Unfortunately, the CUPS developers - if there indeed are any - do not give a shit. The command line tools are brain dead by design, the documentation is inaccurate, there are essentially no error checking or reporting, and it has been this way since the inception.
Here's a bug from 2006 - guess what, this is still the status quo in Ubuntu 12.10, over six years later: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=381252 Command line printing isn't a priority in Ubuntu, nor is difficult corner cases, like specifying a username. ** Bug watch added: Debian Bug tracker #381252 http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=381252 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to cups in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/728350 Title: man lpstat: wrong information about running without arguments Status in “cups” package in Ubuntu: Triaged Bug description: Binary package hint: cups man lpstat says: DESCRIPTION ..."When run with no arguments, lpstat will list jobs queued by the current user." Yet, when run without arguments lpstat will show jobs queued by all users. Either lpstat doesn't do what it's supposed to do or the manual is wrong. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04 Package: cups-client 1.4.3-1ubuntu1.3 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-28.55-generic-pae 2.6.32.27+drm33.12 Uname: Linux 2.6.32-28-generic-pae i686 Architecture: i386 CupsErrorLog: Date: Thu Mar 3 11:37:08 2011 Lpstat: device for iR5000i-Z: lpd://zfs-front/iR5000i-Z device for pdf-wkb: lpd://zfs-front/pdf-wkb device for Q2-Z: lpd://zfs-front/Q2-Z Lsusb: Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub MachineType: Bochs Bochs Papersize: a4 PpdFiles: iR5000i-Z: Canon iPR Server Q2 V2.0 (US) Q2-Z: Canon iPR Server Q2 V2.0 (US) pdf-wkb: Acrobat Distiller 3011.104 ProcCmdLine: root=/dev/mapper/vg0-root ro quiet splash ProcEnviron: PATH=(custom, no user) LANG=C SHELL=/bin/tcsh SourcePackage: cups dmi.bios.date: 01/01/2007 dmi.bios.vendor: Bochs dmi.bios.version: Bochs dmi.chassis.type: 1 dmi.chassis.vendor: Bochs dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnBochs:bvrBochs:bd01/01/2007:svnBochs:pnBochs:pvr:cvnBochs:ct1:cvr: dmi.product.name: Bochs dmi.sys.vendor: Bochs To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cups/+bug/728350/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
