Man page 1 : tex

tex, virtex, initex - text formatting and typesetting

tex [ options ] [& format ] [ file | \ commands ]

Run the \*(TX typesetter on file , usually creating file.dvi . If the file argument has no extension, ".tex" will be appended to it. Instead of a filename, a set of \*(TX commands can be given, the first of which must start with a backslash. With a & format argument \*(TX uses a different set of precompiled commands, contained in format.fmt ; it is usually better to use the

-fmt formatoption instead.

\*(TX formats the interspersed text and commands contained in the named files and outputs a typesetter independent file (called DVI , which is short for "DeVice Independent" ). \*(TX's capabilities and language are described in "The \*(OXbook" . \*(TX is normally used with a large body of precompiled macros, and there are several specific formatting systems, such as \*(LX, which require the support of several macro files.

This version of \*(TX looks at its command line to see what name it was called under. If they exist, then both

initex and

virtex are symbolic links to the

tex executable. When called as

R initex (or when the

-ini option is given) it can be used to precompile macros into a .fmtfile. When called as

virtex it will use the plainformat. When called under any other name, \*(TX will use that name as the name of the format to use. For example, when called as

tex the texformat is used, which is identical to the plainformat. The commands defined by the plainformat are documented in "The \*(OXbook" . Other formats that are often available include latexand amstex .

The non-option command line arguments to the \*(TX program are passed to it as the first input line. (But it is often easier to type extended arguments as the first input line, since UNIX shells tend to gobble up or misinterpret \*(TX's favorite symbols, like backslashes, unless you quote them.) As described in "The \*(OXbook" , that first line should begin with a filename, a \controlsequence , or a &formatname .

The normal usage is to say

tex paper

to start processing paper.tex . The name paperwill be the ``jobname'', and is used in forming output filenames. If \*(TX doesn't get a filename in the first line, the jobname is texput . When looking for a file, \*(TX looks for the name with and without the default extension ( .tex ) appended, unless the name already contains that extension. If paperis the ``jobname'', a log of error messages, with rather more detail than normally appears on the screen, will appear in paper.log , and the output file will be in paper.dvi .

This version of \*(TX can look in the first line of the file paper.texto see if it begins with the magic sequence %& . If the first line begins with %& format -translate-file  tcxname then \*(TX will use the named format and translation table tcxnameto process the source file. Either the format name or the

-translate-file specification may be omitted, but not both. This overrides the format selection based on the name by which the program is invoked. The

-parse-first-line option or the

parse_first_line configuration variable controls whether this behaviour is enabled.

The eresponse to \*(TX's error prompt causes the system default editor to start up at the current line of the current file. The environment variable TEXEDIT can be used to change the editor used. It may contain a string with "%s" indicating where the filename goes and "%d" indicating where the decimal line number (if any) goes. For example, a TEXEDIT string for

emacs can be set with the

sh command

TEXEDIT="emacs +%d %s"; export TEXEDIT

A convenient file in the library is null.tex , containing nothing. When \*(TX can't find a file it thinks you want to input, it keeps asking you for another filename; responding `null' gets you out of the loop if you don't want to input anything. You can also type your EOF character (usually control-D).

This version of \*(TX understands the following command line options.

-enc

    .rb Enable the enc\*(TX extensions. This option is only effective in combination with

R -ini . For documentation of the enc\*(TX extensions see

R http://www.olsak.net/enctex.html .

-file-line-error

    .rb Print error messages in the form file:line:errorwhich is similar to the way many compilers format them.

-no-file-line-error

    .rb Disable printing error messages in the file:line:errorstyle.

-file-line-error-style

    .rb This is the old name of the

-file-line-error option.

• -fmt  format
      .rb Use formatas the name of the format to be used, instead of the name by which \*(TX was called or a %&line.

-halt-on-error

    .rb Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during processing.

-help

    .rb Print help message and exit.

-ini

    .rb Start in INImode, which is used to dump formats. The INImode can be used for typesetting, but no format is preloaded, and basic initializations like setting catcodes may be required.

• -interaction  mode
      .rb Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be either batchmode , nonstopmode , scrollmode , and errorstopmode . The meaning of these modes is the same as that of the corresponding \commands.

-ipc

    .rb Send DVI output to a socket as well as the usual output file. Whether this option is available is the choice of the installer.

-ipc-start

    .rb As

R -ipc , and starts the server at the other end as well. Whether this option is available is the choice of the installer.

• -jobname  name
      .rb Use namefor the job name, instead of deriving it from the name of the input file.
• -kpathsea-debug  bitmask
      .rb Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask. See the Kpathseamanual for details.
• -mktex  fmt
      .rb Enable mktex fmt , where fmtmust be either texor tfm .

-mltex

    .rb Enable ML\*(TX extensions. Only effective in combination with

R -ini .

