1TEX(1) General Commands Manual TEX(1)
2
6 tex, initex - text formatting and typesetting
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9 tex [options] [&format] [file|\commands]
10
12 Run the TeX typesetter on file, usually creating file.dvi. If the file
13 argument has no extension, ".tex" will be appended to it. Instead of a
14 filename, a set of TeX commands can be given, the first of which must
15 start with a backslash. With a &format argument TeX uses a different
16 set of precompiled commands, contained in format.fmt; it is usually
17 better to use the -fmt format option instead.
18 TeX formats the interspersed text and commands contained in the named
20 files and outputs a typesetter independent file (called DVI, which is
21 short for DeVice Independent). TeX's capabilities and language are
22 described in The TeXbook. TeX is normally used with a large body of
23 precompiled macros, and there are several specific formatting systems,
24 such as LaTeX, which require the support of several macro files.
25 This version of TeX looks at its command line to see what name it was
27 called under. If they exist, then both initex and virtex are symbolic
28 links to the tex executable. When called as initex (or when the -ini
29 option is given) it can be used to precompile macros into a .fmt file.
30 When called as virtex it will use the plain format. When called under
31 any other name, TeX will use that name as the name of the format to
32 use. For example, when called as tex the tex format is used, which is
33 identical to the plain format. The commands defined by the plain for‐
34 mat are documented in The TeXbook. Other formats that are often avail‐
35 able include latex and amstex.
36 The non-option command line arguments to the TeX program are passed to
38 it as the first input line. (But it is often easier to type extended
39 arguments as the first input line, since UNIX shells tend to gobble up
40 or misinterpret TeX's favorite symbols, like backslashes, unless you
41 quote them.) As described in The TeXbook, that first line should begin
42 with a filename, a \controlsequence, or a &formatname.
43 The normal usage is to say
45 tex paper
46 to start processing paper.tex. The name paper will be the ``jobname'',
47 and is used in forming output filenames. If TeX doesn't get a filename
48 in the first line, the jobname is texput. When looking for a file, TeX
49 looks for the name with and without the default extension (.tex)
50 appended, unless the name already contains that extension. If paper is
51 the ``jobname'', a log of error messages, with rather more detail than
52 normally appears on the screen, will appear in paper.log, and the out‐
53 put file will be in paper.dvi.
54 This version of TeX can look in the first line of the file paper.tex to
56 see if it begins with the magic sequence %&. If the first line begins
57 with %&format -translate-file tcxname then TeX will use the named for‐
58 mat and translation table tcxname to process the source file. Either
59 the format name or the -translate-file specification may be omitted,
60 but not both. This overrides the format selection based on the name by
61 which the program is invoked. The -parse-first-line option or the
62 parse_first_line configuration variable controls whether this behaviour
63 is enabled.
64 The e response to TeX's error prompt causes the system default editor
66 to start up at the current line of the current file. The environment
67 variable TEXEDIT can be used to change the editor used. It may contain
68 a string with "%s" indicating where the filename goes and "%d" indicat‐
69 ing where the decimal line number (if any) goes. For example, a
70 TEXEDIT string for emacs can be set with the sh command
71 TEXEDIT="emacs +%d %s"; export TEXEDIT
72 A convenient file in the library is null.tex, containing nothing. When
74 TeX can't find a file it thinks you want to input, it keeps asking you
75 for another filename; responding `null' gets you out of the loop if you
76 don't want to input anything. You can also type your EOF character
77 (usually control-D).
78
80 This version of TeX understands the following command line options.
81 -enc Enable the encTeX extensions. This option is only effective in
83 combination with -ini. For documentation of the encTeX exten‐
84 sions see http://www.olsak.net/enctex.html.
85 -file-line-error
87 Print error messages in the form file:line:error which is simi‐
88 lar to the way many compilers format them.
89 -no-file-line-error
91 Disable printing error messages in the file:line:error style.
92 -file-line-error-style
94 This is the old name of the -file-line-error option.
95 -fmt format
97 Use format as the name of the format to be used, instead of the
98 name by which TeX was called or a %& line.
99 -halt-on-error
101 Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during pro‐
102 cessing.
103 -help Print help message and exit.
105 -ini Start in INI mode, which is used to dump formats. The INI mode
107 can be used for typesetting, but no format is preloaded, and
108 basic initializations like setting catcodes may be required.
109 -interaction mode
111 Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be either batchmode,
112 nonstopmode, scrollmode, and errorstopmode. The meaning of
113 these modes is the same as that of the corresponding \commands.
114 -ipc Send DVI output to a socket as well as the usual output file.
116 Whether this option is available is the choice of the installer.
117 -ipc-start
119 As -ipc, and starts the server at the other end as well.
120 Whether this option is available is the choice of the installer.
121 -jobname name
123 Use name for the job name, instead of deriving it from the name
124 of the input file.
125 -kpathsea-debug bitmask
127 Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask.
128 See the Kpathsea manual for details.
129 -mktex fmt
131 Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex or tfm.
132 -mltex Enable MLTeX extensions. Only effective in combination with
134 -ini.
135 -no-mktex fmt
137 Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex or tfm.
