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1 perry 1 TEX
2 !!!TEX
3 NAME
4 SYNOPSIS
5 DESCRIPTION
6 OPTIONS
7 ENVIRONMENT
8 FILES
9 BUGS
10 SEE ALSO
11 TRIVIA
12 AUTHORS
13 ----
14 !!NAME
15
16
17 tex, virtex, initex - text formatting and typesetting
18 !!SYNOPSIS
19
20
21 __tex__ [[''options''] [[''commands'']
22 !!DESCRIPTION
23
24
25 This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete
26 documentation for this version of TEX can be found in the
27 info file or manual ''Web2C: A TeX
28 implementation''.
29
30
31 TEX formats the interspersed text and commands contained in
32 the named files and outputs a typesetter independent file
2 perry 33 (called ''DVI'', which is short for ''!DeVice
1 perry 34 Independent''). TEX's capabilities and language are
35 described in ''The TEXbook''. TEX is normally used with a
36 large body of precompiled macros, and there are several
37 specific formatting systems, such as L A TEX,
38 which require the support of several macro
39 files.
40
41
42 This version of TEX looks at its command line to see what
43 name it was called under. Both __initex__ and
44 __virtex__ are symlinks to the __tex__ executable.
45 When called as __initex__ (or when the __--ini__
46 option is given) it can be used to precompile macros into a
47 ''.fmt'' file. When called as __virtex__ it will use
48 the ''plain'' format. When called under any other name,
49 TEX will use that name as the name of the format to use. For
50 example, when called as __tex__ the ''tex'' format is
51 used, which is identical to the ''plain'' format. The
52 commands defined by the ''plain'' format are documented
53 in ''The TEXbook''. Other formats that are often
54 available include ''latex'' and
55 ''amstex''.
56
57
58 The ''commands'' given on the command line to the TEX
59 program are passed to it as the first input line. (But it is
60 often easier to type extended arguments as the first input
61 line, since UNIX shells tend to gobble up or misinterpret
62 TEX's favorite symbols, like backslashes, unless you quote
63 them.) As described in ''The TEXbook'', that first line
64 should begin with a filename, a ''controlsequence'', or a
65 ''''.
66
67
68 The normal usage is to say
69
70
71 ''tex paper''
72
73
74 to start processing ''paper.tex''. The name ''paper''
75 will be the ``jobname'', and is used in forming output
76 filenames. If TEX doesn't get a filename in the first line,
77 the jobname is ''texput''. When looking for a file, TEX
78 looks for the name with and without the default extension
79 (''.tex'') appended, unless the name already contains
80 that extension. If ''paper'' is the ``jobname'', a log of
81 error messages, with rather more detail than normally
82 appears on the screen, will appear in ''paper.log'', and
83 the output file will be in ''paper.dvi''.
84
85
86 This version of TEX will look in the first line of the file
87 ''paper.tex'' to see if it begins with the magic sequence
88 ''%''. If the first line begins with
89 __%__''format'' __--translate-file__
90 ''tcxname'' then TEX will use the named format and
91 transation table ''tcxname'' to process the source file.
92 Either the format name or the __--translate-file__
93 specification may be omitted, but not both. This overrides
94 the format selection based on the name by which the program
95 is invoked.
96
97
98 The ''e'' response to TEX's error prompt causes the
99 system default editor to start up at the current line of the
100 current file. The environment variable TEXEDIT can be used
101 to change the editor used. It may contain a string with
102 ''emacs__
103 can be set with the __sh__ command
104
105
106 ''TEXEDIT=
107 ''
108
109
110 A convenient file in the library is ''null.tex'',
111 containing nothing. When TEX can't find a file it thinks you
112 want to input, it keeps asking you for another filename;
113 responding `null' gets you out of the loop if you don't want
114 to input anything. You can also type your EOF character
115 (usually control-D).
116 !!OPTIONS
117
118
119 This version of TEX understands the following command line
120 options.
121
122
123 __--file-line-error-style__
124
125
126 Print error messages in the form ''file:line:error''
127 which is similar to the way many compilers format
128 them.
129
130
131 __--fmt__ ''format''
132
133
134 Use ''format'' as the name of the format to be used,
135 instead of the name by which TEX was called or a
136 ''%'' line.
137
138
139 __--help__
140
141
142 Print help message and exit.
143
144
145 __--ini__
146
147
148 Be __initex__, for dumping formats; this is implicitly
149 true if the program is called as __initex__.
150
151
152 __--interaction__ ''mode''
153
154
155 Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be one of
156 ''batchmode'', ''nonstopmode'', ''scrollmode'', and
157 ''errorstopmode''. The meaning of these modes is the same
158 as that of the corresponding commands.
159
160
161 __--ipc__
162
163
164 Send DVI output to a socket as well as the usual output
165 file. Whether this option is available is the choice of the
166 installer.
167
168
169 __--ipc-start__
170
171
172 As __--ipc__, and starts the server at the other end as
173 well. Whether this option is available is the choice of the
174 installer.
