1TEXFOT(1) Karl Berry TEXFOT(1)
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6 texfot - run TeX, filtering online transcript for interesting messages
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9 texfot [option]... texcmd [texarg...]
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12 "texfot" invokes texcmd with the given texarg arguments, filtering the
13 online output for ``interesting'' messages. Its exit value is that of
14 texcmd. Examples:
15 # Sample basic invocation:
17 texfot pdflatex file.tex
18 # Ordinarily all output is copied to /tmp/fot before filtering,
20 # but that can be omitted:
21 texfot --tee=/dev/null lualatex file.tex
22 # Example of more complex engine invocation:
24 texfot xelatex --recorder '\nonstopmode\input file'
25 Aside from its own options, described below, "texfot" just runs the
27 given command with the given arguments (same approach to command line
28 syntax as "env", "nice", "time", "timeout", etc.). Thus, "texfot"
29 works with any engine and any command line options.
30 "texfot" does not look at the log file or any other possible output
32 file(s); it only looks at the standard output and standard error from
33 the command. stdout is processed first, then stderr. Lines from
34 stderr have an identifying prefix. "texfot" writes all accepted lines
35 to its stdout.
36 The messages shown are intended to be those which likely need action by
38 the author: error messages, overfull and underfull boxes, undefined
39 citations, missing characters from fonts, etc.
40
42 Here is the order in which lines of output are checked:
43 1. If the ``next line'' needs to be printed (see below), print it.
45 2. Otherwise, if the line matches the built-in list of regexps to
47 ignore, or any user-supplied list of regexps to ignore (given with
48 "--ignore", see below), in that order, ignore it.
49 3. Otherwise, if the line matches the list of regexps for which the
51 next line (two lines in all) should be shown, show this line and
52 set the ``next line'' flag for the next time around the loop.
53 Examples are the common "!" and "filename:lineno:" error messages,
54 which are generally followed by a line with specific detail about
55 the error.
56 4. Otherwise, if the line matches the list of regexps to show, show
58 it.
59 5. Otherwise, the default: if the line came from stdout, ignore it; if
61 the line came from stderr, print it (to stdout). This distinction
62 is made because TeX engines write relatively few messages to
63 stderr, and it's likely that any such should be considered.
64 It would be easy to add more options to allow for user additions to
66 the various regex lists, if that ever seems useful. Or email me
67 (see end).
68 Once a particular check matches, the program moves on to process the
70 next line.
71 Don't hesitate to peruse the source to the script, which is essentially
73 a straightforward loop matching against the different lists as above.
74 You can see the exact regexps being matched in the different categories
75 in the source.
76 Incidentally, although nothing in this basic operation is specific to
78 TeX engines, all the regular expressions included in the program are
79 specific to TeX. So in practice the program isn't useful except with
80 TeX engines, although it would be easy enough to adapt it (if there was
81 anything else as verbose as TeX to make that useful).
82
84 The following are the options to "texfot" itself (not the TeX engine
85 being invoked; consult the TeX documentation or the engine's "--help"
86 output for that).
87 The first non-option terminates "texfot"'s option parsing, and the
89 remainder of the command line is invoked as the TeX command, without
90 further parsing. For example, "texfot --debug tex --debug" will output
91 debugging information from both "texfot" and "tex".
92 Options may start with either - or --, and may be unambiguously
94 abbreviated. It is best to use the full option name in scripts,
95 though, to avoid possible collisions with new options in the future.
96 "--debug"
98 "--no-debug"
99 Output (or not) what is being done on standard error. Off by
100 default.
101 "--ignore" regexp
103 Ignore lines in the TeX output matching (Perl) regexp. Can be
104 repeated. Adds to the default set of ignore regexps rather than
105 replacing. These regexps are not automatically anchored (or
106 otherwise altered), simply used as-is.
107 "--interactive"
109 "--no-interactive"
110 By default, standard input to the TeX process is closed so that
111 TeX's interactive mode (waiting for input upon error, the "*"
112 prompt, etc.) is never entered. Giving "--interactive" allows
113 interaction to happen.
114 "--quiet"
116 "--no-quiet"
117 By default, the TeX command being invoked is reported on standard
118 output. "--quiet" omits that reporting. To get a completely silent
119 run, redirect standard output: "texfot ... >/dev/null". (The only
120 messages to standard error should be errors from "texfot" itself,
121 so it shouldn't be necessary to redirect that, but of course that
122 can be done as well.)
123 "--stderr"
125 "--no-stderr"
126 The default is for "texfot" to report everything written to stderr
127 by the TeX command (on stdout). "--no-stderr" omits that
128 reporting. (Some programs, "dvisvgm" is one, can be rather verbose
129 on stderr.)
130 "--tee" file
132 By default, the output being filtered is "tee"-ed, before
133 filtering, to "$TMPDIR/fot" ("/tmp/fot" if "TMPDIR" is not set), to
134 make it easy to check the full output when the filtering seems
135 suspect. This option allows specifying a different file. Use
136 "--tee /dev/null" if you don't want the original output at all.
137 "--version"
139 Output version information and exit successfully.
140 "--help"
142 Display this help and exit successfully.
143
145 I wrote this because, in my work as a TUGboat editor
146 (<http://tug.org/TUGboat>, journal submissions always welcome!), I run
147 and rerun many documents, many times each. It was too easy to lose
148 warnings I needed to see in the mass of unvarying and uninteresting
149 output from TeX, such as style files being read and fonts being used. I
150 wanted to see all and only those messages which needed some action by
151 me.
152 I found some other programs of a similar nature, the LaTeX package
154 "silence", and plenty of other (La)TeX wrappers, but it seemed none of
155 them did what I wanted. Either they read the log file (I wanted the
156 online output only), or they output more or less than I wanted, or they
157 required invoking TeX differently (I wanted to keep my build process
158 exactly the same, most critically the TeX invocation, which can get
159 complicated). Hence I wrote this.
160 Here are some keywords if you want to explore other options:
162 texloganalyser, pydflatex, logfilter, latexmk, rubber, arara, and
163 searching for "log" at <https://ctan.org/search>.
164 "texfot" is written in Perl, and runs on Unix, and does not work on
166 Windows.
167 The name comes from the "trip.fot" and "trap.fot" files that are part
169 of Knuth's trip and trap torture tests, which record the online output
170 from the programs. I am not sure what "fot" stands for in trip and
171 trap, but I can pretend that it stands for "filter online transcript"
172 in the present case :).
173
175 This script and its documentation were written by Karl Berry and both
176 are released to the public domain. Email "karl@freefriends.org" with
177 bug reports. It has no home page beyond the package on CTAN:
178 <https://ctan.org/pkg/texfot>.
179texfot 2020-03-10 TEXFOT(1)