Printing on Linux

by Hanz Makmur – modified Jan 16, 2026

NOTE: Jan 16, 2026. This is a new printing system. The older method still works, and we are in a transition. As of the Spring semester of 2026, the CS department has joined the University PaperCut printing system. This system is centralized and run by OIT.

These instructions will show you how to print to the Computer Science public printers. See the list of available CS printers for more detailed info.

1. Setting Up Printing from CUPS on Linux

We are still trying to determine how to do this for Linux. In the meantime, please use the older steps below.

Older steps.

This is an old setup. It is left here for reference only.

By default, all print jobs will have a header/banner page. If you have a private printer or plan to print to any color or poster printer, you should turn off the banner page printed before each job.

Other Linux/Unix machines not maintained by LCSR staff may have their own printing engine. These machines are normally administered by the user and are beyond the control of LCSR staff. For these machines, the simplest way to print to Computer Science printers is as follows:

1. Install the CUPS software for your Linux OS.
2. Edit or add if one does not exist a file named /etc/cups/client.conf enter this line, and save it.
  ServerName printserver.cs.rutgers.edu
  
  After you restart your CUPSD, you can print to all printers available on printserver.cs.rutgers.edu.
3. Verifying your setup:
  To see a list of available printer queues, type lpstat -p
  To check the specific printer queue type, use the lpq -P printername.
4. To set your default printer to printer named cbim_printer_1 in Linux bash shell, type:
  export PRINTER=cbim_printer_1, or add this line to your .bashrc file so that you don’t have to do it again after you log in.

2. Printing from Linux/Unix.

Once you have set up your Linux printer queue to print, you must issue a standard print command from your application.

To print from a Unix shell, normally, you would enter the following:

lpr -P printername filename

To print without a banner page, enter the following command.

lpr -h -P printeraname filename

To print in double sided on printers defaulting in duplex, you would enter:

lpr -P printername -o sides=two-sided-long-edge filename

There are a lot of options you can set with a CUPS driver. See CUPS printing options for further details. CUPS options do not work with SunOS machines.

Limitation: All laser printers have a maximum of 50 pages/job.

Here are a few Linux printer commands and purpose.

`lpr -P printername filename`	To print a filename from a Unix shell
`lpr -P printername -o sides=two-sided-long-edge filename`	To print a filename with double side print.
`lpstat -s`	see the default printer, all printer queues, and whether the CUPS server is actually running
`lpstat -p`	Checking if your printer is online and ready.
`lpstat -d`	Finding out which printer is currently the default.
`lpstat -a`	See which printers are accepting print jobs.
`lpc status`	A legacy-style view of all printer queues.
`lpinfo -m`	Listing all drivers (PPDs) available on your system.

For more info, see the list of Computer Science Public Printers page.

For help with our systems or immediate assistance, visit LCSR Operator at CoRE 235 or call 848-445-2443. Otherwise, see CS HelpDesk. Don’t forget to include your NetID along with descriptions of your problem.

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