175
176
177 __--kpathsea-debug__ ''bitmask''
178
179
180 Sets path searching debugging flags according to the
181 bitmask. See the ''Kpathsea'' manual for
182 details.
183
184
185 __--maketex__ ''fmt''
186
187
188 Enable mktex''fmt'', where ''fmt'' must be one of
189 ''tex'' or ''tfm''.
190
191
192 __--mltex__
193
194
195 Enable MLTEX extensions.
196
197
198 __--no-maketex__ ''fmt''
199
200
201 Disable mktex''fmt'', where ''fmt'' must be one of
202 ''tex'' or ''tfm''.
203
204
205 __--output-comment__ ''string''
206
207
208 Use ''string'' for the DVI file comment instead of the
209 date.
210
211
212 __--progname__ ''name''
213
214
215 Pretend to be program ''name''. This affects both the
216 format used and the search paths.
217
218
219 __--recorder__
220
221
222 Enable the filename recorder. This leaves a trace of the
223 files opened for input and output in a file with extension
224 ''.fls''.
225
226
227 __--shell-escape__
228
229
230 Enable the __write18{__''command''__}__ construct.
231 The ''command'' can be any Bourne shell command. This
232 construct is normally disallowed for security
233 reasons.
234
235
236 __--translate-file__ ''tcxname''
237
238
239 Use the ''tcxname'' translation table.
240
241
242 __--version__
243
244
245 Print version information and exit.
246 !!ENVIRONMENT
247
248
249 See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path
250 specifications' node) for precise details of how the
251 environment variables are used. The __kpsewhich__ utility
252 can be used to query the values of the
253 variables.
254
255
256 One caveat: In most TEX formats, you cannot use ~ in a
257 filename you give directly to TEX, because ~ is an active
258 character, and hence is expanded, not taken as part of the
259 filename. Other programs, such as M ETAFONT ,
260 do not have this problem.
261
262
263 TEXMFOUTPUT
264
265
266 Normally, TEX puts its output files in the current
267 directory. If any output file cannot be opened there, it
268 tries to open it in the directory specified in the
269 environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT. There is no default value
270 for that variable. For example, if you say ''tex paper''
271 and the current directory is not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT
272 has the value ''/tmp'', TEX attempts to create
273 ''/tmp/paper.log'' (and ''/tmp/paper.dvi'', if any
274 output is produced.)
275
276
277 TEXINPUTS
278
279
280 Search path for ''input'' and ''openin'' files. This
281 should probably start with ``.'', so that user files are
282 found before system files. An empty path component will be
283 replaced with the paths defined in the ''texmf.cnf''
284 file. For example, set TEXINPUTS to
285 ''
286
287
288 TEXEDIT
289
290
291 Command template for switching to editor. The default,
292 usually __vi__, is set when TEX is compiled.
293 !!FILES
294
295
296 The location of the files mentioned below varies from system
297 to system. Use the __kpsewhich__ utility to find their
298 locations.
299
300
301 ''tex.pool''
302
303
304 Encoded text of TEX's messages.
305
306
307 ''texfonts.map''
308
309
310 Filename mapping definitions.
311
312
313 ''*.tfm''
314
315
316 Metric files for TEX's fonts.
317
318
319 ''*.fmt''
320
321
322 Predigested TEX format (.fmt) files.
323
324
325 ''$TEXMFMAIN/tex/plain/base/plain.tex''
326
327
328 The basic macro package described in the
329 ''TEX''book.
330 !!BUGS
331
332
333 This version of TEX fails to trap arithmetic overflow when
334 dimensions are added or subtracted. Cases where this occurs
335 are rare, but when it does the generated ''DVI'' file
336 will be invalid.
337 !!SEE ALSO
338
339
340 mf(1),
341 Donald E. Knuth, ''The TEXbook'', Addison-Wesley, 1986,
342 ISBN 0-201-13447-0.
343 Leslie Lamport, L A TEX ''- A Document
344 Preparation System'', Addison-Wesley, 1985, ISBN
345 0-201-15790-X.
346 K. Berry, ''Eplain: Expanded plain'' TEX,
347 ftp://ftp.cs.umb.edu/pub/tex/eplain/doc.
348 Michael Spivak, ''The Joy of TEX'', 2nd edition,
349 Addison-Wesley, 1990, ISBN 0-8218-2997-1.''
350 TUGboat'' (the journal of the TEX Users
351 Group).
352 !!TRIVIA
353
354
355 TEX, pronounced properly, rhymes with ``blecchhh.'' The
356 proper spelling in typewriter-like fonts is ``TeX'' and not
357 ``TEX'' or ``tex.''
358 !!AUTHORS
359
360
361 TEX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it
362 using his W EB system for Pascal programs. It
363 was ported to Unix at Stanford by Howard Trickey, and at
364 Cornell by Pavel Curtis. The version now offered with the
365 Unix TEX distribution is that generated by the W
366 EB to C system (__web2c__), originally
367 written by Tomas Rokicki and Tim Morgan.
368 ----
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