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TEX !!!TEX NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION OPTIONS ENVIRONMENT FILES BUGS SEE ALSO TRIVIA AUTHORS ---- !!NAME tex, virtex, initex - text formatting and typesetting !!SYNOPSIS __tex__ [[''options''] [[''commands''] !!DESCRIPTION This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documentation for this version of TEX can be found in the info file or manual ''Web2C: A TeX implementation''. TEX 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''). TEX's capabilities and language are described in ''The TEXbook''. TEX is normally used with a large body of precompiled macros, and there are several specific formatting systems, such as L A TEX, which require the support of several macro files. This version of TEX looks at its command line to see what name it was called under. Both __initex__ and __virtex__ are symlinks to the __tex__ executable. When called as __initex__ (or when the __--ini__ option is given) it can be used to precompile macros into a ''.fmt'' file. When called as __virtex__ it will use the ''plain'' format. When called under any other name, TEX will use that name as the name of the format to use. For example, when called as __tex__ the ''tex'' format is used, which is identical to the ''plain'' format. The commands defined by the ''plain'' format are documented in ''The TEXbook''. Other formats that are often available include ''latex'' and ''amstex''. The ''commands'' given on the command line to the TEX 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 TEX's favorite symbols, like backslashes, unless you quote them.) As described in ''The TEXbook'', that first line should begin with a filename, a ''controlsequence'', or a ''''. The normal usage is to say ''tex paper'' to start processing ''paper.tex''. The name ''paper'' will be the ``jobname'', and is used in forming output filenames. If TEX doesn't get a filename in the first line, the jobname is ''texput''. When looking for a file, TEX looks for the name with and without the default extension (''.tex'') appended, unless the name already contains that extension. If ''paper'' is 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 TEX will look in the first line of the file ''paper.tex'' to see if it begins with the magic sequence ''%''. If the first line begins with __%__''format'' __--translate-file__ ''tcxname'' then TEX will use the named format and transation table ''tcxname'' to 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 ''e'' response to TEX'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 ''emacs__ can be set with the __sh__ command ''TEXEDIT= '' A convenient file in the library is ''null.tex'', containing nothing. When TEX 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). !!OPTIONS This version of TEX understands the following command line options. __--file-line-error-style__ Print error messages in the form ''file:line:error'' which is similar to the way many compilers format them. __--fmt__ ''format'' Use ''format'' as the name of the format to be used, instead of the name by which TEX was called or a ''%'' line. __--help__ Print help message and exit. __--ini__ Be __initex__, for dumping formats; this is implicitly true if the program is called as __initex__. __--interaction__ ''mode'' Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be one of ''batchmode'', ''nonstopmode'', ''scrollmode'', and ''errorstopmode''. The meaning of these modes is the same as that of the corresponding commands. __--ipc__ 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__ As __--ipc__, and starts the server at the other end as well. Whether this option is available is the choice of the installer. __--kpathsea-debug__ ''bitmask'' Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask. See the ''Kpathsea'' manual for details. __--maketex__ ''fmt'' Enable mktex''fmt'', where ''fmt'' must be one of ''tex'' or ''tfm''. __--mltex__ Enable MLTEX extensions. __--no-maketex__ ''fmt'' Disable mktex''fmt'', where ''fmt'' must be one of ''tex'' or ''tfm''. __--output-comment__ ''string'' Use ''string'' for the DVI file comment instead of the date. __--progname__ ''name'' Pretend to be program ''name''. This affects both the format used and the search paths. __--recorder__ Enable the filename recorder. This leaves a trace of the files opened for input and output in a file with extension ''.fls''. __--shell-escape__ Enable the __write18{__''command''__}__ construct. The ''command'' can be any Bourne shell command. This construct is normally disallowed for security reasons. __--translate-file__ ''tcxname'' Use the ''tcxname'' translation table. __--version__ Print version information and exit. !!ENVIRONMENT 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 TEX formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you give directly to TEX, because ~ is an active character, and hence is expanded, not taken as part of the filename. Other programs, such as M ETAFONT , do not have this problem. TEXMFOUTPUT Normally, TEX 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 paper'' and the current directory is not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT has the value ''/tmp'', TEX attempts to create ''/tmp/paper.log'' (and ''/tmp/paper.dvi'', if any output is produced.) TEXINPUTS Search path for ''input'' and ''openin'' files. 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.cnf'' file. For example, set TEXINPUTS to '' TEXEDIT Command template for switching to editor. The default, usually __vi__, is set when TEX is compiled. !!FILES The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to system. Use the __kpsewhich__ utility to find their locations. ''tex.pool'' Encoded text of TEX's messages. ''texfonts.map'' Filename mapping definitions. ''*.tfm'' Metric files for TEX's fonts. ''*.fmt'' Predigested TEX format (.fmt) files. ''$TEXMFMAIN/tex/plain/base/plain.tex'' The basic macro package described in the ''TEX''book. !!BUGS This version of TEX fails to trap arithmetic overflow when dimensions are added or subtracted. Cases where this occurs are rare, but when it does the generated ''DVI'' file will be invalid. !!SEE ALSO mf(1), Donald E. Knuth, ''The TEXbook'', Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13447-0. Leslie Lamport, L A TEX ''- A Document Preparation System'', Addison-Wesley, 1985, ISBN 0-201-15790-X. K. Berry, ''Eplain: Expanded plain'' TEX, ftp://ftp.cs.umb.edu/pub/tex/eplain/doc. Michael Spivak, ''The Joy of TEX'', 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley, 1990, ISBN 0-8218-2997-1.'' TUGboat'' (the journal of the TEX Users Group). !!TRIVIA TEX, pronounced properly, rhymes with ``blecchhh.'' The proper spelling in typewriter-like fonts is ``TeX'' and not ``TEX'' or ``tex.'' !!AUTHORS TEX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his W EB 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 TEX distribution is that generated by the W EB to C system (__web2c__), originally written by Tomas Rokicki and Tim Morgan. ----
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