• -no-mktex  fmt
      .rb Disable mktex fmt , where fmtmust be either texor tfm .
• -output-comment  string
      .rb Use stringfor the DVIfile comment instead of the date.
• -output-directory  directory
      .rb Write output files in directoryinstead of the current directory. Look up input files in directoryfirst, then along the normal search path. See also description of the TEXMFOUTPUT environment variable.

-parse-first-line

    .rb If the first line of the main input file begins with %&parse it to look for a dump name or a

-translate-file option.

-no-parse-first-line

    .rb Disable parsing of the first line of the main input file.

• -progname  name
      .rb Pretend to be program name . This affects both the format used and the search paths.

-recorder

    .rb Enable the filename recorder. This leaves a trace of the files opened for input and output in a file with extension .fls .

-shell-escape

    .rb Enable the \write18{ command } construct. The commandcan be any shell command. This construct is normally disallowed for security reasons.

-no-shell-escape

    .rb Disable the \write18{ command } construct, even if it is enabled in the texmf.cnffile.

-src-specials

    .rb Insert source specials into the DVIfile.

• -src-specials  where
      .rb Insert source specials in certain places of the DVIfile. whereis a comma-separated value list: cr , display , hbox , math , par , parent , or vbox .
• -translate-file  tcxname
      .rb Use the tcxnametranslation table to set the mapping of input characters and re-mapping of output characters.
• -default-translate-file  tcxname
      .rb Like

-translate-file except that a %&line can overrule this setting.

-version

    .rb Print version information and exit.

See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications' node) for precise details of how the environment variables are used. The

kpsewhich utility can be used to query the values of the variables.

One caveat: In most \*(TX formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you give directly to \*(TX, because ~ is an active character, and hence is expanded, not taken as part of the filename. Other programs, such as \*(MF, do not have this problem.

• TEXMFOUTPUT
      Normally, \*(TX puts its output files in the current directory. If any output file cannot be opened there, it tries to open it in the directory specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT. There is no default value for that variable. For example, if you say tex paperand the current directory is not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT has the value /tmp , \*(TX attempts to create /tmp/paper.log(and /tmp/paper.dvi , if any output is produced.)
• TEXINPUTS
      Search path for \inputand \openinfiles. This should probably start with ``.'', so that user files are found before system files. An empty path component will be replaced with the paths defined in the texmf.cnffile. For example, set TEXINPUTS to ".:/home/usr/tex:" to prepend the current directory and ``/home/user/tex'' to the standard search path.
• TEXFORMATS
      Search path for format files.
• TEXPOOL
      search path for

tex internal strings.

• TEXEDIT
      Command template for switching to editor. The default, usually

R vi , is set when \*(TX is compiled.

• TFMFONTS
      Search path for font metric ( .tfm ) files.

The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to system. Use the

kpsewhich utility to find their locations.

• texmf.cnf
      Configuration file. This contains definitions of search paths as well as other configuration parameters like

R parse_first_line .

• tex.pool
      Text file containing \*(TX's internal strings.
• texfonts.map
      Filename mapping definitions.
• *.tfm
      Metric files for \*(TX's fonts.
• *.fmt
      Predigested \*(TX format (. fmt) files.
• $TEXMFMAIN/tex/plain/base/plain.tex
      The basic macro package described in the \*(OXbook.
  

This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documentation for this version of \*(TX can be found in the info manual "Web2C: A TeX implementation" .

This version of \*(TX implements a number of optional extensions. In fact, many of these extensions conflict to a greater or lesser extent with the definition of \*(TX. When such extensions are enabled, the banner printed when \*(TX starts is changed to print

TeXk instead of

R TeX .

This version of \*(TX fails to trap arithmetic overflow when dimensions are added or subtracted. Cases where this occurs are rare, but when it does the generated DVIfile will be invalid.

R mf (1),
Donald E. Knuth, "The \*(OXbook" , Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13447-0.
Leslie Lamport, "\*(LX - A Document Preparation System" , Addison-Wesley, 1985, ISBN 0-201-15790-X.
K. Berry, "Eplain: Expanded plain \*(TX" , ftp://ftp.cs.umb.edu/pub/tex/eplain/doc.
Michael Spivak, "The Joy of \*(OX" , 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley, 1990, ISBN 0-8218-2997-1.
TUGboat(the journal of the \*(TX Users Group).

\*(TX, pronounced properly, rhymes with ``blecchhh.'' The proper spelling in typewriter-like fonts is ``TeX'' and not ``TEX'' or ``tex.''

\*(TX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his \*(WB system for Pascal programs. It was ported to Unix at Stanford by Howard Trickey, and at Cornell by Pavel Curtis. The version now offered with the Unix \*(TX distribution is that generated by the \*(WB to C system ( web2c ), originally written by Tomas Rokicki and Tim Morgan.

The enc\*(TX extensions were written by Petr Olsak.