1ETEX(1) General Commands Manual ETEX(1)
2
6 etex, einitex, evirtex - extended TeX
7
9 etex [options] [& format ] [ file | \ commands ]
10
12 Run the e-TeX typesetter on file, usually creating file.dvi. If the
13 file argument has no extension, ".tex" will be appended to it. Instead
14 of a filename, a set of e-TeX commands can be given, the first of which
15 must start with a backslash. With a &format argument e-TeX uses a dif‐
16 ferent set of precompiled commands, contained in format.fmt; it is usu‐
17 ally better to use the -fmt format option instead.
18 e-TeX is the first concrete result of an international research &
20 development project, the NTS Project, which was established under the
21 aegis of DANTE e.V. during 1992. The aims of the project are to perpet‐
22 uate and develop the spirit and philosophy of TeX, whilst respecting
23 Knuth's wish that TeX should remain frozen.
24 e-TeX can be used in two different modes: in compatibility mode it is
26 supposed to be completely interchangable with standard TeX. In
27 extended mode several new primitives are added that facilitate (among
28 other things) bidirectional typesetting.
29 An extended mode format is generated by prefixing the name of the
31 source file for the format with an asterisk (*). Such formats are
32 often prefixed with an `e', hence etex as the extended version of tex
33 and elatex as the extended version of latex. However, eplain is an
34 exception to this rule.
35 The einitex and evirtex commands are e-TeX's analogues to the initex
37 and virtex commands. In this installation, they are symbolic links to
38 the etex executable. These symbolic links may not exist at all.
39 e-TeX's handling of its command-line arguments is similar to that of
41 the other TeX programs in the web2c implementation.
42
44 This version of e-TeX understands the following command line options.
45 -fmt format
47 Use format as the name of the format to be used, instead of the
48 name by which e-TeX was called or a %& line.
49 -enc Enable the encTeX extensions. This option is only effective in
51 combination with -ini. For documentation of the encTeX exten‐
52 sions see http://www.olsak.net/enctex.html.
53 -file-line-error
55 Print error messages in the form file:line:error which is simi‐
56 lar to the way many compilers format them.
57 -no-file-line-error
59 Disable printing error messages in the file:line:error style.
60 -file-line-error-style
62 This is the old name of the -file-line-error option.
63 -halt-on-error
65 Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during pro‐
66 cessing.
67 -help Print help message and exit.
69 -ini Start in INI mode, which is used to dump formats. The INI mode
71 can be used for typesetting, but no format is preloaded, and
72 basic initializations like setting catcodes may be required.
73 -interaction mode
75 Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be either batchmode,
76 nonstopmode, scrollmode, and errorstopmode. The meaning of
77 these modes is the same as that of the corresponding \commands.
78 -ipc Send DVI output to a socket as well as the usual output file.
80 Whether this option is available is the choice of the installer.
81 -ipc-start
83 As -ipc, and starts the server at the other end as well.
84 Whether this option is available is the choice of the installer.
85 -jobname name
87 Use name for the job name, instead of deriving it from the name
88 of the input file.
89 -kpathsea-debug bitmask
91 Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask.
92 See the Kpathsea manual for details.
93 -mktex fmt
95 Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex or tfm.
96 -mltex Enable MLTeX extensions. Only effective in combination with
98 -ini.
99 -no-mktex fmt
101 Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex or tfm.
102 -output-comment string
104 Use string for the DVI file comment instead of the date.
105 -output-directory directory
107 directory instead of the current directory. Look up input files
108 in directory first, the along the normal search path.
109 -parse-first-line
111 If the first line of the main input file begins with %& parse it
112 to look for a dump name or a -translate-file option.
113 -no-parse-first-line
115 Disable parsing of the first line of the main input file.
116 -progname name
118 Pretend to be program name. This affects both the format used
119 and the search paths.
120 -recorder
122 Enable the filename recorder. This leaves a trace of the files
123 opened for input and output in a file with extension .fls.
124 -shell-escape
126 Enable the \write18{command} construct. The command can be any
127 shell command. This construct is normally disallowed for secu‐
128 rity reasons.
129 -no-shell-escape
131 Disable the \write18{command} construct, even if it is enabled
132 in the texmf.cnf file.
133 -src-specials
135 Insert source specials into the DVI file.
136 -src-specials where
138 Insert source specials in certain placed of the DVI file. where
139 is a comma-separated value list: cr, display, hbox, math, par,
140 parent, or vbox.
141 -translate-file tcxname
143 Use the tcxname translation table to set the mapping of input
144 characters and re-mapping of output characters.
145 -default-translate-file tcxname
147 Like -translate-file except that a %& line can overrule this
148 setting.
149 -version
151 Print version information and exit.
152
154 See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications'
155 node) for precise details of how the environment variables are used.
156 The kpsewhich utility can be used to query the values of the variables.
157 One caveat: In most e-TeX formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you
159 give directly to e-TeX, because ~ is an active character, and hence is
160 expanded, not taken as part of the filename. Other programs, such as
161 Metafont, do not have this problem.
162 TEXMFOUTPUT
164 Normally, e-TeX puts its output files in the current directory.
165 If any output file cannot be opened there, it tries to open it
166 in the directory specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUT‐
167 PUT. There is no default value for that variable. For example,
168 if you say etex paper and the current directory is not writable,
169 if TEXMFOUTPUT has the value /tmp, e-TeX attempts to create
170 /tmp/paper.log (and /tmp/paper.dvi, if any output is produced.)
171 TEXINPUTS
173 Search path for \input and \openin files. This should probably
174 start with ``.'', so that user files are found before system
175 files. An empty path component will be replaced with the paths
176 defined in the texmf.cnf file. For example, set TEXINPUTS to
177 ".:/home/usr/tex:" to prepend the current direcory and
178 ``/home/user/tex'' to the standard search path.
179 TEXFORMATS
181 Search path for format files.
182 TEXPOOL
184 search path for etex internal strings.
185 TEXEDIT
187 Command template for switching to editor. The default, usually
188 vi, is set when e-TeX is compiled.
189 TFMFONTS
191 Search path for font metric (.tfm) files.
192
194 The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to system.
195 Use the kpsewhich utility to find their locations.
196 etex.pool
198 Text file containing e-TeX's internal strings.
199 texfonts.map
201 Filename mapping definitions.
202 *.tfm Metric files for e-TeX's fonts.
204 *.fmt Predigested e-TeX format (.fmt) files.
206
208 This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documen‐
209 tation for this version of e-TeX can be found in the info manual Web2C:
210 A TeX implementation.
211
213 This version of e-TeX implements a number of optional extensions. In
214 fact, many of these extensions conflict to a greater or lesser extent
215 with the definition of e-TeX. When such extensions are enabled, the
216 banner printed when e-TeX starts is changed to print e-TeXk instead of
217 e-TeX.
218 This version of e-TeX fails to trap arithmetic overflow when dimensions
220 are added or subtracted. Cases where this occurs are rare, but when it
221 does the generated DVI file will be invalid.
222
224 tex(1), mf(1).
225
227 e-TeX was developed by Peter Breitenlohner (and the NTS team).
228 TeX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his sys‐
230 tem for Pascal programs. It was ported to Unix at Stanford by Howard
231 Trickey, and at Cornell by Pavel Curtis. The version now offered with
232 the Unix TeX distribution is that generated by the to C system
233 (web2c), originally written by Tomas Rokicki and Tim Morgan.
234 The encTeX extensions were written by Petr Olsak.
236Web2C 7.5.4 21 August 2004 ETEX(1)