1HITEX(1) General Commands Manual HITEX(1)
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6 hitex - HINT output from TeX
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9 hitex [options] [&format] [file|\commands]
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12 Run the HiTeX typesetter on file, usually creating file.hnt. If the
13 file argument has no extension, ".tex" will be appended to it. Instead
14 of a file name, a set of HiTeX commands can be given, the first of
15 which must start with a backslash. With a &format argument HiTeX uses
16 a different set of precompiled commands, contained in format.fmt; it is
17 usually better to use the -fmt format option instead.
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19 HiTeX is a version of TeX that creates HINT files. The HINT file format
20 is designed for on-screen reading of documents. Using a HINT viewer
21 (see https://hint.userweb.mwn.de) to display a HINT file its content
22 will dynamically adapt to the available display area.
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24 The typical use of HiTeX is with pre generated formats. The hitex com‐
25 mand uses the equivalent of the plain TeX format, and the hilatex com‐
26 mand uses the equivalent of the LaTeX format. To generate formats, use
27 the -ini switch.
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29 HiTeX's handling of its command-line arguments is similar to that of of
30 the other TeX programs in the web2c implementation.
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32 HiTeX incorporates the e-TeX extensions (see etex(1)) if used with the
33 -etex switch.
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35 HiTeX incorporates the extensions needed for LaTeX (see latex(1)) if
36 used with the -ltx switch.
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39 This version of HiTeX understands the following command line options.
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41 -cnf-line string
42 Parse string as a texmf.cnf configuration line. See the Kpath‐
43 sea manual.
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45 -compress
46 Enable the use of compression for the HINT file. Compressed
47 files are smaller but require decompression when viewing. Use
48 only for large files if the file size matters.
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50 -empty-page
51 When writing books, often empty pages are inserted - for example
52 to begin chapters on a right hand side page. These empty pages
53 are a nuisance for on-screen reading where there are no left or
54 right hand side pages. This option keeps empty pages in the out‐
55 put.
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57 -no-empty-page
58 This option tries to eliminate empty pages in the output. It is
59 set as a default.
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61 -etex Enable the e-TeX extensions. This option is only effective in
62 combination with -ini. See etex(1).
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64 -file-line-error
65 Print error messages in the form file:line:error which is simi‐
66 lar to the way many compilers format them.
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68 -no-file-line-error
69 Disable printing error messages in the file:line:error style.
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71 -fmt format
72 Use format as the name of the format to be used, instead of the
73 name by which HiTeX was called or a %& line.
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75 -help Print help message and exit.
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77 -hint-debug bitmask
78 Sets HINT file debugging flags according to the bitmask. See
79 the -hint-debug-help option for details.
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81 -hint-debug-help
82 Print an explanation of the HINT debugging flags and exit.
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84 -hyphenate-first-word
85 TeX will usually not attempt to insert hyphenation points into
86 the first word of a paragraph. If a HINT file must be displayed
87 on a very small device such hyphenation points might prove nec‐
88 essary. This option is set by default and enables the generation
89 of these hyphenation points.
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91 -no-hyphenate-first-word
92 Disable the automatic insertion of hyphenation points in the
93 first word of a paragraph. Needed only if complete compatibility
94 with TeX is required.
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96 -ini Start in INI mode, which is used to dump formats. The INI mode
97 can be used for typesetting, but no format is preloaded, and ba‐
98 sic initializations like setting catcodes may be required.
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100 -interaction mode
101 Sets the interaction mode. The mode can be either batchmode,
102 nonstopmode, scrollmode, and errorstopmode. The meaning of
103 these modes is the same as that of the corresponding \commands.
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105 -jobname name
106 Use name for the job name, instead of deriving it from the name
107 of the input file.
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109 -kpathsea-debug bitmask
110 Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask.
111 See the Kpathsea manual for details.
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113 -ltx Enable the LaTeX extensions. This option is only effective in
114 combination with -ini. See latex(1).
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116 -mfmode mode
117 Use mode as the Metafont mode when generating missing fonts. See
118 mf(1) for details.
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120 -mktex fmt
121 Enable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex, tfm, fmt, or pk.
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123 -no-mktex fmt
124 Disable mktexfmt, where fmt must be either tex, tfm, fmt, or pk.
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126 -output-directory directory
127 Write output files in directory instead of the current direc‐
128 tory. Look up input files in directory first, then along the
129 normal search path.
