pdfetex,
PDFTEX(X)                                               PDFTEX(X)



NAME
       pdfetex, pdfeinitex, pdfevirtex - PDF output from e-TeX

SYNOPSIS
       pdfetex [options] [commands]

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual page is not meant to be exhaustive.  The com-
       plete documentation for this version of TeX can  be  found
       in the info file or manual Web2C: A TeX implementation.

       pdfeTeX is a version of e-TeX that can create PDF files as
       well as DVI files.

       The typical use of pdfeTeX is with a pregenerated  formats
       for  which  PDF output has been enabled.  The pdfetex com-
       mand uses the equivalent of the plain  e-TeX  format,  and
       the  pdfelatex  command uses the equivalent of the e-LaTeX
       format.

       The pdfeinitex and pdfevirtex commands are pdfeTeX's  ana-
       logues  to  the  einitex  and  evirtex  commands.  In this
       installation, they are symlinks to the pdfetex executable.

       pdfeTeX's  handling of its command-line arguments is simi-
       lar to that of e-TeX.

       pdfeTeX is beta software.

OPTIONS
       This version of pdfeTeX understands the following  command
       line options.

       --efmt format
              Use  format  as  the name of the format to be used,
              instead of the name by which pdfeTeX was called  or
              a %& line.

       --file-line-error-style
              Print  error  messages  in the form file:line:error
              which is similar to the way many  compilers  format
              them.

       --help Print help message and exit.

       --ini  Be pdfeinitex, for dumping formats; this is implic-
              itly true if the program is called as pdfeinitex.

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

       --ipc  Send  DVI  or PDF output to a socket as well as the
              usual output file.  Whether this option  is  avail-
              able 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  mktexfmt,  where  fmt must be one of tex or
              tfm.

       --no-maketex fmt
              Disable mktexfmt, 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.

       --shell-escape
              Enable  the  \write18{command} construct.  The com-
              mand can be any Bourne shell  command.   This  con-
              struct 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 spec-
       ifications'  node) for precise details of how the environ-
       ment variables are used.  The  kpsewhich  utility  can  be
       used to query the values of the variables.

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


       TEXMFOUTPUT
              Normally, pdfeTeX puts its output files in the cur-
              rent 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 pdfetex paper and  the  current
              directory  is  not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT has the
              value   /tmp,   pdfeTeX    attempts    to    create
              /tmp/paper.log  (and  /tmp/paper.pdf, 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   ".:/home/usr/tex:"   to  prepend  the  current
              direcory and  ``/home/user/tex''  to  the  standard
              search path.

       TEXFONTS
              Search path for font metric (.tfm) files.

       TEXFORMATS
              Search path for format files.

       TEXPOOL
              search path for pdfeinitex internal strings.

       TEXEDIT
              Command  template  for  switching  to  editor.  The
              default, usually vi, is set when  pdfeTeX  is  com-
              piled.

FILES
       The location of the files mentioned below varies from sys-
       tem to system.  Use the kpsewhich utility  to  find  their
       locations.

       pdfetex.pool
              Encoded text of pdfeTeX's messages.

       texfonts.map
              Filename mapping definitions.

       *.tfm  Metric files for pdfeTeX's fonts.

       *.fmt  Predigested pdfeTeX format (.efmt) files.

BUGS
       This  version of pdfeTeX 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.  Whether a generated PDF  file  would  be
       usable is unknown.

       pdfeTeX is beta software.  Subscribe to the pdftex mailing
       list pdftex@tug.org if you intend to use it.   This  is  a
       majordomo  list,  to  subscribe  send a message containing
       subscribe pdftex to majordomo@tug.org.

SEE ALSO
       tex(x), mf(f), etex(x).

AUTHORS
       The primary authors of pdfTeX  are  Han  The  Thanh,  Petr
       Sojka, and Jiri Zlatuska.



Web2C 7.3.7              10 November 2001               PDFTEX(X)