In computing, print is a command in the command line interpreters (shells) of DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. It is used to add a file to the print queue. It is equivalent to the Unix command lpr. The command was introduced in MS-DOS version 2. Before that there was no built-in support for background printing files. The user would usually use the copy command to copy files to LPT1.

Syntax

Microsoft Windows

Syntax to print a file: print [/D:device] [[drive:][path]filename[...]]

Arguments:

• /D:Device This command-line argument specifies the print device.
• drive:pathfilename Specifies the location of the file to be printed.

OS/2

Syntax to print a file:

print [/D:device][/B] [drive:][path] filename[...]

Syntax to cancel a file that is printing or queued:

print [/D:device][/C or /T]

Arguments:

• /D:device This argument specifies the print device, for example: /D:LPT1.
• drive:pathfilename Specifies the location of the file to be printed.

Flags:

• /B Specifies the file is a binary file.
• /C Cancels the file that is currently printing.
• /T Cancels all files from the print queue, including the file that is currently printing.

DOS

Arguments:

• /D device Specifies the name of the print devices. Default value is LPT1.
• /P filename Add files in the print queue.
• /C filename Removes a file from the print queue.

Flags:

• /T Removes all files from the print queue.

Example

print C:documentsletter.txt

See also

• List of DOS commands

References

• Microsoft TechNet Print article