt to remove any jobs queued belonging to that user (or users). This form of invoking lprrm is useful only to the superuser.


The lprrm utility removes one or more jobs from a printer's spool queue. Since the spooling directory itself is protected from users, lprrm is normally the only way that you can remove a job. The job's owner is determined by the user's login name and hostname on the machine where the lpr command was invoked.


Note that if you don't specify any arguments or options, lprrm deletes the currently active job if you own it.

The lprrm utility announces the names of any files it removes and is silent if the queue contains no jobs that match the request list.

The utility kills off an active daemon, if necessary, before removing any spooling files. If a daemon is killed, a new one is automatically restarted upon completion of file removals.


Printer description file.

Environment variables:

An alternate default printer.


Permission denied
Displayed when you try to remove print jobs that aren't yours.


Since there are race conditions possible in the update of the lock file, the currently active job may be incorrectly identified.

See also:

lpd, lpr, lprc, lprq, /etc/printcap

Printing chapter of the Neutrino User's Guide