lpstat displays status information about the current classes, jobs, and printers. When run with no arguments, lpstat will list jobs queued by the current user.

lpstat is now part of the CUPS (Common Unix Printing System). You may need to install CUPS before using lpstat, and related tools such as lpr.

Installing CUPS

If you're operating Debian, or a Debian-derived Linux system like Ubuntu that uses the APT package managements system, you can install them by running the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install cups cups-client lpr

This command will install the Common Unix Printing System on your system. You should now be able to set up CUPS by directing any web browser to the address: http://localhost:631

Doing so will open a web-based CUPS configuration screen, which should look something like this:

Then, from the command line, add your user to the group lpadmin with the command:

sudo adduserlpadmin

This command will add you to the group of users allowed to administer printers on your system.

You should now be able to check the status of your printers and your print jobs by using lpstat.

lpstat [ -E ] [ -H ] [ -U username< ] [ -h hostname<[:port<] ] [ -l ] 
       [ -W which-jobs< ] [ -a [ destination<(s) ] ] [ -c [ class<(es) ] ] 
       [ -d ] [ -o [ destination<(s) ] ] [ -p [ printer<(s) ] ] [ -r ] [ -R ] 
       [ -s ] [ -t ] [ -u [ user<(s) ] ] [ -v [ printer<(s) ] ]

Options

lpstat -t

Display all printer information. Output will resemble the following:

scheduler is running
system default destination: PDF
device for Lexmark_Pro700_Series: 
usb://Lexmark/Pro700%20Series?serial=90T7099T1914144&interface=1
device for PDF: cups-pdf:/
Lexmark_Pro700_Series accepting requests since Mon 18 Aug 2014 03:46:06 PM EDT
PDF accepting requests since Sun 17 Aug 2014 09:51:41 PM EDT
printer Lexmark_Pro700_Series disabled since Mon 18 Aug 2014 03:46:06 PM EDT -
        Unplugged or turned off
printer PDF is idle.  enabled since Sun 17 Aug 2014 09:51:41 PM EDT

lpstat -p

Display all installed printers. Output will resemble the following:

printer Lexmark_Pro700_Series disabled since Mon 18 Aug 2014 03:46:06 PM EDT -
        Unplugged or turned off
printer PDF is idle.  enabled since Sun 17 Aug 2014 09:51:41 PM EDT

lpstat -a

Display only those printers that are currently accepting print requests. Output will resemble the following:

Lexmark_Pro700_Series accepting requests since Mon 18 Aug 2014 03:46:06 PM EDT
PDF accepting requests since Sun 17 Aug 2014 09:51:41 PM EDT

Note that printers that are currently powered off will still accept requests; these requests will remain in the queue until the device is powered on, or the request is removed with lprm.

lpstat -d

Displays which printer is currently the default. Output will resemble the following:

system default destination: Lexmark_Pro700_Series

lpstat -o

Display all active print jobs. Output will resemble the following:

Rank   Owner    Job  Files                                       Total Size
1st    hope     1    budget.txt                                  2315 bytes
2nd    hope     2    /home/hope/docs/userlist.txt                5452 bytes
3rd    hope     4    (standard input)                            52954 bytes
4th    hope     5    /tmp/vroAdm2/1                              5827 bytes