138 -output-comment string
140 Use string for the DVI file comment instead of the date.
141 -output-directory directory
143 Write output files in directory instead of the current direc‐
144 tory. Look up input files in directory first, then along the
145 normal search path. See also description of the TEXMFOUTPUT
146 environment variable.
147 -parse-first-line
149 If the first line of the main input file begins with %& parse it
150 to look for a dump name or a -translate-file option.
151 -no-parse-first-line
153 Disable parsing of the first line of the main input file.
154 -progname name
156 Pretend to be program name. This affects both the format used
157 and the search paths.
158 -recorder
160 Enable the filename recorder. This leaves a trace of the files
161 opened for input and output in a file with extension .fls.
162 -shell-escape
164 Enable the \write18{command} construct. The command can be any
165 shell command. This construct is normally disallowed for secu‐
166 rity reasons.
167 -no-shell-escape
169 Disable the \write18{command} construct, even if it is enabled
170 in the texmf.cnf file.
171 -src-specials
173 Insert source specials into the DVI file.
174 -src-specials where
176 Insert source specials in certain places of the DVI file. where
177 is a comma-separated value list: cr, display, hbox, math, par,
178 parent, or vbox.
179 -translate-file tcxname
181 Use the tcxname translation table to set the mapping of input
182 characters and re-mapping of output characters.
183 -default-translate-file tcxname
185 Like -translate-file except that a %& line can overrule this
186 setting.
187 -version
189 Print version information and exit.
190
192 See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications'
193 node) for precise details of how the environment variables are used.
194 The kpsewhich utility can be used to query the values of the variables.
195 One caveat: In most TeX formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you
197 give directly to TeX, because ~ is an active character, and hence is
198 expanded, not taken as part of the filename. Other programs, such as
199 Metafont, do not have this problem.
200 TEXMFOUTPUT
202 Normally, TeX puts its output files in the current directory.
203 If any output file cannot be opened there, it tries to open it
204 in the directory specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUT‐
205 PUT. There is no default value for that variable. For example,
206 if you say tex paper and the current directory is not writable,
207 if TEXMFOUTPUT has the value /tmp, TeX attempts to create
208 /tmp/paper.log (and /tmp/paper.dvi, if any output is produced.)
209 TEXMFOUTPUT is also checked for input files, as TeX often gener‐
210 ates files that need to be subsequently read; for input, no suf‐
211 fixes (such as ``.tex'') are added by default, the input name is
212 simply checked as given.
213 TEXINPUTS
215 Search path for \input and \openin files. This probably start
216 with ``.'', so that user files are found before system files.
217 An empty path component will be replaced with the paths defined
218 in the texmf.cnf file. For example, set TEXINPUTS to
219 ".:/home/user/tex:" to prepend the current directory and
220 ``/home/user/tex'' to the standard search path.
221 TEXFORMATS
223 Search path for format files.
224 TEXPOOL
226 search path for tex internal strings.
227 TEXEDIT
229 Command template for switching to editor. The default, usually
230 vi, is set when TeX is compiled.
231 TFMFONTS
233 Search path for font metric (.tfm) files.
234
236 The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to system.
237 Use the kpsewhich utility to find their locations.
238 texmf.cnf
240 Configuration file. This contains definitions of search paths
241 as well as other configuration parameters like parse_first_line.
242 tex.pool
244 Text file containing TeX's internal strings.
245 texfonts.map
247 Filename mapping definitions.
248 *.tfm Metric files for TeX's fonts.
250 *.fmt Predigested TeX format (.fmt) files.
252 $TEXMFMAIN/tex/plain/base/plain.tex
254 The basic macro package described in the TeXbook.
255
257 This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documen‐
258 tation for this version of TeX can be found in the info manual Web2C: A
259 TeX implementation.
260
262 This version of TeX implements a number of optional extensions. In
263 fact, many of these extensions conflict to a greater or lesser extent
264 with the definition of TeX. When such extensions are enabled, the ban‐
265 ner printed when TeX starts is changed to print TeXk instead of TeX.
266 This version of TeX fails to trap arithmetic overflow when dimensions
268 are added or subtracted. Cases where this occurs are rare, but when it
269 does the generated DVI file will be invalid.
270
272 mf(1),
273 Donald E. Knuth, The TeXbook, Addison-Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-13447-0.
274 Leslie Lamport, LaTeX - A Document Preparation System, Addison-Wesley,
275 1985, ISBN 0-201-15790-X.
276 K. Berry, Eplain: Expanded plain TeX,
277 ftp://ftp.cs.umb.edu/pub/tex/eplain/doc.
278 Michael Spivak, The Joy of TeX, 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley, 1990, ISBN
279 0-8218-2997-1.
280 TUGboat (the journal of the TeX Users Group).
281
283 TeX, pronounced properly, rhymes with ``blecchhh.'' The proper spell‐
284 ing in typewriter-like fonts is ``TeX'' and not ``TEX'' or ``tex.''
285
287 TeX was created by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his Web
288 system for Pascal programs. It was ported to Unix at Stanford by
289 Howard Trickey, and at Cornell by Pavel Curtis. The version now
290 offered with the Unix TeX distribution is that generated by the Web to
291 C system (web2c), originally written by Tomas Rokicki and Tim Morgan.
292 The encTeX extensions were written by Petr Olsak.
294Web2C 2017 16 June 2015 TEX(1)