This article was updated and rechecked on 29th of November 2021

Category: Cups (Common UNIX Printing System)

Added: 30th of October 2021

Updated On: 29th of November 2021

Viewed: 1,636 times

Show status of printers and other printer information using the terminal in Linux

There are a few options you can use to check the status of your printers in Linux.

You can use the printers option in your desktop environment or by accessing CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System) through your webbrowser at the following URL http://127.0.0.1:631,

Another way is to use the lpstat and lpr commands in the terminal. The longer you use Linux, the more you will turn to using the terminal for probing of hardware and other basic operations.

To check what printers are in your network enter the following command

lpstat -e


Output
Deskjet-D1500-series
HP_ENVY_6000_series_C65AC5_


To check the current status of all printers in your network
lpstat -p


Output
printer Deskjet-D1500-series disabled since Mon 26 Jul 2021 15:30:16 BST - Unplugged or turned off
printer HP_ENVY_6000_series_C65AC5_ is idle. enabled since Sat 30 Oct 2021 03:08:08 BST


To display your default printer
lpstat -d


Output
system default destination: HP_ENVY_6000_series_C65AC5_


To print a file from the default printer, enter the following command.
lp filename.ext