CUPS printing of PDF files

Question

How can I tell the lpr command (CUPS) that my file is actually a PDF?

lpr file.pdf

won't print anything.

Solution

Is this really the CUPS-based lpr, or is it a remnant of another spooling system which was not removed before installing CUPS?

Check it by running ldd $(which lpr) and see if there is any reference to libcups.

Also, the complete command should be:

lpr -P printername file.pdf

For a correctly and completely installed CUPS you'd not need to tell it the file type you send to print. It will "auto-type" the input, and apply the right conversion filters to make it digestable by the target printer.

Comments

[Cody Gray]

What programming language are you using? As per the faq, Stack Overflow is intended for programming-related questions. If you have a question about general computer use, you should ask it on Super User, or if it's about Unix/Linux, on Unix/Linux.

[vonPetrushev]

You are correct, I apologize. This should be moved to Unix/Linux - can anyone with proper privileges to this please? Thanks. [I'm working with python-cups, but I fail to print on the command line as well]