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131 -parse-first-line
132 If the first line of the main input file begins with %& parse it
133 to look for a dump name.
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135 -no-parse-first-line
136 Disable parsing of the first line of the main input file.
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138 -progname name
139 Pretend to be program name. This affects both the format used
140 and the search paths.
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142 -resolution number
143 When using Metafont to generate missing pk fonts, use a resolu‐
144 tion of number DPI. See mf(1) for details.
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146 -version
147 Print version information and exit.
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150 See the Kpathsea library documentation (e.g., the `Path specifications'
151 node) for precise details of how the environment variables are used.
152 The kpsewhich utility can be used to query the values of the variables.
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154 One caveat: In most HiTeX formats, you cannot use ~ in a file name you
155 give directly to HiTeX, because ~ is an active character in TeX, and
156 hence is expanded, not taken as part of the file name. Other programs,
157 such as Metafont, do not have this problem.
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159 TEXMFOUTPUT
160 Normally, HiTeX puts its output files in the current directory.
161 If any output file cannot be opened there, it tries to open it
162 in the directory specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUT‐
163 PUT. There is no default value for that variable. For example,
164 if you say hitex paper and the current directory is not writable
165 and TEXMFOUTPUT has the value /tmp, HiTeX attempts to create
166 /tmp/paper.log (and /tmp/paper.hnt, if any output is produced.)
167 TEXMFOUTPUT is also checked for input files, as TeX often gener‐
168 ates files that need to be subsequently read; for input, no suf‐
169 fixes (such as ``.tex'') are added by default, the input name is
170 simply checked as given.
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172 TEXINPUTS
173 Search path for \input and \openin files. This normally starts
174 with ``.'', so that user files are found before system files.
175 An empty path component will be replaced with the paths defined
176 in the texmf.cnf file. For example, set TEXINPUTS to
177 ".:/home/user/tex:" to prepend the current directory and
178 ``/home/user/tex'' to the standard search path.
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180 TEXFORMATS
181 Search path for format files.
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183 TFMFONTS
184 Search path for font metric (.tfm) files.
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186 SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
187 If set, its value, taken to be in epoch-seconds, will be used
188 for the creation date and as the reference moment for the time
189 related primitives of LaTeX. This is useful for making repro‐
190 ducible builds.
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192 FORCE_SOURCE_DATE
193 If set to the value "1", the time-related TeX primitives (\year,
194 \month, \day, \time) are also initialized from the value of
195 SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH. This is not recommended if there is any vi‐
196 able alternative.
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198 Many, many more environment variables may be consulted related to path
199 searching. See the Kpathsea manual.
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202 The location of the files mentioned below varies from system to system.
203 Use the kpsewhich utility to find their locations.
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205 *.tfm Metric files for HiTeX's fonts.
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207 *.fmt Predigested HiTeX format files.
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209 *.pk *.pfb
210 Font files used by HiTeX.
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213 This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive. The complete documen‐
214 tation for HiTeX can be found in the HiTeX user manual Further informa‐
215 tion can be found in the manual of the Kpathsea library and in HINT:
216 The file format which is available as a book or in electronic form from
217 the HINT project home page at https://hint.userweb.mwn.de.
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220 This version of HiTeX fails to handle correctly glues and kerns with a
221 width that depends on \hsize or \vsize. Similarly, when the layout of
222 table entries or mathematical formulas depends on \hsize or \vsize
223 their output might be distorted.
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226 HiTeX should compile on a large variety of machine architectures and
227 operating systems. HiTeX is part of the TeX Live distribution.
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229 The HiTeX home page is at https://hint.userweb.mwn.de. There you find
230 additional software, most importantly viewers for HINT files, and fur‐
231 ther information.
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234 histretch(1), hishrink(1), latex(1), tex(1), kpsewhich(1),
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237 The primary author of HiTeX is Martin Ruckert, with eTeX extensions by
238 Peter Breitenlohner, LaTeX extensions by Thierry Laronde, and the
239 kpathsearch library by Karl Berry.
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241 TeX was designed by Donald E. Knuth, who implemented it using his Web
242 system for Pascal programs.
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244 Many, many more contributed to the typesetting system now known as TeX;
245 far too many to name all of them here.
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249Version 1.0 11 November 2021 HITEX(1)