1ETEX(1) General Commands Manual ETEX(1)
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6 etex - extended (plain) TeX
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9 etex [options] [&format] [file|\commands]
10
12 Run the e-TeX typesetter on file, by default 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 (*).
32 e-TeX's handling of its command-line arguments is similar to that of
34 the other TeX programs in the web2c implementation.
35
37 This version of e-TeX understands the following command line options.
38 -fmt format
40 Use format as the name of the format to be used, instead of the
41 name by which e-TeX was called or a %& line.
42 -enc Enable the encTeX extensions. This option is only effective in
44 combination with -ini. For documentation of the encTeX exten‐
45 sions see http://www.olsak.net/enctex.html.
46 -etex Enable the e-TeX extensions. This option is only effective in
48 combination with -ini.
49 -file-line-error
51 Print error messages in the form file:line:error which is simi‐
52 lar to the way many compilers format them.
53 -no-file-line-error
55 Disable printing error messages in the file:line:error style.
56 -file-line-error-style
58 This is the old name of the -file-line-error option.
59 -halt-on-error
61 Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during pro‐
62 cessing.
63 -help Print help message and exit.
65 -ini Start in INI mode, which is used to dump formats. The INI mode
67 can be used for typesetting, but no format is preloaded, and
68 basic initializations like setting catcodes may be required.
69 -interaction mode
71 Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be either batchmode,
72 nonstopmode, scrollmode, and errorstopmode. The meaning of
73 these modes is the same as that of the corresponding \commands.
74 -ipc Send DVI output to a socket as well as the usual output file.
76 Whether this option is available is the choice of the installer.
77 -ipc-start
79 As -ipc, and starts the server at the other end as well.
80 Whether this option is available is the choice of the installer.
81 -jobname name
83 Use name for the job name, instead of deriving it from the name
84 of the input file.
85 -kpathsea-debug bitmask
87 Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask.
88 See the Kpathsea manual for details.
89 -mktex fmt
91 Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex or tfm.
92 -mltex Enable MLTeX extensions. Only effective in combination with
94 -ini.
95 -no-mktex fmt
97 Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex or tfm.
98 -output-comment string
100 Use string for the DVI file comment instead of the date.
101 -output-directory directory
103 Write output files in directory instead of the current direc‐
104 tory. Look up input files in directory first, the along the
105 normal search path.
106 -parse-first-line
108 If the first line of the main input file begins with %& parse it
109 to look for a dump name or a -translate-file option.
110 -no-parse-first-line
112 Disable parsing of the first line of the main input file.
113 -progname name
115 Pretend to be program name. This affects both the format used
116 and the search paths.
117 -recorder
119 Enable the filename recorder. This leaves a trace of the files
120 opened for input and output in a file with extension .fls.
121 -shell-escape
123 Enable the \write18{command} construct. The command can be any
124 shell command. This construct is normally disallowed for secu‐
125 rity reasons.
126 -no-shell-escape
128 Disable the \write18{command} construct, even if it is enabled
129 in the texmf.cnf file.
130 -src-specials
132 Insert source specials into the DVI file.
133 -src-specials where
135 Insert source specials in certain placed of the DVI file. where
136 is a comma-separated value list: cr, display, hbox, math, par,
137 parent, or vbox.
138 -translate-file tcxname
140 Use the tcxname translation table to set the mapping of input
141 characters and re-mapping of output characters.
142 -default-translate-file tcxname
144 Like -translate-file except that a %& line can overrule this
145 setting.
146 -version
148 Print version information and exit.
149
151 See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications'
152 node) for precise details of how the environment variables are used.
153 The kpsewhich utility can be used to query the values of the variables.
154 One caveat: In most e-TeX formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you
156 give directly to e-TeX, because ~ is an active character, and hence is
157 expanded, not taken as part of the filename. Other programs, such as
158 Metafont, do not have this problem.
159 TEXMFOUTPUT
161 Normally, e-TeX puts its output files in the current directory.
162 If any output file cannot be opened there, it tries to open it
163 in the directory specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUT‐
164 PUT. There is no default value for that variable. For example,
165 if you say etex paper and the current directory is not writable,
166 if TEXMFOUTPUT has the value /tmp, e-TeX attempts to create
167 /tmp/paper.log (and /tmp/paper.dvi, if any output is produced.)
168 TEXMFOUTPUT is also checked for input files, as TeX often gener‐
169 ates files that need to be subsequently read; for input, no suf‐
170 fixes (such as ``.tex'') are added by default, the input name is
171 simply checked as given.
172 TEXINPUTS
174 Search path for \input and \openin files. This should start
175 with ``.'', so that user files are found before system files.
176 An empty path component will be replaced with the paths defined
177 in the texmf.cnf file. For example, set TEXINPUTS to
178 ".:/home/user/tex:" to prepend the current direcory and
179 ``/home/user/tex'' to the standard search path.
180 TEXFORMATS
182 Search path for format files.
183 TEXPOOL
185 search path for etex internal strings.
186 TEXEDIT
188 Command template for switching to editor. The default, usually
189 vi, is set when e-TeX is compiled.
190 TFMFONTS
192 Search path for font metric (.tfm) files.
193
195 The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to system.
196 Use the kpsewhich utility to find their locations.
197 etex.pool
199 Text file containing e-TeX's internal strings.
200 texfonts.map
202 Filename mapping definitions.
203 *.tfm Metric files for e-TeX's fonts.
205 *.fmt Predigested e-TeX format (.fmt) files.
207
209 Starting with version 1.40, pdfTeX incorporates the e-TeX extensions,
210 so in this installation eTeX may be just a symbolic link to pdfTeX.
211 See pdftex(1). This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The
212 complete documentation for this version of e-TeX can be found in the
213 info manual Web2C: A TeX implementation.
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216 This version of e-TeX implements a number of optional extensions. In
217 fact, many of these extensions conflict to a greater or lesser extent
218 with the definition of e-TeX. When such extensions are enabled, the
219 banner printed when e-TeX starts is changed to print e-TeXk instead of
220 e-TeX.
221 This version of e-TeX fails to trap arithmetic overflow when dimensions
223 are added or subtracted. Cases where this occurs are rare, but when it
224 does the generated DVI file will be invalid.
225
227 pdftex(1), tex(1), mf(1).
228
230 e-TeX was developed by Peter Breitenlohner and the NTS team; Peter
231 later continued its development outside of the team.
232 TeX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his Web
234 system for Pascal programs. It was ported to Unix at Stanford by
235 Howard Trickey, and at Cornell by Pavel Curtis. The version now
236 offered with the Unix TeX distribution is that generated by the Web to
237 C system (web2c), originally written by Tomas Rokicki and Tim Morgan.
238 The encTeX extensions were written by Petr Olsak.
240Web2C 2011 1 March 2011 ETEX(1)